Morning journal and courier., 1889-06-01
'The groves of Blarney, That look so charming Down by the purlinsS
 Of sweet silent hrooks ,

One hardly realizes that he is in Ireland while among these handsomely attired peo- pie, who, seeking their suburban homes, throng the cars of the little railway leading from Cork along the sweet shores of a mur- muring stream; and for the short four miles to Blarney, one almost feels he is again with in the atmosphere of the clear-eyed, active, breezy and prosperous folk one always finds in American suburban railway travel. At the end of this little railway, and at the head of the valley through which it and the stream have run, is a tiny, pockety vale whose surface Is almost level either side to the edges of noble wooded bluffs, is the trifing hamlet of Blarney; and, not stone's throw from the station, the gray old walls of it's worid-famous castle, rise high above the rich foliage of the sycamore groves, and the musical Blarney rivulet, below. Altogether it is one of the sweetest and most restful spots you ever beheld.
 Blarney, in the original Irish form of Blar- na, means ''little ield,' from blar, field, this name having been given the place from it's location almost in the center of the tiny vale field, which was no doubt source of rich harvests eveS under the rude forms of cultivation in vogue In most ancient times. As nearly ss can be determined, the later popular signi6cation of the word-palaver- ing rhodomontade, glib, spacious pleading, or wheedling eloquenoe-originatedi in "Lord Clancarty's often promising, when tEe pris- oh0E O1 OiA 0COlS SC SaAOhJ ko SulACLioCA his strong castle of Blarney," this very pile, ''to the soldiers of the Queen, and as often inventing some smooth and palatable excuse for exonerstfng himself from his promise" :" But the place no doubt became world-famous through the celebrity of the verses begin ming with the four lines above quoted, at tributed by adopts in ballad literature both to Father Prout and Richard Alfred Milli- ken, the latter a former Cork attorney. The castle itself was built in the fifteenth centu " by Cornac MacCarthy, and the old coign- stone, the kissing of which conveys the magic power of "blarney," according to popular legend at least, is still intact. It Is preserved and held in place by two iron gird- CTS between huge merlons of it's northern projecting parapet, nearly a huhdred feet from the ground. The ancient castellated pile now only consists of c lofty quadrangu- lar keep, with 6 half ruined tower, through which access is gained by winding stone stairs to the battlsmented parapet above. Beneath the tower and keep are 8 number of wonderful dungeon cells, the most truly im- pressive of these have found in any of the castle ruins of Ireland; while cave of re- markable formation, but few rods from the castle, permitted of subterranean ingress and egress in ancient times. Once having gained the lofty parapet, you are among massive ivies, while many shrubs and young trees have shot out towards the sky from this strange serie. Noses and grasses have al- most completely matched the old ruin, and if you will wait until the chattering tourists have gone and the ecolding daws with the gentle evening have come, you can, as I did in the grewsome and shadowy place, stealth lily and unobserved grasp the iron eirders and, at the risk of breaking your neck, crane your head far out and downward, to give ths sturdy old "Blarney Stone" loud, resound ing smack; and then grope your way through the echoing windipgs of the lonely tower tt the dewy, blossom-strewn earth below.
 EDGAR l.. WAKEMAN.