Norwich bulletin., 1916-03-31
APRIL FOOLS DAY
 COMES ON SATURDAY
Watch Out for Fake Telephone Calls
 and Pepper in Your Dinner.

Saturday is the open season for liars. Anything goes on Saturday so long as it causes embarrassment of one sort or another, and the aim of all real humorists on that day will be to hurt the feelings of somebody else For Saturday is All Fools Day. So get ready for the spots which friends will find upon your back, the tele- phone calls asking you If this is 1916, the cries, look out for the mouse" or Hook out for the spider" the fake tel eSram telling you your mother-in-law has talked herself to death, the mes sage from your boss telling you you are fired. the pepper which you may find in your food. the strange drinks which your friend buys you, the cry Look at the aeroplane," the question, have you heard that peace has been deClared"' or did you know that Nil- la was captured ?'-in short, for all the other new and original things which will be sprung in order that the springer may have the pleasure of leering at you and saying April Fool"
 Nobody knows the origin of All Fools Day, but everybody would like to find out who the originator was in order to get even. There are some who say that the custom started with Noah-the encyclopedia says so-when he sent out the dove, or whatever it was ne sent out on d IODl Other historians who have nothing better to do suggest that the celebra- ton of the day started when the RO- mans invited the Sabines to have a lit tie entertainment with them on one April 1 a number of years ago and then appropriated all the said Sabines' wives with shouts of April Fool" Still others are sure that the custom began in France when :he calendar was rearranged so that New Years Day fell on January l, leaving April without any celebration. As the French were not able to let one day go by without a celebration of some sort to liven things up little-A pop ular idea of the F'rench-they set aside April 1 as a day upon which they might fool other people. Something may happen at Verdun, for instance.
 Practically every people have an All Fools day. Even the Hindu on April 1 asks the next Hindu what that strange thing is in his tuTban, or sticks pin in an automobile tire, or drops a lead nickel in the cup of the fakir who has just returned from journey of 1000 miles during the en- tire course of which he walked on his head, with the two middle fingers of each hand crossed and with his right eye closed every other mile The Scotch celebrate the day by sending ;he kid next door seven miles down the road to borrow a left-handed mon- key wrench and when he arrives back with a sieve in which he has been trying to carry sand call him "gowlx" And there is. as everybody knows, no more insulting word in the entire dictionary as written by the late Noah Webster or by his close friend. a MT. Century. The English also send people on fools errands. such as taking a bicycle trip through the lake country, or visiting the birth place of John Austein. or looking for a real American cocktail-the sort from a receipt obtained from Buenos Ayres.
 There is one good thing about the English All Fools Day. That one thing is enough to comDensate for all the things about 1t which are not good and for the things about the day as celebrated by other nationalities which are not good. Ella wrote about it.
 The celebration of All Fools Day seems to have become permanent custom, after having weathered the vicissitudes of each succeeding year. It will probably be one of those things which are always with us. such as the pacifist or the borrowing friend. or the democrat, or the man who wears gaiters, according to reports. Although nothing definite could he learned the report persisted that Villa had been surrounded and that it was simply a question of hours before his capture would be announced. The war de- partment refused either to deny or to confirm the rumor, but this was not looked upon as conclusive.
 Well, as we remarked before, Sat urday is All Fools Day. And, speak ing about laws, the trout season opens on Saturday.