Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1869-04-02

u inttrlCul vi lne HloueTn lOOle-
ries on the first of April, but avows an en-
tire ignorance of their origin:
1.-THE first of April some do say
Is set apart for IH-Foois- Day,
But why the people call II 50,
Nor I, nor they themselves do know.
But on this day are people sent,
On purpose for pure merTiment;
And though the day is known before,
Yet frequently there IL great store
OF these forgetfuls TO be found
Who're sent 10 dance Mol Dirons rouHdj
And having tried each shop and stall,
Aud disappointed at them ALL
At last some tells them Of the cheat,
Then they return from the pursuit.
And straitway home with shame they run,
And Others laugh at what Ia done;
But tits a thing to be disputed,
Which is the greatest fool reputed
The man that innocently went,
Or he that him design dly sent
The French adopt the first of April as
All-Fools Day, and call the person fooled
'un poisson d AUrH,"-an April Fish,
whom we term an April Fool.
Brande says that Bellingen in his ETY.
mology of French Proverbs, published in
1856 gives the following explanation of this
custom: the word poisson he insists il cor
rupted through the ignorance of the people
from passion and through length of time
has almost totally defaced the original in
tention, which was as follows: That as the
passion OF our Saviour took place about this
time of the year. and as the Jews sent Christ
backwards and forwards, to torment him,
| this ridiculous custom took its rise from
thence by which We send about from one
place to another such persons as we think
| proper objects of our ridicule. Something
like the practice Of making April Fools ex-
lists in all Catholic countries on Innocent's
Day, when people will run over a house
| making pretended search in and under the
beds, In memory of the search made bv
Heroo Tor the discovery and destruction OF
the enid Jesus, and his having been de-
eeived and imposed upon by the wise men.
who, contrary to his orders, "returned to
their own country another way"
Deuce, learned antiquarian, saws that
the custom of making fools on the first of
April is borrowed from the French, and Is
deduced from the simple analogy that the
French call their April fish (poisson's d.
1rI1O, that is, simpletons or silly mack erel
which suffer themselves to be caught in this
month, but inasmuch as in England il il
not the season of that fish they have sub
mitted - term fools.
In the Prth of England the April fool il
called an Np'H gorrk, for the reason that a
| gowk is properly cuckoo, and is used
metaphorieSlly for fool the cuckoo is ev-
| erywhere uSed IA Il term of reproach and
contempt.
| In Scotland upon April Day they hunt
the gowk" by sending people upon fools
brands from place to place with a letter, in
which is written
''On the arst day Of April
Hunt the gowk another mile.
| Ellis in his notes to Brande says, that
all absurd errand il called 'Sieepeless' be-
cause to 'sleave atwo is an old expression
for untwisting or unfolding, and less final
being negative 'sieereiesS, implies that
which cannot be UNFINISHED or explained.
A bootless, sleeveless errand is sometimes
called Tom Fools Grand"
Ellis, in his notes, alludes To the old play
| Of the Parsons Wedding" where the Cap
tain says, death! you might have left
word whore you went, and not put me to
huHt like Tom Foot"
We well remember some forty years ago
or more that distinguished Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court in this state, in
charging the jury in case on trial, in this
county, said to them, 'if they found the
defendant Willingly and knowingly sent
the plaintiff to n distant town ON Tom
Fools errand, they would return verdict
for plaintiff for a sum sufficient to fully re-
imburse him for his time and expenses"
which they did.
All-Fools-Day must not be COMPOUNDED
,..if 4, fIa q
the first of January in imitation of the Ro-
man Saturnalia, when part of the iollity of
Of the occasion consisted in the election OF
mock Pope, Lord of misrule, and Abbott
of unreason, attended with many indecent
and ridiculous ceremonies and attitudes de-
signed to bring the exploded pretensions of
the Druids into contempt. The primitive
Christians adopted this policy for the pur-
pose of conciliatng the Pagans and humor-
ing their prejudices, and they even went so
far rs to continue the grossest customs suit
ed to the taste Of the multitude, for the pur-
pose Of exposing TO scorn and derision the
ceremonies observed in the celebration Of
the festival of the Saturnalia.
On the first day of April, l7l2, Lord Bo-
ingbroke stated in the British Parliament,
that in the wars called "the glorious wars
of Queen Anne" the Duke of Marlborough
had not lost single battle, yet the French
had carried their point which was the sue
cession to the Spanish monarchy, which
was the cause Of these wars. Dean swim
very wittily termed this statement, "a due
due donation for All-Fools- Day"
ON the first OF April, 1870 Napoleon, who
n L