The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1908-07-22

Delusive Speeches.
from the village of Blarney. in County
! Cork, Ireland. near which stand the
ruins of the famous Barney castle,
dating back TO the fifteenth century.
and the groves of Barney. which en-
| JOY an equally wide reputation A riv-
ulet flowing through them bears the
same name The name Barney is
from the Irish "blatrne." little field.
the Gaelic form being blair" or ''blar. "
| plain The village Is four miles north
1 west of Cork and has a few hundred
! inhabitants. In the groves OF Blarney
stands the ruined castle. in one tower
| Of which Is the world famous stone.
the kissing of which is reputed TO
endow one with the gift of coaxing
wheedling and fattering.
The true stone is declared to be one
In the castle wall. a few feet below
the summit of the tower. To reach
and osculate 1t it is necessary for one
to be held over the parapet by the
heels. But so many persons travelling
In the Emerald Isle desire to report
that they have kissed the real barney
stone that one in the top Of the wall
is held to be sufficiently near the real
thing for the fiction to be maintained
that 1t is the true stone with all the
powers of the original And even to
aged and infirm persons one near the
castle entrance is declared to be the
original. On the true stone, near the
top of the tower, a half effaced in
scr1ption reads, 'Cormack Mccarthy
Forts Me Fieri Facit A D. 1446.''
OF the barney stone Father Prout,
the Irish poet, declared that it was the
palladium of liberty for Erin. He de-
scrfbes the stone and relates a number
Of legends regarding 1t, one that it
was brought to the island by the
Phoenicians. who are reputed to have
cOlOniZed the region, and that 1t had
long been in the custody Of the Cartha-
ginians, who from 1t gained the rep
utation for insincerity which is trans
mftted in the phrase ''Punic faith"
and that before that it belonged to the
Syr1ans, who were credited with
speaking with double tongues after
kissing it According to the story,
some Carthaginian Adventures be-
came enamored Of the stone and APP
propriated 1t. They set sail for Minor
ca, but, being overtaken by a storm,
were driven into the harbor of Cork
and loft tho CIR tn ho% -
til it was made use of in the construc-
ton of the donjoD tower of Barney
castle
AS to the origin Of the belief in re-
gard to the qualities secured by kiss
ing the stone, Crofton Croker says
that In 1902, when the Spaniards were
urging the Irish chieftains to harass
the English, the owner Of the castle,
Cormack McDermod Mccarthy, who
then occupied it, concluded an arms
tice with the lord president on condi-
ton Of surrendering it to an English
garrison. But he put him off from
day to day with specious statements,
fair promises and false pretexts Until
the lord president became the laugh
A1SoIOSh VI luC LulA1StGLS VI NlucGu
Elizabeth, and the honeyed and delu-
sive speeches Of the lord Of the castle
became known as mere "blarney"
The word found it's way into litera-
ture in the last century. In the Jour
mar Of Caroline Fox, which appeared
in 1885, there is this use of the word:
mime. de Stael was regretting to Lord
Castlereagh that there was no word in
the English language which answered
to their sentiment No he said,
there is no English word, but the
Irish have one that corresponds exact
ly-blarney.' Samuel Lover wrote
1.-THE blarney's so great a deceiver" In
one of his Irish novels. President
James Buchanan wrote, 1.-THE general
has yet to learn that my fathers coun-
trymen q have ever felt proud of my
descent from an Irishman), though
they themselves do barney others, are
yet hard to be blarneyed themselves"
Washington Irving in 1.-The Traveller
wrote, 80 he blarneyed the landlord"
For Critics" says:
The cast clothes Of Europe your states
manship tries
And mumbles again the old blarneys and |
lies.
The name of the old time castle and
town has added noun, a verb, an
adjective and participle to the Ian
guage. The most comprehensive def
milton Of the noun "blarney" Is tex
ceedingly complimentary language;
fattery; smooth, wheedling talk; pleas
ing cajolery." AS to the origin Of the
word, one photographer quotes Grote
as crediting the derivation Of 1t from
the phrase Ticking the blarney
stone" applied to Incredible stories
told Of climbing to stone very diff
cult Of access in castle Of that name
in the county Of Cork, Ireland" But
he added that DR.. Jameson derives it
from the French ''baiwerne," "a lie;
friSolous talk" and defines 1t "gross
fattery; unmeaning or vexatious dis