Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 231, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1917 — Page 3

BY OUTSIE CAR TO BLARNEY CASTLE

WHENEVER you make the trip out from Cork, Ireland, to Blarney Castle, be sure to turn a cold shoulder upon the modern tramway and upon the motor car. The only way to go Is by the “outside car,” or Jaunting car, for this Is so entirely Irish. Up you will clamber to the rather rickety step of the car, thence to the swinging platform for the feet, upon which you must maneuver in some way to turn about and take your seat. Probably you and your neighbor—if you have one oh your aide 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 knack in riding on an outside car which it needs a little time to acquire. But, no matter, you are off —swinging around corners and Jolting 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 Blarney. If it is spring, the trees are all daintily, flufflly pale green, the yellow primroses are beginning to show themselves qnd, perhaps, there is here and there a hedge of brilliant golden gorse. Birds are singing all around you, too, and the river ripples gently over its stones; but the probabilities are that your driver will talk so mu.ch that you will not hear the music of the river. He will tell you all about how it was Cormac MacCarthy, back In the fifteenth century, who built Blarney castle; and how, although the place now belongs to a local landowner, all the MacCarthys of the countryside still

feel that they own the place and are certain that It 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 Blarney castle, looks up at it with pride ahd a sense of rightful ownership. Kissing the Blarney Stone. Of course, everyone knows that he who kisses the, Blarney stone is supposed to gain the gift of eloquence. The legend goes that the original Corinac McCarthy the Strong one day rescued a woman from the lake; and this woman was so grateful that she offered, by way of showing her thanks, to give Cormac a golden tongue. But, she made one condition; In order to get It, he must kiss a particular stone, five feet below the top of the parapet of Blarney 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 woman had indicated, and hastily kissed it. Presumably he was afterwards possessed of marvelous 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 altogether an easy one. But, by this time, your driver has put you down by the little Blarney railway station, bidding you cross the tracks and take a path through the woods, close by a tiny stream. In a few moments you come out into] an open field, where, sure enough, a MacCarthy is hoeing the rows; and there, before you, looms the great keep of Blarney Castle. The keep Is practically all that remains today, though around its foot there huddle numerous .crumbling walls and archways, which show that there were other buildings, too. - Not far away is Blarney Lake, about which the man hoeing the rows tells you a curious story. "Two o’ thegentry,” he is saying, “war one while jlst afther discussin’ how deep was Blarney Lake. Wan o* thlm said it was bottomless, an’ the other wea he allowed how that was noways possible at all. So they agreed they’d slnd down two divers. This thing they done prislntly, the gentry thimselves a-standln’ by the lakeside and awatchln’. Down wint them divers, but they nlver come up at all; and, though the gentry kipt a-watchin’ and a-waltin’, nlver did they see thim divers again. But, afther eight weeks it was, they had a letter from thim, and they wasdtrAustralia. They were SO I” Up on the Castle. ' And so you leave the MacCarthy, so

Blarney Castle.

full of wonderful and mysterious tales, and wend your way to the castle. You take your time climbing the spiral, uneven stone steps of the .keep, for they are very steep and long. But, at last, you reach the top and stop to look east, west, north and south, at the charming views; little green and brown fields, marked off by hedges, dark clumps of woodland, here and there a sparkling blue lake or a dazzling clump of gorse. But you soon hear stifled shrieks and exclamations from the other side of the parapet, so you make your way to the spot. Yes, there someone is about to kiss the Blarney stone. A big stalwart youth is lying down upon his back, his head towards a square opening in the outer wall of the parapet; another strong youth, perhaps two of them, sit down upon his feet, so as to hold them firmly. Then the seeker after eloquence grasps an Iron bar, placed in position for this purpose, swings himself down through the opening in the parapet referred to, pulls himself up again on the outside, and just manages to kiss the surface of the Blarney Stone; then, being strong and lithe, he jerks fils head back in again and suddenly he is again sitting up on the floor of the parapet and the others boys are letting go of his feet. It wasn’t so hard to do after all, you think; at least, not if you are a strong young boy who does not mind looking down all those giddy feet to the trees growing against the foot of the keep. But, doubtless, you are wise enough to content yourself with watching others kiss the Blarney Stone and with buying a post card showing the famous stone, with its Latin inscription, “Cormac MacCarthy Fortis Me Fieri Fecit, A. D. 1446,” which, translated in Irish, means “Cormac Macarthy, bould as bricks, Made me in Fourteen Forty-six.” Really, ,you know, it does not pay to’go to the trouble of kissing the stone, for it may even not be the Identical one which Cormac MacCarthy the Strong knew. Many people insist that that stone was long ago removed from its position, that this is not the genuine stone at all ; at any rate, it seems that the stone once fell from its place. Probably it is as well to acquire eloquence in some other way.

