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Show CHARM OF RURAL IRELAND IS GREAT Traveler Must Leave City of Dublin Dub-lin if He Would Really Know Country. - There the Attractive Characteristics of the People Are Portrayed Songs and Tales of the Days When Faction Fac-tion Fighting Was the Fashion. IRELAND has many surprises for the traveler whose opinion of the Irish has been formed from his visits to the theater, where "Pat" is always dressed in some impossible style, speaking speak-ing a harsh and disagreeable tongue, and always read ; to obtrude his importance im-portance upon tho audience. If such a type ever existfd, it has left Ireland, for the brogue of the Irish is a pleasant pleas-ant diversion to those who visit the land. There it U recognized as the accomplishment of those who have preserved their own native Gaelic tongue, and who speak it in soft, pleas-, pleas-, tag voices. Perhaps it is because the other races have generally failed to understand the people of Ireland that the inhabitants of the land, although cordial, assume a ressrve with strangers. If, however, a tourist boasts of a relationship witn one or their countrymen he is at once taken into the hearts of the people, who love to feel a fellowship with their guests. The traveler who selects the city of Dublin for his sightseeing in Ireland Ire-land will never feel that he has seen the land. Excepting the fact that one hears there the soft, musical voices of the people and sees at the hotels aristocratic aris-tocratic old ladies often wearing long white veils extending from the backs of their heads to the trails of their dresses in the style worn by Queen Victoria, and excepting the fact that one eats corned beef and cabbage served at a good class hotel in the middle of a very hot summer and yet enjoys it, one would hardly realiza that he is in Erin's isle. , Happily for the tourist, St. Patrick's land is mostly peasant Ireland. In the rural districts one finds gems of scenery, and it is there, too, that the attractive characteristics of the people peo-ple are portrayed. Southern Ireland is so poor in farm lands that the traveler trav-eler wonders how the peasants live, surrounded in many places by rocks, heather, fields and peat bogs, with here and there only a little patch of reclaimed land, where a few potatoes or some greens may be grown. Even pigs are scarce. Unless these little grunters are really kept in the parlors of the one or two roomed cabins, they are noted more for their absence than by their presence. The beautiful heather fields of the island are a snare for the stranger who starts to gather a bunch of the pretty weeds, as there is apt to be a particularly beautiful spray a little way off from the road. But woe unto him who takes his first step from the highway. His feet sink to his shoetops into the marsh. Another step, and It is dill- cult to get out. To attempt to cross the bog would be serious, and so the traveler comes to understand why the peasants do not clear these fields and plant crops. Among the peasants there are many good Irish songs sung and many tales told of the "ould days" when "discussions "dis-cussions with sticks" were the fashion. fash-ion. In a few old homes the big, Btout shillelahs which have either lost or won battles have been preserved for generations, descending with their histories his-tories from oldest son to oldest son. Few tourists return from Ireland with- out a stout bludgeon, but that is a souvenir made only for the traveler; its length is only about one-half that 4 J ' 1 tft&bAt x nil Happy Children in Front of Picturesque Cottage, County Kerry. of the old three-foot fighting stick which was used by a friend to crack his neighbor's skull. In the days of faction figUUng the followers of both sides welcomed the opportunity to get "clean kilt," as they called it, if they were beaten or to murder, which meant beat, another. Despite the fact that the law was opposed to this form of amusement, it was powerless in the hands of judges and juries who themselves them-selves took part in this favorite sport I |
