_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.
[Illustration: DROWNING THE EEL.]
This they resolved not to do, and therefore devised a plan which caused
the king to pass another way. When the king learned what had been done
he was very angry, and at once sent messengers to inquire why they had
been so rude, intending, no doubt, to punish them for what they had
done. When the Gothamites learned of the approach of the messengers they
were as anxious to escape punishment as they had been to save their
meadow. They immediately came together and agreed upon a plan by which
to save themselves. They at once set about carrying their plans into
effect, and when the king's messengers arrived they found some of the
inhabitants endeavoring to drown an eel in a pond; some dragging their
carts and wagons to the top of a barn to shade the wood from the sun's
rays; some tumbling cheeses down a hill in the expectation that they
would find their way to Nottingham Market, and some were employed in
hedging in a cuckoo which had perched upon an old bush. Seeing men
engaged in such employments as these the king's servants were convinced
that the villagers were all fools, and quite unworthy the king's notice.
The villagers, however, seeing that they had outwitted the king,
considered themselves wise. To the present day a "cuckoo bush" stands
upon the spot where it is said that the inhabitants of Gotham endeavored
to hedge in the bird.
There is another class of Fools which deserve mention. These are called
Court Fools or Jesters. Until within a comparatively short time ago,
every king had his Jester, whose duty it was to furnish mirth and
merriment for the royal household. The real Court Fool was in reality a
fool by birth, while a Jester was a _pretended_ fool. The former was
dressed in "a parti-colored dress, including a cowl, which ended in a
cock's-head, and was winged with a couple of long ears; he, moreover,
carried in his hand a stick called his bauble, terminating either in an
inflated bladder or some other ludicrous object, to be employed in
slapping inadvertent neighbors."
[Illustration: SAVING THE SHINGLES.]
On the other hand, the Jester selected his clothes not only with a view
to their grotesqueness but also with an eye to their richness. While the
real fool "haunted the kitchen and scullery, messing almost with the
dogs, and liable, when malapert, to a whipping," the pretended fool was
comparatively a companion to the sovereign who engaged his services.
Berdic, the Jester of the Court of William the Conqueror, for instance,
was considered of so great importance that three towns and five
carucates were conferred upon him.
[Illustration]