Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-15
CONTRASTS IN IRELAND.
WRITTEN FOR THE prspArcH.l

puDilsn0u anu Will never DC puOllSneu, GIL
titled ''The Book Of the Chronicles Of the
Kings of America" }" and containing the daily
journal of the adventures of q party of tour
lists in the Holy Land. There is much in
these pages about the discomforts of the
way-discomforts which the adventurers,
mindful of the wise advice, "Let us be
revenged upon fate by becoming philoso-
phers," were happily able to translate into
entertainment. Nevertheless, discomforts
they were. Sojourning in tents and riding
on the humps of camels was very well for
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were &C
customed to that kind of rough life. They had
had no experience OF Pullman cars. But for
Tom, Dick and Harry, and still more. for
Thomas, Richard and Henry, little Of that
sort Of touring goes long way.
The journey which is chronicled and Illus
trated in this unpublished book was made
two years ago. Whoever goes over the same
ground two years hence will find a change.
1t is not absolutely certain that there will
be an electric railway between Jerusalem
and Jericho, or that the whistle OF the
locomotive will drown the cry of the
Muezzin in the Minaret but it Is
altogether probable Travelling is being
made so increasingly easy in these days that
much of the romance and nearly all of the
adventure has gone out Oft The whole
planet is being invaded by the conventional
comforts of civilization. Even the Alps are
now ascended by rail.
Barney Stone Kissing Made Easy.
THOUGHT of this the other day at Blar-
ney Castle. l went out upon the usual pill
grimage to pay my devotions to the Barney
stone Formerly the kissing of this magical
piece of rock was done at risk Of life. The
stone is in the lower course of the parapet
around the top of the great tower. The para
pet is about three feet out from the wall of
the tower. this convenient space being left
by the old builders with a view to hurting
stones and arrows and pouring down boil
ing Oil upon the heads of funwelcome visitors.
The stone, being in the lower course of
masonry, is not only thus removed three
feet out from the wall on which you stand,
but is about the same distance below the
top of the wall. So that the old way of get
ting at it was to lie down on the top of the
wall, and get somebody of good weight to
sit on your legs, and so get your head out
and down to the right spot for the payment
Of this mystic and painful osculation.
But to-day anybody can kiss the stone of
Blarney. They have set a series of iron bars
between the stone and the wall, making
sort of open floor. You step down on that,
and get down upon your knees, and the
deed is done. Henceforth your tongue
is gifted with a new possibility
of speech, as If you dined every
day upon honey and butter. 1t is now i'm
possible for you to say mean things about
your neighbor. You speak hereafter in the
delightful dialect OF "blarney''-unless the
new ease and comfort with which the stone
ton!
ireland Marvelous,y Beautiful.
ONE of the very few criticisms that have
Ia to hot L. To- fo,
away not only from Blarney Castle but from
all this wonderfully beautiful Irish country.
Ireland is marvelously lovely. went from
Cork by rail to Bantry, and thence on the top |
Of coach from Bantry, by the way of Glen |
garriff and Kenmare, to Killarney. The very |
names have an accent of. Quaintness and
romance. But to see the places which they |
re present, and to journey from one to an |
other over the smooth roads and between |
the walls and hedges and beside the green |
hills, is to get glimpse of Eden.
Everybody knows that-thanks to the |
good st. Patrick-there are no snakes in this |
Eden. But somehow the cunning devil has |
nevertheless managed to get in. Indeed in |
England, If one may judge from the politf- |
cal editorials in the newspapers, ireland is |
considered to be the particular abode, the |
favorite residence, of the Prince of Perdi- |
ton. The Irish say that he lives in the cas- |
which saw there the other day in the state |
apartment of the Lord Lieutenant beneath |
the inscription, "Dieu ct mon droit." Any |
how, there seems to be a ooncensus of opn- |
ion that this most fair country is dedicated, |
ike a shop saw one day in Paris, to the |
bon Diable."
Where Beggars Are Numerous.
THE plainest testimony on this point is
ous for beggars. But people who have not |
visited Ireland, especially those who have
not made at least part ftheir journey on
The top of a coach, do not know what beg
ying means. The coach is accompanied for
miles by swarms of begging children, mostly |
little girls attired in the raggedest of dresses.
They hover about the passengers as the flies
lock about the heads of the horses. They
-un on and on, persistently and untiringly,
holding out their hands and crying in mon
,tone in a most doleful minor chant, "Please
rive me penny sirl" "Please give me a |
penny, sirr' They start up from behind the
and from the slopes of the
Hills and from the corners of the
'oad. You look ahead where the highway
makes a bend and there is new relay |
lurrying out of the houses, scampering over
he peat bogs, making ready to beslege the
coach. 1t is most pitiful. And the benevo-
ent tourist, unaccustomed to the sight and
ound, speedily gets rid or all his copper
,oin. But the more you give the longer the
nendicants pursue you, until at last we all
rave hard hearts and deaf ears and confine
,neselves strictly to the beauties of nature,
rying to forget these blots on the picture,
where everything is cheering and "only man
s vile"
The difference between great wealth and
.rcat poverty obtrudes itself in Ireland.
rhe poor people live in the most picturesque
,ut dismally uncomfortable houses The
walls are of stone, the roofs are or thatch and
he little houses fit into the landscape as il
hey were much a part of it as
he rocks and the trees. But these houses,
n most cases, have no floor but the bare
round. When they have more than one
Dom the other room is for the pig. Other
wise the pig lives with the rest OF the family
n the parlor. The compost heap Is invaria-
,ly beside the door. The smoke of the peat
Ire rolls out of the chimney, and in equal
'olume out of the window. The inhabi-
ants of these novels, these lairs these pens
liter for pigs than for people. are ragged to
degree almost inconceivable by one who
las not seen them. Joseph never dreamed
# having SO many colors in his most varie-
ated coat as the Irish peasant boasts in his
rray of patches and tatters.
One of the Striking Contrasts.
AND beside these novels you come now
nd then along the road upon stately
,retty lodge beside it, and you look along a
arriage way which winds among the trees
robably for mile or more to the hand |
ome mansion of Lord This or the Earl of |
That, who owns all this part of the country |
lou ride for hours through the domains Of