The person to whom the letter is sent at once catches the idea of the person sending it, and informs the carrier with a very grave face that he is unable to grant his friend the favor asked, but if he will take a second note to Mr. So-and-so, he will get what was wanted.  The obliging, yet unsuspecting carrier receives the note, and trudges off to the person designated, only to be treated by him in the same manner; and so he goes from one to another, until some one, taking pity on him, gives him a gentle hint of the trick that has been practiced upon him.  A successful affair of this kind will furnish great amusement to an entire neighborhood for a week at a time, during which time the person who has been victimized can hardly show his face.  The Scotch employ the term “gowk” to express a fool in general, but more especially an April fool; and among them the practice which we have described is called “hunting the gowk.”

Sometimes the First of April has been employed by persons wishing to perpetrate an extensive joke upon society.  Among those which have come to our knowledge the most remarkable one occurred in the city of London in 1860.  Towards the close of March a large number of persons received through the post-office a card upon which the following was printed: 

“TOWER OF LONDON.

ADMIT THE BEARER AND FRIEND

to view the

ANNUAL CEREMONY OF WASHING THE WHITE LIONS,

on

SUNDAY, APRIL 1ST, 1860.

Admitted only at the White Gate.

* * * * *

It is particularly requested that no gratuities be
given to the wardens or their assistants.”

To give the card an official appearance, there was a seal placed at one corner of it, marked by an inverted sixpence.  There were but few persons receiving the cards who saw through the trick, and hence it was highly successful.  As soon as the first streaks of gray were seen in the east, cabs began to rattle about Tower Hill, and continued to do so all that Sunday morning, vainly endeavoring to discover the “White Gate,” the joke being that there was no such gate.

In the United States the greater part of the attention which is paid to April Fools’ Day comes from children.  In cities, especially, it is made much of by the “street Arabs,” who watch every opportunity to play some trick upon every countryman whom they chance to see.  Although we may laugh at jokes which are played upon All-Fools’ Day, yet the greater part of them are unjust and improper, and it would be much better were they left undone.

While speaking of April fools we are reminded of the Wise Fools of Gotham, and are constrained to tell our young readers about them in this connection.  Gotham is a village in Nottinghamshire, in England.  At one time, when King John and his retinue were marching towards the village, the people learned that he intended to pass through Gotham meadow.  Now the ground over which a king passed became forever after a public highway, and should they suffer the king to pass through their meadow the villagers saw that they would lose it.