Virginia advocate. [volume] (Charlottesville, Va.) 1827-1860, 1830-04-16
MISCELLANEOUS.
FOOLS DAY.

! The tricks commonly played off on FOOLS day
have been current coin every there, and are FOL
the most part Of tho most miserable character
without wit or meaning. ,...
The French, who are the first people in the
world at joke, moi only for its wit but its APP
plication, have long enjoyed FOOLS day. Among
| them ridicule is the most successful weapon
for correcting folly and holding vice IN terrorem
A Frenchman of the capital is more afraid of a
successful bon mot at his expense than Of a
sword, and the LIST of April is day. therefore, OF
which he can make double application he
| may crafty his love Of pleasantly among his
friends, or infict wound on his enemies,
if he possess the art and wit to invent and per.
petrate u worthy piece of foolery upon them
I'm poison d. Aura he name given to the
unlucky party VINO may be fooled-I rather
think originally derived from poison, mischief,
and, not as commonly taken. from poison, a
fish. The best trick of this sort recollect a.
mo pg them is the well-known trick of Rabelais,
who fooled the officers of justice (when he had
no money! into conveying hun from Marseilles
to Paris on charge of treason, got up for the
purpose, and when arrived there showing them
how they were hoased For this purpose he
made up some ashes in different packets, label
ed as poisons for the royal family of France.
The bait took, aud he was conveyed to the cap
ital as traitor, seven hundred miles, only to
explain the joke.
There Is very common practical joke on
fools day in the British metropolis il consists
in despatching letter by an unlucky dupe, who
is to wait fol an answer. The answer is Sc
cond note, to a third person, &c to send the fool
farther" a young surgeon, a greenhorn in
practice, fresh from St. Bartholomew his in
struments unheshcd on his own account, and
his surgery bottles foil to reple,ion, was called
few years ago from the Strand, tn n patient in
Newgate street, very rich, named Dobbs. 1t
was the LIST Of April, aud it was his first patient.
The young Esculapius was ushered into the
presence of the supposed patient, who was busy
writing in his counting house. The surgeon
explained his errand, and Mr.. Dobbs, having an
excellent mercantile discernment, soon saw
through the affair, He bowed and said, % Ii is
mistake, sir my name is Dobbs, but / am,
thank, God, hale and hearty.-It is my brother,
the sugar-baker, on Fish street-hll, that has
sent for you Carriage or horse he had none,)
three .fourths of 4 nile farther entered among
the pyramids of snowy sweets, and found Mr.
Dobbs, the arbaker, of Fish -street.hil, as
hale as his brother of Newgate- street The
rchner OF saccharine juice understood his bro
theirs note, stamInered out pretended apollo
gy for the mistake, and said he supposed, as the
young mans directions were to Mr.. J. Dobbs
and not Mr.. Jeffry Dobbs, that was intended !;
| 4 hafh ua Ipff huf hrntb Vo,,.
third member of the family, and iu his bust
ness, lived at Limehouse, whittier be thought, if
our surgeon proceeded, he whould find the per-
son he sought. An address was handed the
young tourniquet at the extreme end Of Lime.
house, which address, it is needless to say, was
false. What will not surgeon do to ATTAIN his
first patient, and a rich one too! Away he
posted to Gmehousc, and soon found how far he
bad travelled for nothing. Tired and dsap.
pointed, AID scheming vengeance on the au-
thors of lhe hoax, he set off on his return home,
cursDg the Dobbs family every step he went
AS lie passed along Uppet Shadwell he saw
horse gallop fu,iously down Commomile. street,
and fling its rider heavy fall on the pavement.
He ran and lifted the fallen man, whom he
found insepsbe. He conveyed him to shop
hard by, bled him, and soon had the satisfaction
of seeing him open his eyes. 1t suffices to say,
that on being convey ed home, our young sur
geon attended him until he was restored TO
health and so gratefully were his exertions ia
ken by the stranger, who was rich East In.
| dia merchant, far advanced in life, that he took
| him into his house medical attendant and
friend, and ultimately left him the bulk Of his
property. Thus, out of an intended FOOLS Day
hoax by the inscrutable caprice Of fortune,
frolic led its dupe to wealth. This, apccdote
, may be depended on true, nothing in the sto.
ry but the names adopted, to conceal the real
| actors in the drama, being ictitious.-[ Athen-
| eum.l