Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-30

TO Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Plate,
from plate TO Herod and from Herod
back again to PLATE, tins ridiculous, or
rather impious custom took its rise from
thence, by which we send about from
one place TO another such persons as we
think proper subjects Of our ridicule. !"
But it is not only throughout Great
Britain, France and our own country
that fools are made on the first day of
April. The custom is deliberately OBJ
served throughout Sweden, and in Ger
many an April fool is called ''ein zsm
April shieken.' The same custom has
also been observed in India from time
immemorial Late in March OF each
year the Hindoos hold a great celebration
which they call the Hull festival, of
which the last day is the greatest and
most general holiday. During the con-
tinuance of the Huh one of its chief di-
versions is to send people on errands and
expeditions that are to end IN disap-
pointment and raise laugh at the ex-
pense OF the person sent.
But the custom of making April fools
has been traced back to an antiquity
even grester than that of the Hull fes-
tival of the Hindoos. The ancient Per-
slams were accustomed to celebrate the
period of the Yernal equinox, which may
occur as early as March % or as late as
April %, with elaborate festal rites and
diversions. OF this latter, the chief was
the making OF fools, precisely as we are
accustomed to make them on April Fools
day.
In a quaint volume of poems bearing
the title ''Verses on Several Occasions
and published in London in 1892, April
dau IL fbua al1Y1dad m
''Now April morn her Folly's throne exalts
Now Dobbs calls Nell and laughs because she
hats,
Then laughs in turn and calls poor Thomas,
Goose
In England, from earliest times, the
ridiculous errands upon which the vic
tim of an April Fool joke is sent have
been called sleeveless errands, but
the origin and true significance of this
term are completely buried in oblivion,
and no antiquary. has as yet been able to
unearth them. These errauds are as nu-
merous as they are ingenious. Some of
them have almost become classics; suoh
ones, for instance, as sending person to
a book store for the ''HistOrv of Ewes
Mother, - to milk dealer for pint of
pigeon IS milk, and TO shoemaker for
an ounce of strap oil, which, if the
shoemaker has been initiated Into the
joke, the inquirer receives in the shape
of a severe blow from a strap across the
shoulders. An amusing account of the
performance of one of these "sleeve-
less'' errands and its results is thus de-
tailed in ''The Bairnsla Foakes, - a
most rare and curious book of
FOLKLORE published at Ripon, in
Yorkshire, England, in 1899. "Ah
think all needn't tell 70 at
this il Aproile FOOL Day, cos if yor
loik me 20 nav all abaght it, for ali
vance sent ali this day to stashoner's
shop fort seckand edishan a Cock
Robin. an haupatr O. orookadile quilts;
ah thowt fashure, at when ah asst for
am at chapit shop ad q splittin 'caanter
top wi latin. -
But not only is the first of April day
for diversion in the way of making fools.
1t is q day of charms and superstition as
well, particularly in Wales and some of
England IS northern counties. 1t is a
general belief in these localities that de-
ceit of any kind is liable to be peculiarly
successful upon that day and that
schemers, swindlers, and rogues of all
kinds are then more likely to triumph in
their undertakings than at any other
time. Per contra, to give the good
more even chance, it is believed that
prayer is more than usually efficacious on
April first. The charms for the cure,
upon this day, of the many forms of dis
ease are almost innumerable, and some,
though still practiced in the regions
named above, manifest a superstition
and credulity which one could scarcely
believe to exist in the nineteenth GEN.
fury. There are other charms and not
few diyinations DertainiuQ to the day in
question, which like those of All Hal
lowmas or Hallow Eve are said to enable
those who try them to obtain a glimpse
of their future husband or wife.
GEoFFRY WILLIsToN CHRISTINE.