Norwich bulletin., 1912-04-02
SHOP TALK AT
 CRESCENT FIRE ARMS co.
Rev H. ]. Wyckoff Upon the Lesson oi
 April Fools Day.


 In the shop talk at noon Monday at the Crescent Fire Arms Co.,, which is to be the next to the last in the series, Rev II. J. Wyckoff of the Second Con- gregational church spoke uppn the topic April Fools" Violin solOs by Raymond E. Eldred were finely ren- dered.
 Speaking Of April Fool jokes. Rev. Mir Wyckoff said that if all life's delo- sions were confined to this one day, we could well afford to be fooled many times April 1st, and have it all over with in 24 hours. But it must be con- fessed that it is a rare day in one year that we are not taken unawares by some trick, or caught in our own folly | or befooled by our impetuosity.
 P. T. Barnum, in justification of his l famous painted white elephant. de- clared that the American people love to be fooled. There is an uncomfort- able amount of truth in that witty | chara cterization of the nations great weakness. All games of chance are rul. on this line of least resistance. II these were rightly named they would be known as games of mo chance; ] for under the bait of something for | nothing the odds are set square
  : allowed to win as a lure to his final ! ruin. The free lunch of the saloon | catches another type of fool who will not see that the food on which nc | price is set is specially seasoned to in- | duce thirst and the spending of more money for drink to quench it. yhe demagogue plays on the passions ana ] prejudices of his hearers, deludine ! them to his own personal or party profit at the public expense. The po- ] litical boss dupes the folk who are too preoccupied with private interests to realize what is going on in public at- 1 fairs.
 It certainly hurts to be tricked oI rather to discover that one has been 1 tricked; but it hurts far worse to be- come the victim of ones own folly ! Those wounds heal ill which men dc 1 give themselves"
 There are few deeds of evil deliber- ! ately plotted for which later men are more ashamed than for those which were the outcome of some impulse which temporarily usurped the throne . of common sense.
 The measure of our folly is the se- l riOusness of the consequences of oul slip. The jokes of All Fools day rare , ly do more than hurt our pride. cl perhaps the greedy hand or aggressiv, foot Gambling and drinking trai larger consequences: for these empty the pocket and make a vacuum of thu mind; losses serious enough to put th'
 brake on such folly, for while 1t Il ' human to err it is 8 mere quibblini
 with words to deny that any man wh' { continues the victim of such bare faced trickery IS rightly designated fool. But he is not the supreme fool
 The man who is entitled to this ap pellation, spelled with a capital r. II he who says ill his heart that there 1' 1 no God: that the appeal Of his owl ! conscience in behalf Of the things tha
 are true and clean and holy is only
 hallucination; that the consequence
 of evil living and Of right living ar
 alike This fool is tricked by a poo
 judgment on passing circumstance int
 the silly skepticism that is everywher
 refuted by the facts of life. he is sell
 deludel by the braze substitution O | physical existence for actual !ifo be |
 betrayed by the lure of his own i1st'
 Abraham Lincoln said. You cal fool all the people some Of t1e time
 and some Of the people all the tim,
 but vou cannot fool all the people a
 the time" Isn't it about time th0t "
 men began 10 live ID to that optimis
 tic declaration of indeDenden"e2 Ie us get at least this much good out Q
 the whimsical nonsense of All Fool'
 dav that we shall resolve to lear
 wisdom of experience; to keep our eve
 open every day, and 10 live by reaso
 rather than by impulse.