1895 



rilK AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



167 



■wnicn ine aaviour iiiacie ms entry into 

 Jerusalpiii. Processions of fools accom- 

 panied the central figure, and whenever 

 the aninial brayed they imitated it. As 

 similar tricks are played at the Hull 

 festival, there must be another solution 

 of its origin. It is claimed by other his- 

 torians that the observance of the day 

 dates from 1 564, when New Year's day 

 •was changed to Jan. 1, leaving the 1st 

 of April, which had been the date of 

 the new year, without service, and it 

 became a burlesque anniversary. 



An old legend tells a pretty story of 

 the disappearance of an eastern prince 

 on this day. His subjects mourned him 

 sincerely, and every year on the day of 

 his mysterious disappearance sent out 

 the children of the kiugdcmi to search 

 for him, and they turned the day into 

 one of merrymaking. 



The story got abroad and reached Japan. 

 From thence by story tellers it was hurled 

 Into the islands of the western world, 

 And so the legend of two thousand years 

 The cause of April All Fools' day appears. 



In Scotland the April fool is called a 

 gowk, and in France an April fish. In 

 England the day is always observed as 

 an opportunity for getting off practical 

 jokes on the public. On the 1st of April, 

 1860, a complimentary card was sent 

 out generally inviting people to an en- 

 tertainment at the Tower of London. 

 These cards read: 



• Admit the bearer to view the washing of : 

 : The White Lions ; 



: On the 1st of April at 12 precisely. : 



: Admitted only at the White Gate. : 



All London was in an uproar. Cabs 

 rattled about all the forenoon. April 1 

 came that year on Sunday, and the trick 

 was the most successful and the least 

 harmful of any hoax ever perpetrated on 

 so large a scale. Many went away satis- 

 fied that the show was genuine, bat that 

 they had missed it by not finding the 

 white gate. 



The Scotch gowk is a rather interest- 

 ing feature of the day in that country. 

 The gowk is a boy or rustic who is sent 

 on an impossible errand and bade to 

 run all the way. If he is bright, he will 

 discover the joke and pass it on to an- 

 other, until half a dozen have been en- 

 listed in "hunting the gowk. " A rhyme 

 of the occasion is this: 



Kin for your mither, boy, rin, rin, rin. 

 The eggs are read}', but she^^hasn't a bin, 



Aiiu ir you wail) iiii one eggs grow cooi 

 Then all j'our life you'll be April fool. 



The best joke of all is when a man 

 refuses to believe the truth on that day. 

 A Londoner was told that his house was 

 on fire, but he recalled the fact that it 

 was All Fools' day. 



"Oh, yes," he answered, "lean see it 

 burn!" and the house had really burned 

 to the ground before he could be made 

 to believe it was not a joke. 



A boy who was playing truant on the 

 1st of April was warned by his chuma 

 that his father was coming. 



"Aw, come off," he said; "you can't 

 fool me on no 1st of April!" 



But when he felt his father's hand on 

 his coat collar and received the weight 

 of a hickory stick on his shoulders he 

 w^ondered who was the April fool. 



Fool confectionery is one of the mod- 

 ern attempts at a joke. Cake stuffed 

 with cotton batting is baked with an in- 

 viting exterior and sent to friends. Can- 

 dies dosed with red pepper, sugar mixed 

 with salt, caramels made with liberal 

 quantities of snuff and similar jokes are 

 worked off on the unsuspicious. 



Every kind of trick is resorted to by 

 the grocer on that day to get even with 

 the unprofitable customer who tastes 

 from every box and barrel in the store. 

 Salt is mixed with molasses to make it 

 resemble brown sugar, raisins are sprin- 

 kled with kerosene, figs filled with red 

 pepper and imitation crackers substitut- 

 ed for the genuine. Loaded cigars are 

 left conspicuously handy, and chewing 

 tobacco is generously doctored with qui- 

 nine. These and a hundred other 

 schemes of lolly carry out the design of 

 the day. — Detroit Free Press. 



THE EXPREoblVE HUMAN HAND. 



Strength of the Fingers Is au Index to 

 Blental Balance. 



Much has been written about the 

 band. Artists have depicted its perfec- 

 tion, piiyrfioguouiists have interpreted 

 .its shape and expression, chirologi=ts 

 and tho gyp.>y queens have tried to 

 prophesy from its markings. But a 

 study of its peculiarities by the induc- 

 tive method takes one into entirely new 

 fields and shows that to interpret tho 

 Biguificance of the hand one must start 

 on quite new lines. There is somethin;; 

 perhaps in the fact that the artistio 

 hand has somewhat taperina fintrexs. 



