Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1884-04-01
ALEXANDRIA GAZETTE AND VIRGINIA ADVERTISER
THE ORIGIN OF ALL FOOLS DAY.

THE ORIGIN Of ALL roOAo 49,
The custom of making "Aprli Fools"
whence did it originate? According to
certain eminent encyclopedias, the prac-
tire is only a survival handed down from
remote Oriental days, being derived ron
the hull feast among the Hindoos, Wnen IL
ia the fashion to send simple people on emp,
ty errands. The coincidence Is reinforced
by the fact that the Hindoo festival 10 ques-
ton ends on the 31st of March. Another
suggestion is that as the old year began
with the 25th Of March the 1st of April was
its octave, and the termination of its cele-
brations, which is satisfactory so far as it
goes. but does not 60 far enough. third
derives the practice of hunting the gowk,"
as thew say in Scotland, from the sending
to and fro of Christ between Herod, Plate
and Caiaphas. The French have a more
satisfactory way of accounting for the pols-
sons d'Arrit. It was in 1862 that the style
was changed and April became the fourth
month of the year, and the wagSish people
of the period took delight in humbuggng
their acquaintance by sending them pack
ages which apparently contained New
Years gifts, such as under the system that
had lust passed out of vogue would have
been interchauged. The "April fish," &C.
cortliug to certain Gallo writers, came out
of the zodiac, but inasmuch as pisces is the
sign for February and not for April, this
seems to he au aggravated case Of April fool
ing with an easily satisfied public.
The April fool joke of commerce and ira,
ditiop, it must be admitted, is of monoto-
nous and unntellectual sort. The heated
penny. the nickel nailed to the sidewalk or
fastened to an invisible string, the paper
fastened to the victims coat tail, the imagi-
nary rape of the handkerchief, the dispatch
of the credulous youth of tender age ia
search of pigeons milk or to buy history
of Ewes grandmother-tbese and all the
kindred witticsms of the season are as stu
Did as they are venerable. The French
have invented some passably novel practi-
cal Jokes for the season, such as inviting a
| friend to dinner and then leaving him TO
settle the bill or altering tue prices on 81
restaurant bill of fare so as to make
the costliest dishes amazingly cheap,
thereby Turing the uDwary diner who
succeeds the joker into an extrayasant or
der AMI dispute with the waiter and one
of the neatest tricks of the sort is set down
as the device of Parsienne who was of
| icted with au importunate lover to whom
she gave an invitation to call Oh the lst of
April The lover called and was ushered
into the presence of-the lady's husband
and brother. "Ah, you are the man they
were to send to fix the range 2"
asks the husband, with an admira-
BILE aGectation OF Inconsistencies. The
t-range-oh-yes-precisely!" gasps the
lover, clutching at the desperate chance Of
rescue offered to him. So they set him TO
work on the kitchen range, aud when he had
to;I al Gov tb, f,;r
and-paid him three francs and promised
to recommend him to her friends. One man
At Washington was awake to the perls of
the season last year-Senator Beck, who,
upon being invited to a saturday morning
break fast, smiled to himself breakfasted al
home and dropped in at the trystng place
to find the conspirators-discussing the best
breakfast of the season. The old trick of
sending home goods that had never been or
dered, flooding the neighborhood with invita-
tions to fictitious dinner, or advertising lin
the name and over the address of an irasci-
BILE gentleman for dog are pretty we'll out
Of fashion now. In the wilds of Canada
and ST. Louis it is still de rgueur for the ed
tor Of the local paper to invent an April
Fool story, which being intolerably dreary
and imposing upon nobody avenges itself.
The weather prophets have not allowed
the great festival of their order to pass un.
improved by prediction. ''If it thunders
on All FOOLS Day it brings good crops of
corn aud hay" says one proverb, while
another declares "If the first three days in
April be foggy there will be food in June"
The Venetian Wigginsses predict, "Tre
Aprilante quaranta somigliantir- the
weather is Oh the first three days Of April so
it will be during the next forty days. There
is to be said about weather predictions, to
which several of the WOrius esteemed con-
temporares have given credence, or at least
space-they are made about fixed date
and not about one which wanders over near
" one tenth of the calendar.-N. T. World.