TOLSTOY NO MUSIC LOVER

Great Russian Voiced His Aversion to Wagner in Particular in Terms Beyond Misunderstanding. 1 I.—'— Some journals of Leo Tolstoy that have been published show, among other things, that he had a peculiar taste in music. He did not admire Beethoveii, and he could not sit through a single act of Wagner’s “Siegfried.” Of this opera he wrote: “It is stupid, unfit for children above seven years of age, a Punch and Judy show, pretentious, feigned, entirely false and without any music whatever.” In his home at Yasnaya Polyana members of the household were once in the habit of playing incessantly on four grand pianos, reason enough, one might think, why he should dislike all music forever. Recalling this, he said: “All this —the romances, the poems, the music—was not art, something important and necessary to people in general, but a selfindulgence of robbers, parasites, who have nothing in common life; romances, novels about how one falls in love disgustingly, poetry about this or about how one languishes from boredom. And music about the same theme. But life, all life seethes with its own problems of food, distribution, labor, about faith, about the relations of men. It is shameful, nasty. Help me. Father, to serve thee, by showing up this llel” ,- - ——

Best Listener in the World.

The horse is really one of the best listeners in the world. He is always on the alert* for sounds which concern or interest him. When tie looks at anything he turns his ears toward it to observe the better whether any sound comes from it. If a horse is particularly interested in your driving of him he always turnS'his ears backward toward you, but if he has no concern on that subject or if he sees anything ahead that interests him he keeps his ears pricked forward. A horse hears the whinny of another horse at a greater distance than the average raajn can hear it

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

THE SOUL’S “I WILL”

\ Resolve That Linked With the; Divine Power “Makes All Things Possible.” “I will arise and go to my father." —Luke' 15:18. The emphasis in this sermon is placed on the first two words of the text:—“l will.” The soul's determined and resolute “I will” is the strongest force in this universe outside of God. The workSj of man on this 'planet bear abundant witness to the compelling power of the soul’s determination. The mighty pyramids, the great cathedrals, the mightier works of modem times constructed with the aid of steam and electricity, the massive triphammers; of the steel mills, the giant steam shovels of the Panama canal, the monster oceangoing steamships, the towering skyscrapers, all bear eloquent witness to tne mighty power of the human will over the material world —man’s puny strength multiplied a thousandfold by modem inventions.

The soul has power likewise over the body. There are secret reservoirs of being unknown and unsuspected,below the level of consciousness, resident in the individual. So speaks the new psychology of the day. Wonders Wrought. By these dormant powers of the soul the wonders of Christian Science are wrought. By the same psychical power, in conjunction with the wise use of drugs and medicants, the modern physician heals. In the great earthquake at San Francisco numerous persons bedridden for * years walked forth from crumbling buildings to safety under the impulse of the new energies of the soul aroused by the earthquake’s alarm. If stubborn nature, unmanageable matter, becomes obedient to the will, if the physical body to a larger extent than we realize is plastic in the hands of the soul, how much more is the spirit of man responsive to the slightest influence? This view of things is in line with the spiritual message of Christianity, supplemented and re-en-forced by th.e power of God. “I can do all things,” said Paul, “through Christ, who strengtheneth me.” Side by side, however, with these tendencies -which make-for the soul’s exaltation are other tendencies in our modern life which would bind and shackle it and explain away its authority. Checks to Soul's Victory.

One of these tendencies is philosophy, which now, as always, seems never to find ungrudging philosophical foundation for a true doctrine of the fieedom of the will, never seems to give due weight to the Instincts and motives upon which common humanity acts. Science, too, lends its re-enforcement to the fatalism of the day, though the brutal statements of half a century ago are being revised today in the growing light of the new psychology. Much of the sociology and economics of the day adds Its emphasis with its prattle that nothing matters but environment. Don’t blame the drunkard, men say, for his evil condition, his loss of position, reputation and money. Blame the saloonkeeper! Blame society that permitted the sale of so powerful an agent of destruction! So with the murderer, even! Don’t be too hard, juror, op the man before you! Consider his bringing up, his parents. He sees “red.” No man in his senses could take the life of another. Excusing the Wrongdoer.

