The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1917-10-04

NN/ trip out from Cork, Ireland,
Wv to Barney Castle, be sure
to turn a cold shoulder up
On the modern tramway and upon the
motor car. The only way toI go
Is by the Outside car" or haunting
car, for this is so entirely Irish.
Up you will Chamber to the rather
rickety step of the car, thence 10
the swinging platform for the feet, up
on which you must maneuver in some
way to turn about and take your seat.
Probably you and your neighbor-if
you have n on your side of the car
will laugh a great deal and clutch each
other excitedly; if you have the seat
to yourself, you must curl one knee
up before you, in somewhat the way
a woman does IN riding sidesaddle,
brace yourself against the iron end to
the seat and cling tightly. There's a
Gnack IN riding on an outside car which
1t needs a little time to acquire. But,
no matter, you are off-Swinging
around corners and joltiug over the
cobblestones, through the city, across
a river and out into the sweet green
valley Of the Lee which leads to the
village of Barney. If it is spring, the
trees are all daintily, fluffy pale
green, the yellow primroses are begin
ming to show themselves and, perhaps,
there is here and there a hedge of bril-
liant golden gorse. Birds are singing
all around you, too, and the river rip
pies gently over it's stones; but the
probabilities are that your driver will
talk so much that you will not hear
the music of the river.
He will tell you all about how it was
Cormac MacCarthy, back in the fif-
teenth century, who built Barney cas-
tie; and how, although the place now
belongs to a local landowner, all the
MacCarthys of the countryside still
feel that they OWL the place and are
certain that 1t will one day come back
into the hands of the family. Every
MacCarthy who plows a field, within
sight of the old Jagged keep of Blar-
ney castle, looks up at it with pride
and a sense of rightful ownership.
Kissing the 5larney Stone.
OF course, everyone knows that he
who kisses the Barney stone is sup
posed 70 gain the gift of e%loauence.
The legend goes that the original Cor
mac Mccarthy the Strong n day res
cued a woman from the lake; and this
woman was so grateful that she Of
fered, by way Of showing her thanks,
to give Cormac a golden tongue. But,
she made one condition; in order to
get 1t, he must kiss q particular stone,
five feet below the top of the parapet
of Barney Castle. Naturally, Cormac
leaped up the winding steps of the
keep, two steps at a time, ran around
the path which encircled the inner
court, lowered himself to where he
could reach the stone which the wom-
an had indicated, and hastily kissed it.
Presumably he was afterwards pos
sessed of marvellous ~eloquence, and this
is the reason why all other visitors to
Blarney have wanted to kiss that
stone, too-if they are both daring and
steady-headed. For this feat is not al
together an easy one.
But, by this time, your driver has
put you down by the little Barney
railway station, bidding you cross the
tracks and take q path through the
woods, close by a tiny stream. In a
few moments you come III into an
open field, where, sure enough, q Mac
Carthy is hoeing the rows; and there,
before you, looms the great keep of
Barney Castle. The keep is practi-
cally all that remains today, though
around its foot there huddle numer-
crumbling walls and archways,
which show that there were other
buildings, too. Not far away is Blar-
ney Lake, about which the man hoeing
the rows tells you a curious story.
Two o. the gentry" he is SAYING,
"war n while jist afther discussiE'
how deep was Barney Lake. Wan o.
thin said 1T was bottomless, an the
ether wan he allowed how that was
noways possible at all. So they agreed
they'd sind dcwn two divers. This
thing they done prisintly, the gentry
THEMSELVES a-standin' by the lakeside
and awatchin'. Down whit them div
ers, but they niver come up at all ;
and, though the gentry kirt a-watchin'
and a-waitin'. niver did they see thin
divers again But, afther eight weeks
1t was. they had a letter from thin,
and they was in Australia. They were
sol"
Up On tho Castle
=x - vreS