The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-03-31
ALL FOOLS DAY.
Tomorrow Will Bring Around the
Ever Recurrent Jokes.
Origin OF the Custom--Authoritie Refer
II 10 Noah's Ark.

The revolving year nas DrouBnt US ioois
OF mortals around TO the date when, for
"a hours. we are. by traditional usage.
licensed 10 increase the normal amount
of folly at the expense OF our neighbors.
Wednesday will tie All FOOLS Day Ii will
doubtless be celebrated with all the ami
able imbeeilities that were familiar to
our ancestors. Many OF paterfamilias
on rising in the morning Will find that
the legs of their trousers have feen turned
into a mare clausnm by the cunning ad-
justment OF prohihitory pins. At the
breakfast table he will beshailed with the
information that there is "something on
your face, papal" and after Intellectual
efforts to wipe 1t of will be told with
wild snrieks of juvenile laughter that
that something Is his nose, with the
further information that he is an April
fool for his trouble.
Being a kindly man and good father
he will not explain TO his progeny that
the uproarious Jest Is one which he him.
self had practised In the days of his nom
age upon his equally complacent parent.
What was the origin OF All FOOLS Day?
No one can say positively.
FEW aUEssEs.
The most daring hypothesis, however.
have been suggested. One speculator
gravely goes back to Noah and the Ark.
The April fool custom, says the London
Public Advertiser Of March 13, 1863, arose
'sfrom the mistake OF Noah sending the
dove out of the ark before the water had
abated. on the first day OF the month
among the Hebrews which answers to our
first OF April, and to perpetuate the
memory of this deliverance II was thought
proper, whoever forgot so remarka bic a
circumstance, to punish him by send
ing him upon some sleeveless errand
similar to that Intellectual message upon
which the bird was sent by the pa
triarch."
Another refers it to the time OF Christ,
arguing that as the Passion of our Saw
iour took place about this time OF the
year, and as the Jews sent Christ back
ward and forward TO mock and torment
HIM. e., from Annas to Caiaphas, frcm
Caiaphas to PLATE, form PLATE to Herod
and from Herod back again to PLATE,
this 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 objects OF our
ridicule.
1t Is pointed out that the incidents Of
the Passion happened about this time OF
the year. Further confirmation Is sought
i'm the French name for an April fool
"poissou d'Avril," on the theory that
this poisson is corruption OF "passion. !"
such an explanation would be unpleas-
ant enough, but luckily il has not leg
far older and far younger than the time
OF Christ-older II looked upon as day
set apart for merriment ut the expense OF
ones neighbor; younger IL the merriment
be especially associated with the first Of
April. As to the term "poisson d'Avril," /"
1t means exactly what 1t says, an "April
fish, ~. meaning a young fish, and there
fore fish easily caught, much as in En-
glish we use the words "gudgeon" and
"sucker."
A PROBABLE ORIGIN.
The most plausible conjecture is that
which ascribes the origin of the custom
to France. fhis nation took the lead over
all Christendom in commencing the New
Year on January 4, instead OF March 20.
Before the change was maze the merry
making eliminated on the octave OF the
feast, April ], when visits were paid and
gifts bestowed. With the adoption of the
Reformed Calendar in 1864, New Years
Day was carried back to Jan. /, and
only.pretended gifts and.mock. ceremonial
visits were made. ION April 1, with view
OF making fools of all those who had for
gotten the change Of date. The custom
once started was Kept up after its origin
had been forgotten.
Its continuance was helped on by the
fact that 1t appeals to an integral part of
human nature which has asserted itself
at all times and in all countries.
In character, though not in point of
time, All FOOLS Day corresponds with
the Roman Saturnalia, when Caius and
Manlius and the rest of the us's bent
their classic wits to the task OF fooling
one the other, and with the mediaeval
Feast OF Fools, when the pre- Renaissance
intellect battened In all sorts OF absurdi-
ties. But the nearest and most startling
analogy, not only In kind. but almost in
actual date, was and is the Feast OF Hull,
in Hindoostan. The last day of this feast
is March 81, when the chief diversion is
to send people on errands and expeditions
that are to end in disappointment for the
sendee and merriment for the sender and
his friends. "They carry the joke SO
far, says Colonel Pearce, In his Asiatic
Researches, 'as TO send letters making
appointments In the names OF persons IL
is known must be absent from their
houses on the time fixed upon, and the
laugh. Is always In proportion to the
trouble given"
QUIPs AND cRANKs
What are known as "sleeveless errands"
have. always been q special favorite on
this day In England. Endless is the ioy
IL rustic can be found so simple as to
apply at the village bookstore for Ellis
tory of Ewes Grandmother, at the groc-
ers for pint OF pigeons milk, at the cob
bler's for strap oil. The latter was n
prime favorite. The cobbler, IL he were
up TO the game, would promptly give the
innocent customer the strap with mo oil
to moisten It. II Is curious to find that
all these jests were practised over a
century and half ago. So early as 1928
we find them thus recorded In Poor
Robins Almanac
No sooner doth st. All.fools' morn approach
but Wages, o'er Phebus mount his gilded
coach,
In sholes assemble 20 employ their sense,
In sending fools 10 get intelligence:
One seeks hens teeth, in farthest part OF tn
town:
Another pigeons milk third n gown
From strolling oobler's stall, left there by
chance.
Thus lead the giddy tribo merry dance.
And 10 reward them for their harmless toll,
The cobler noints their limbs with stirrup