And thieves likewise, ranging from the highest all the way down the line to people who adulterate our food, poison the milk the babies must drink, dilute the drugs the sick depend on, makers of shoddy goods, sellers of short weights; don’t blame them; they simply follow the general practice of business; as though the trail of the waving grain of the wheat field to the loaf upon the table necessarily involved dishonesty, adulteration, thieving and graft! The result of all this is fatalism, a blurring of the Instinct of responsibility, a negation in practical life of the soul’s power to rule. How differently it is put on the pages of the New Testament: Pity for the sinner, condemnation for the Sin; the message of forgiveness and freedom. No fatalism here; all things possible, the power of God to help. “I will arise and go to my father,” said the prodigal, and he arose and went. The gospel addresses man as Imperial, free, able If he wishes, with the divine power to help, to choose the better way:—Rev. Dr. Witt . Lincoln Pelton, Ph. D., Rector St. Janies* Episcopal Church, New York City.

A Kind Heavenly Father.

God is a kind Father. He sets us all in the place where he wishes us to be employed; and that 1 employment is truly “our Father’s business.” He chooses work for every creature, which will be delightful to them, if they do it simply and humbly. He gives us always strength enough, and sense enough, for what he wants us to do; if we either tire ourselves or'puzzle ourselves, it is our own fault. And we may always be sure, whatever we are doing, that we cannot be pleasing him if .we are not happy ourselves. —John Ruskin.

Do the Little Service.

He who wants to do a great deal of good, at once, will never do anything.— Samuel Johnson.

MANY AUSTRIANS DYING OF HUNGER

Medical Records Show That Deaths Are Caused by Famine Conditions. FISH SUPPLY IS SHORT Seafaring Males Are Called to Fight and Incompetents Fill Boats— Speeches in Parliament Reveal Appalling Conditions. Rome.—There Is now no further doubt about the desperate conditions in Austria, where people are actually dying of hunger. Deaths from starvation are medically attested, and the certificates of the district medical officers cannot be kept secret, as they must be produced by the relatives of the deceased person to the local authorities in order to have the body buried without an Inquest and a postmortem examination. The Arbeiter Zeitung recently published a facsimile of the certificate of death of a laborer named B. Hauptlg, native of Relchenberg In Bohemia, whose body was found in n field.

The district medical officer of Kratzau attested that the man had died of hunger. Similar certificates have from time to time been published in provincial papers, but as a rule the great majority remain unknown. Moreover doctors often use the expression “nervous exhaustion” to explain deaths from hunger, and thus to a certain extent appearances are saved. The fact remains, however, that people are starving to death in Austria, and evidence of the appalling economic conditions is afforded by two speeches delivered in parliament by Deputy Bianchinl of Dalmatia -and the German Socialist Renner of Vienna. Dalmatians Aroused. Deputy Bianchini, who despite his Italian name Is a Croatian and noted for his loyalty to Austrian rule, openly accused the military authorities of despoiling the Dalmatians of. everything and condemning them to starvation. “All our fishermen have been called to the colors.” he said, “and if some of them were sent home and provided with boats, ropes and nets they would provide enough fish for the population. It is useless to send Hungarian fishermen whq know the sea by hearsay and cannot fish. The military authorities have even requisitioned salt from Dalmatia, with the result that even when fish is plentiful It cannot be salted and kept for the winter. Another mistake committed by the authorities has been the wholesale requisitioning of oil. Oil is indispensable as an article of food to Dalmatians, as it replaces every kind of fat. Besides, like salt, oil is needed to preserve fish and vegetables. The people are suffering tortures from lack of oil. Denutrition has reduced them to skeletons, and now in many districts of the province a terrible unknown epidemic is raging, which the doctors attribute to lack of oil and fat. This epidemic is most violent. Its main symptom is a sudden swelling of the feet, which in most cases Is followed by death within twenty-four hours. “Live stock has been requisitioned without any system In Dalmatia. -Horses. mules and oxen have been sent to Serbia, Montenegro TLnfT Albania for military transport and men over fifty years old and boys of twelve and fourteen were sent as drivers, and few of them ever returned. The Austrian army has been fed with beef from Dalmatia to such an extent that the 116,000 head of oxen existing/before the war have now fallen to less than 30,000.

