The Irish standard., 1908-08-08
William E. Curtis, Now in Ireland, Describes
the Beautiful and Prosperous Country
Around Cork.
Time is Not Far Distant When the Southern
Section Will be Owned by the Men
Who Till the Soil.

The following letter from Cork, IRE
land, dated July 81, and written by
William E. Curtiss, appeared in the
Chicago Record Herald Of Aug 1st:.
mo Torrance, me by, tell the loid-
les and gintlemen all ye know, an
kape the rist to yoursilf,'' was the
parting injunction of the porter Of the
Imperial Hotel to the jarvey of tho
jaunting car, as he tucked the rugs
around our legs and started US off for
Blarney Castle, which is fva miles
from town.
1t is a delightful drive. for the sub
urbs of Cork are surrounded by fer
ellie farms and the pastures are il!u-
minated with buttercups just now, ard
inclosed in hedges of hawthorn tina.
are bright with blossoms. AL. nature
seems to be in a cheerful mood these
days, and the frequent rains. which
interfere considerably with motoring,
: give an appearance of freshness to all
sI0 tVS6SSdIAOH dAAU a Vitality " tAO
trees and plants and flowers and ev-
erything growing. That is peculiar
to Ireland. But we have rot been
much troubled by the rain, not nearly
so much as we expected from the
books We read and the tales other peo.,
pie who have travelled over here t,ld
us. The porters of the hotels have a
common joke that TT never rains on
the 31st of February" which is as
much as to say that there is a shower
every other day in the year; but that
is not accurate. Showers do come and
cease with surprising suddenness and
frequency, and the rain falls as if it
was very heavy and had dropped Il
long distance. but if you carry an UNI
brella, and that is the universal GUS e.
tom-you are none the Wors for it.
The god of the weather and ST. Swi.h.
en-, the saint to whom the farmers
pray for rain in a dry season, hava
been very good to us. We have moth
ing to complain of and much to he
thankful for concerning the weather
There is little narrow-gauge baby
railway which starts from outside
the campus of Queens College in Cork
and runs to Blarncy a town of about
800 inhabitants, mostly farmers, who
cultivate the surrounding soil and
breed cattle, while their wives and
daughters work in a woolen factory
belonging to the Mahoney brothers,
which is said to produce the best
tweed in the kingdom. And you can
buy suitings at the shops in Cork
Nothing is sold at the factory.
Blarney Castle, as everybody knows,
is one of the best preserved and most
beautiful Of the many ruins of Ire
land, and Is probably better known
throughout the world than any other
because Of the marvellous qualities of
a famous stone which forms a part of
It's walls. As Father Prout in one of
his verses expresses 1t:
There is stone there
That whoever kisses,
Oh, he never misses
To grow eloquent. .
IT'S he that may Chamber
To my lady's chamber.
Or become a member
OF parliament.
The castle stands on the banks Of a
dashing stream called the Comane. full
Of trout and we'll protected. and is
surrounded by a wonderful forest of
cedars, birch and beech trees that are
centuries old. Their trunks are en-.
twined with ivy. and the rocks and
ledges upon which the castle stands
are cushioned with the same material
l don't know that I have ever seen
such luxurious ivy or such sumptuous
vegetation out of the tropics, or such
fragrant shade. There are natural