The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-04-13

fish " las in France, or an "April gowk
(as ia ScotlandD, the object, to deceive
him and laugh ut him, is everywhere the
same.
The custom has been traced back for
ages all through Europe, as far back as
the records go. The "Feast of Fools
is mentioned as celebrated by the ancient
Romans In Asia the Hindoos have a
festival, ending on the 31st of March,
called the "Hui festival, in which they
play the same sort of first of April
pranks-translated into Hindoo-laugh-
ing Mt the victim, and making him a
"Huli fool" 1t goes back even to
Persia, where it is supposed to have a
beginning, in very ancient times, in the
celebration of spring, when their New
Year begins.
How it came to be what we everywhere
find it the wise men cannot agree. The
many authorities are so divided that I
see no way but for us to accept the GUS
tom as we find it, wherever we may hap
pen to be, and be careful not to abuse it.
Some Jokes are peculiar to particular
places In England, where it is called
All Fools day, one favorite Joke is to
send the greenhorn to a bookseller to
buy the. "Life and Adventures of Ewes
Grandmother" or to a cobbler to buy a
few cents worth of "strap-ol strap
oil being, in the language of the shoe
making brotherhood, personal apphca-
ton of the leather. The victim usually
gets good whipping with strap.
There was an old superstition in En-
gland that prayers to the Virgin at 8
o'clock on All Fools day would be of
wonderful efficacy, and it is seriously
mentioned by grave writer's of old days.
In Scotland the first of April fun is
called "hunting the gowk," and consists
most often OF sending person to an
other a long way off, with a note which
says, "Hunt the gowk another mile. !"
The recipient of the note gives him new
missive to still another, containing the
same words; and so the sport goes on,
till the victim remembers the day of the
month, and sits down to rest and think
about it.
In France, where the custom is very
ancient, the jokes are much the same;
but the victim is called an "April fish, !"
because he is easily caught. In one part
of France there is custom of eating a
certain kind of peas which grow there,
called 11Ois chiches. The joke there is
to send the peasants to certain convent
to ask for those peas, telling them that
the fathers are obliged to give some to
every one who comes on that day. The
joke is as much on the monks as on the
peasants, for there is often perfect rush
of applicants all day.
A more disagreeabls custom prevails
in Lisbon on the LIST of April, when the
great object is to pour water on passers-
by, or, failing in that, to throw powder
III their faces. If both can be done, the
joker is happy.
/ need not tell you the American
styles of joking mailing a piece of sill
yer to the sidewalk tying string to
a purse, and jerking it away from greedy
fingers leaving tempting-looking pack
frying doughnuts with an interlining of
wool; putting salt in the sugar-bowl,
etc. You know too many already.
But this custom, with others, COM
mon in coarser and rougher times, is
fast dying out. Even now it is left al
most entirely to playful children and
the uneducated classes. This sentiment,
quoted from an English almanac of a
hundred years ago, will, I'm sure, meet
the approval of grown-ups" of the
nineteenth century:
But tits thing to be disputed,
Which is the greatest fool reputed,
The one that innocently went,
Or he that him designedly sent
st. Nicholas for april.