Bread and Meat Scarce. “Bread is even more scarce than meat in Dalmatia. The wheat grown in the province is hardly sufficient to feed the population for two months in normal times, yet all the wheat has been requisitioned and paid for so low that the farmers lost money besides being starved. The bread now supplied is of such an inferior quality that it cannot be eaten even by starving people. “As food Is scarce and dear it is no exaggeration to say that before long a regular famine with all its terrible consequences will inevitably follow in Dalmatia.” Deputy Renner denounced the hopeless economic conditions In Austria. “I do not appeal to the crown, to the government and to parliament as national institutions, but I speak as man to men and appeal to your intelligence and to your hearts." he said. “While we are talking here people outside are dying of hunger. We deplore that some provinces are worse off than others and debate as to whether the middle classes are suffering more than the lower ones, and yet all the people are desperate. The bread ration is insufficient, but what is worse the minimum fixed for each person often cannot be had. and more often still the distribution of bread is irregular.” All the members of the Austrian parliament, even those who support the government and are bent on resistance to the very end. denounced the hopeless economic situation, and even when optimistic they admitted that the war could not be prolonged more than three months without risking a regular famine.

Decorates Hindenburg.

Berlin.—Field Marshal von Hindenburg. the chief of the German general staff, has been decorated with the Iftihar O,rder, with swords, the highest Turkish reward for ,military disthe sultan.

GERMANS HAVE A NEW TYPE OF “SMOKE” AERO

London. —It Is learned from a reliable source that thfe Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen are being used for the building of a new type of airplane from which much is expected. The fuselage (carriage) of the new machine is serpentine in form, and from both sides it is possible to emit dense clouds of smoke which entirely conceals the machine. - Last week the king of Bulgaria and his eldest son were present at the trials of several of the new airplanes. .

DOGS ARE SUCCESS IN WAR

Latest Use Is as Guides for Soldiers Who Have Lost Their Eyesight Washington.—The war Is about to provide another duty for dogs. These canine friends of man are already performing with ultra-satisfaction n great variety of tasks on the battlefields and in the trenches and training centers. It remained for an attendant at one of the training schools for the blind soldiers of France to discover that dogs might be used for guiding soldiers who have lost their eyesight. After a series of training experiments with dogs picked up on the streets of Paris, the results have been found to be truly astonishing. The natural habits of the dog have been successfully subordinated to its purposes In guiding the men. One of the dogs, selected at random, guided a blindfolded officer for a distance of two miles without accident. Coming to a fence under which the dog might easily pass, he would, instead, go around the obstruction. Boulders and holes plated in the path were negotiated by the dog turning abruptly with a tug on his leash as a sort of signal. The obstruction passed, he would again return to the path.

ON ERRAND OF MERCY

Roads and woods bombarded by German artillery, one kilometer behind the lines in France. These are the types of roads over which the American ambulances drive on their missions of mercy.

NAVY LEAGUE ASKS “HUSSIFS”

Women of the Country Requested to Furnish 6,500 Sewing Kits for Sailors. Washington.—The Navy league has issued an appeal to women of the country to make 6.500 “hussifs” for the marines training for . France. They may be turned in to local sections of the Navy league. “Hussifs” in the marine’s way of saying “housewives.” It means a sewing kit. The sewing kit wanted by the Navy league is made of cotton khaki, sewed with red thread —the Marine corps uniform colors. The kit is 13 inches long and 7% inches wide. It has five pockets, 3% inches deep by 2% inches wide. A top flap folds over the pockets and covers the contents of the kit. A red tape 20 inches long, sewed on the back of the center pocket, ties the kit. A pair of blunt-pointed scissors 4 inches long. No. 1 needles, a thimble, an assortment of safety pins, cards holding heavy black and white thread and two safety pins strung with khaki buttons comprise the contents of the kit.

