Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-05-08
ALL FO0l4S' FAY FUN.
SOME OF THE CUSTOMS OF THE
 MERRY ANNIVERSARY.

Stories Alleging the Origin of tho Day.
 Napoleon Married on the Ist of April.
 The Scotch Have Great Times With tho Gawk-The Grocer Evens Up.
 "The compliments of the season to my worthy masters and q merry Ist of April to us all, " wrote the genial and gentle Charles Lamb.
 He further goes on to say: "I will confess truth-I love n fool us natural ly as if he were kith and kin to me, and, take my word for it and say fool told you, that he who has not dram of folly in his mixture hath pounds of much worse matter in his composition.
 Very few men arc willing to embark in new enterprise on April I, and marriages arc rarely sOlcmnizcd on that day. Ono that has n historical record is that of Napoleon I with Maria Louise, which cannot be said to have furnished an example calculated to bring tho day into favor. The French people attached much significance to the choice of that day hy Napoleon. Liko all Frenchmen, tho cmper,.r was susceptible to ridicule, and it is hard to understand how he gave the Parisians an opportunity tc de- ride his marriage day, which they did most effec:ually, theme which was inn portant at that time to both NapnieOn and his dynasty and called attention to his daring revokal of tho laws in his second marriage,
 Shakespeare, who, like Lamb, loved a fool, does not one, alIudo to tho GUS tom of keeping April l as All Fools day. Indeed ho only moutiOns April 1 onCo in his plays, and that iS in counec- tiun with tragic incident when King John is informed:
 "Tho lst ot April died your noble mother"
 That the custom was iI voguo at that tinlc in France IS established. but there is no absolute certainty of the time when it was introduced into England.
 Some pretend to date tine custom back to the Feast of Fools, kind of satur- nalia popular i'll the middle ages. It's chief object was to honor the ass, on which tho Saviour made his entry into Jerusalem. ProcesSions of fools accom- panied the central figure, and whenever the animal prayed they initiated it. As similar tricks arc played at the Hull festival, thero must be another solution of its origin. It is claimed by other his torians that the observance of the day dates from l564, when New Years day was changed to Jan. 1, leaving tho lst of April, which had boen the date of tho new year. without service, and it became burlosQuo anniversary.
 An old legend tells pretty story of tho disappearance of an eastern prince on this day. His subjects mourned him sincerely, and every year on tho day of his mysterious disappearance sent out tho children of the kingdom to search for him, and they turned tho day into ono of merrymaking.
 The story got abroad and reached Japan. From thence by story tCllCrS it was hurled
 Into tho islands of tho western world,
 And so the legend of two thousand years
 The cause of April All Fools day appears.
 In Scotland tho April fool is called a gowk, and in France an April fish. In England tho day is always observed as an opportunity for getting off practical jokes on the public. On tho list of April, 1860, a complimentary card was sent out generally inviting people to an en- tertainment at tho Tower of London. These cards read: