escape.  She therefore hastened to one of the guards and told him of the escape of the prisoners.  But the soldier only regarded it as an attempt to play a joke upon him, and at once cried out “April Fool!” to let the woman know that he had not forgotten what day it was.  Hearing the soldier call out this, the rest of the guard, led by their sergeant, shouted “April Fool!” until the woman was forced to retire without being able to accomplish her errand.  When at last it was learned that she had told them the truth, it was too late, the Duke and his wife having made good their escape.

In France, the person who is April-fooled is called poisson d’Avril.  Upon a certain occasion a French lady stole a watch from a friend on the First of April.  The theft having been discovered, and the lady accused of having taken the watch, she endeavored to pass off the affair as un poisson d’Avril.

Having denied that the watch was in her possession, her rooms were searched, and the missing article found upon a chimney-piece.  When shown the watch the thief coolly replied:  “Yes; I think I have made the messenger a fine poisson d’Avril.”

However, the magistrate ordered that she be confined in prison until the First of April following, “comme un poisson d’ Avril.”

[Illustration]

In England, the custom of April-fooling is practiced very much as it is in the United States.  “A knowing boy will despatch a younger brother to see a public statue descend from its pedestal at a particular appointed hour.  A crew of giggling servant-maids will get hold of some simple swain, and send him to a bookseller’s shop for the ’History of Eve’s Grandmother,’ or to a chemist’s for a pennyworth of ‘pigeon’s milk,’ or to the cobbler’s for a little ‘strap-oil,’ in which last case the messenger secures a hearty application of the strap to his shoulders, and is sent home in a state of bewilderment as to what the affair means.  The urchins in the street make a sport of calling to some passing beau to look to his coat-skirts; when he either finds them with a piece of paper pinned to them or not; in either of which cases he is saluted as an ‘April-fool!’”

[Illustration:  FIRST OF APRIL DANGER.]

It has been said that “what compound is to simple addition, so is Scotch to English April-fooling.”  The people living in Scotland are not content with making a neighbor believe some single piece of absurdity, but practice jokes upon him ad infinitum.  Having found some unsuspecting person, the individual playing the joke sends him away with a letter to some friend residing two or three miles off, for the professed purpose of asking for some useful information, or requesting a loan of some article, while in reality the letter contains only the words: 

    “This is the first day of April,
    Hunt the gowk another mile.”