SEEK GOLD IN OLD MOUNDS

Fortune Seekers Likely to Level the Indian Mounds Near Decatur, Alabama. Decatur. Ala.—lndian mounds in this section will probably be leveled by fortune seekers. An Indian doctor recently told how a party of Indians from the Indian Nation in Oklahoma had come into the Tennessee valley and removed a quantity of gold from one of the mounds. Every year, during the late summer, there are rumors of Indians mysteriously visiting the hunting grounds of the Cherokees for the purpose of recovering gold. The gold, it is said, was dug from the mountdins of North Alabama and North Georgia and when the Cherokees were moved to the West they buried their gold, fearing their white conquerors would take it from them. „

LIFE IN A NAVAL TRAINING STATION

How Young Men Are Taught Navigation and Nautical Tactics at Great Lakes. ARE GIVEN BEST OF CARE Work and Play, Three Meals a Day Limited Responsibility and Few Worries—ls,ooo Men Now In Camp. Great. Lakes, 111. —Work and play, thre? meals a day, limited responsibility, and few worries. That’s life in the navy. Mothers and fathers, sisters and sweethearts, who are worrying about their sons, brothers, or.loved ones, are the only persons worried while these lads are in training nt the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. Situated far from the tang of salt water, with Lake Michigan to gaze upon—and occasionally practice gun fire or rowing a boat on approximately 15,000 embryo sailors are learning navigation and nautical tactics In a surprisingly short time. Arriving at the station the recruit Is sent to detention camp ; He Isn’t accused of being a germ carrier, bnt precautions are taken to see to It that he doesn’t associate with the great body of sailors until he has been under observation for 21 days. During this period of detention the recruit Is given typhoid prophylaxis, cowpox vaccination, throat swab, teeth survey, and general physlcal attention. Final Physical Examination. He gets his final physical examination while Ln detention. If the examining surgeon thinks he is unfitted for the naval service, he is placed in the “hold-over” squad, re-examined frequently, -given plenty of work and plenty of food. If finally he is unable to pass muster, the recruit is sent home with a “medical discharge.” Very few men are received at the station who are unable to pass the final, examination, for they are given at least two examinations before they are sent to Great Lakes.

If at the end of the twenty-one days the recruit has been outfitted, had his hair cut short, and pronounced physically fit, he is passed into the main camp and his period of real instruction and work begins. He is invited to participate in athletics, selects the school he desires to attend, and begins In earnest to prepare himself and to be prepared for his future life on board a dreadnaught, or some form of fighting craft. • Has Varied Duties. He learns to do things which at home he thought was “girl’s” work. This Includes dining hall duty, serving the “mess,” peeling “spuds,” washing clothes, making up his bed, etc. He learns also to do many things which the “hired” man back home did for him. He swabs the “deck” (floor) of his tent, picks up paper and other rubbish in the vicinity of his tent or company Btr<*t, and a hundred other duties of this sort. And through it all he is being watched closely—by petty officers, surgeons and other higher officers. He is classified while in training station as good, bad or indifferent, and this classification will follow him, unless he wins a new one, throughout his enlistment. All you have to do is to look at the Jackies In training tp know that they never were better cared for In their Ilves and that the Kaiser is up against it when these lads set out to get him.

WOMEN WORK IN STEEL MILL

Officials Say They Are Doing the Work as Efficiently as Men. Sharon, Pa.—The Farrell plant of the American Sheet and Tinplate Company announces It is the first mill in the United States to employ women as roughers in the cold roll department. With the plant working at normal capacity, the women will be able to earn $4.50 a day. Officials say they are doing the work as efficiently as men.

BRITISH GENERAL A GERMAN, BERLIN SAYS

Copenhagen.—Much space is devoted by the Berlin press to General Freyberg, the youthful New Zealander, who recently was placed in command of a British brigade and prompted to the rank of a major general. The papers claim that the general, who is only twenty-seven years old. and greatly distinguished himself at Gallipoli, in Mesopotamia, and at Arras, is actually a German. It Is said that his father never acquired British citizenship after he emigrated to New Zealand more than 30 years ago.

Woman Druggist Aged Ninety-Six.

Allentown, Pa. —Older residents of the City attended ar reception in honor of the ninety-sixth birthday anniversary of Mrs. Mary Kluuip. believed t > be the oldest person in this city, also is tljiouteht to 1m» the oldest women druggist in the world.