The Ely miner., 1931-03-20

which "every kind Of absurdity and in
decency was committed" Their term
for April Fool is poisson d'Avril," a
term which means, according TO one
explanation, a young fish and there
fore a fish easily caught. When Ma
poleon married Maria Louisa, Arch
duchess Of Austria, on April I, 1910,
if gave the waggish Parisians an excel
lent chance 10 whisper among them
selves that he was "un poisson d.
Avril." But the classic French April
Fool story is that OF young woman
who stole a gold watch from the house
of one friend and hid il in the house
Of another friend. She then turned
the case over TO the police. But they
were sadly lacking in the imagination
necessary TO appreciate this joke. She
was arrested for the theft and the
Judge, entering into the spirit OF the
occasion, sentenced her 10 Jail for a
year with the remark that she be dis
charged on April 1 the next year as
"un poisson d'Avril!" Another French
classic is the escape on April 1, 100,
from prison by the duke of Lorraine
and his wife. who shouted back TO
their guards the French equivalent OF
April Fool!"
April Fooling has been prevalent in
Great Britain for centuries. There it
mostly took the form of sending inno-
cents upon Sleeveless errands" A
boy might be sent to the cobbler's for
"a pennyworth of his'best stirrup oil''
and then be mighty amazed when the
angry shoemaker applied this "oil" to
his back. Or he might be dispatched
to the milk-vendor for half a pint of
pigeons milk" to the booksellers for
The Life and Adventures Of Ewes
Mother" to the butcher shop for a
"meat auger" or to the bakery for "a
pie-stretcher."
In northern England and Scotland
this practice was called Hunting the
Gowk." An old couplet says:
"On the first day Of Aprile
Hunt the Gowk another mile"
The word ''gowk" in reality means q
cuckoo and was used metaphorically
origin Of the modern slang phrase:
ITO knock a man cuckoo" There are
plenty of connecting threads among
all these words, "Gauch" in Teutonic
is a fool, whence we get our word
gawky, and "geac" in old Saxon was a
cuckoo, whence is derived "geck,"
meaning one easily imposed upon. Re
member the words Of Malvolio to
Olivia:
Why have you suffered me to be inprison'd
And made the most notorious geek and
gull
That e'er invention played onf
Although April Fools day appears
to have ceased to challenge literary
wits, there was a time in England
when 1t brought forth observations
from such scholars as Joseph Addi-
son and that prolific and satiric writer
Jonathan Swift. Swift seems to have
entered into the spirit of the day and
to have enjoyed the liberties granted
TO the practical joker on April first.
He writes to Stella under date of
March 81, 1713, about jolly evening
spent with two good friends 'in con-
triving lie for the morrow"
There is reason to believe that the
April Fools joke Of Swift and his
friends miscarried, but the fun of
planning it afforded them apparently
an evenings merriment The more
dignifed Addison appears to have re-
sented the practice Of making fools of
people and writes in the Spectator
that:
But this little triumph Of under
standing is nowhere more visible than
in that custom which prevails every
where among Us on the first day of
takes it in his head to make as many
fools as he can. In proportion as there
are more follies discovered, so there
is more laughter raised on this day
than on any other in the whole year.
A neighbor of mine, who is a haber-
dasher by trade and a very shallow,
conceited fellow, makes his boasts that
for these ten years successfully he has
not made less than hundred fools.
My landlady had a falling out with
him about a fortnight ago for sending
every one of her children upon some
sleeveless errand, as she calls il. Her
eldest son went to buy a halfpenny
worth Of incle at shoemaker's; the
eldest daughter was dispatched half
mile to see monster, and, in short,
the whole family of innocent children
made April fools. Nay. my landlady
herself did not escape him.
One of the commoneSt forms Of April
Fool jokes during past years in this
country was the practice by newspa-
pers es printing on April / some excit-
ing s.gy of an event which never hap
penes md not revealing the fact until