The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1908-07-30
THE BLARNEY STONE,
An Old Legend Tells How |,
Found Its Way to Ireland.
THE MAGIC or KISSING IT.

l
parts TO the Lips That Touch II the
Power 20 utter Honeysd, Coaxins and
Deluslve Speeches.
The hlarney stone takes Its name
from the village OF Rlarney. In County
Cork, Ireland. near which stand the
ruins OF the famous Blnrney castle,
dating back 10 the fifteenth century,
and the groves OF Rlarney, which en-.
Joy ar equally wide reputation, A riv.
ulet flowing through them bears the
same name. Tho name Blarney Ia
from the Irish "blalrne," little field.
the Gaelic form being blair" or s'blar,"
i a plain. The village is four miles north.
west OF Cork and has few hundred
Inhabitants. In the groves Of Blarney
stands the ruined castle, In ono tower
OF which is the world famous stone
the kissing of which is reputed to
endow one with the gift OF coaxing,
WheeuilhR ana uhtteTlhk.
The true stone is declared TO be one
In the castle wall, few feet below
the summit OF the tower, To reach
and osculate II II IN necessary for one
to be held over the parapet by the
heels. But 80 many persons travelling
In the Emerald Isle desire to report
that they have kissed the real blarney
stone that one In the top Of the wall
Il held to be sufficiently near the real
thing for the fiction TO be maintained
that II Is the true stone with all the
powers OF the original. And even to
aged ard infrm persons one near the
castle entrance IL declared to be the
original. On the true stone. near the
/ top of the tower half effaced In.
scription reads, "Cormack Mccarthy
Fortls Me Fieri Facit, A. ID. l446."
OF the blarney stone Father Prout,
the Irish poet. declared that II was the
palladium Of liberty for Erin. He de-
scribes the stone and relates a number
of legends regarding IL one that II
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 It gained the rep
utatiom for insincerity which Is trans.
mitted In the phrase "Punic faith
and that before that II belonged TO the
Syrians, who were credited with
speaking with double tongues after
kissing It. According to the story,
some Carthaginian adventurers be-
came enamored Of the stone and ap-
propriated It. They set sail for Minor.
ca, but, being overtaken by storm,
were driven into the haFbor OF Cork
and left the stone in that vicinity un-
I'll 1t was made use of In the construc-
ton OF the donJon tower Of Blarney
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 1t, concluded an armis'
tice with the lord president on condi.
ton Of surrenderlng II to an English
garrison. But he put him of from
day to day with specious statements,
fair promises and false pretexts until
the lord president became the laugh
ingstock of the ministers OF Queen
Elizabeth, and the honeyed and delu-
.siye speeches Of the lord Of the castle
became known as mere "blarney."
The word found Its way into litera.
ture In the last century, In the flour
nal" of Caroline Fox, which appeared
In 1886, there is this use Of the word:
"Mme. 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
Iy-b barney" Samuel Lover wrote
'aThe blarney's so great Il deceiyer' IN
one OF his Irish novels. President
James Buchanan wrote, THE general
has yet to learn that my fathers conn-
trymen Il have ever felt proud of my
descent from an Irishman). though
they themselves do blarney others, are
yet hard to be blarneyed themselves"
Washington Irving in "The Traveller
wrote, $50 he blarneyed the landlord"
James Russell Lowell In ''The Fable
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 q noun, verb, an
adjective and partlclple to the Ian
guage. The most comprehensive def
milton Of the noun "blarney" is Tex
ceedingly complimentary language;
fiattery; smooth, wheedling talk; pleas
ing cajolery." AS to the origin Of the
word, one photographer quotes Grote
as crediting the derivation Of it from
the phrase ''licking the blarney