The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 1, 1900, Page 4

THE SUNDAY CALL. - ' > » THEY WERE ¥ [IDED To HIM BY HEARING THE CHANTING In £ access to s of itself an m that spent service, and to make the country belleve that Oom Paul » was In danger from the Johannesburg conspirators. After passing the sentr: we knocked at the of the Kruger mansfon— which r ., was of about the s a farm out- bui We knocked a sec- was no an- swer! ) i the door open, and we ch traversed the whe led to a big yard beyond. We knocked ag: No answer! We went out into the A negro g lding, ard and shouted rl poked her head withdrew 1t dently Mrs, tked t a parlor-malds. 1d to Jooste that I presumed the family were not at home; but Jooste scouted the idea. Just then I heard, in one of the neighboring apartments, a —no answer! out of but OF HYMNS IN THE DISTANCE” a the o cage at when food growling, d after- rs were not of State; on Oom Paul's ropped in for a coffee r to admit making me feel thor- d, stold, senevolent suffocating away, who to make that tk 1 was quite customary in believe his part of the world. There was, how- ever, nothing in the least malevolent in these fifty-one stares; It was morbid fancy only which made it seem that blank star- ing fell short of the real thing in cour- tesy. 1 was treated quite as well as the customs of the place demanded. I was at the Boer court, and was experiencing eti- quette a la Kruger. Yet now I recall that ordeal with some- thing of a shudder. I have met a great may kings in my day—black kings, white kings. and yellow ones. Monarchs of many kinds have I bowed to—millionaires, po- litical bosses, war lords and other mighty mortals. But I confess cheerfully that no king, kaiser or Congressman ever made me feel so completely the nothingness of my worthless self us did old Paul Kruger over his pipe and bowl amidst his fifty cowboy cronles. He commanded my dread and admiration; he almost made me By Poulin Author of “White ey Bigslow, Man's Africa,’”” Ete. (Copyright) say the first word he opened conversation by a grunt as of a bull in distress, and a few words that might have been intended to place me at my ease, or might have been meant as a curse. The badinage of the forecastle 18 not that of the salon, and I have heard men In the far West embrace in the most affectionate manner while polsoning the alr with blasphemous ex- B R i T MR_JOOSTE PUSHED OPEN THE respect the cause he represented. The venerable cattle king gazed at me for so long that the silence became pain- tul. I heard nothing but the sucking of pipe stems, and the occasional thud of a heavy, moist globule on the floor. When the President perceived that I had entered the room with the determination not to pletives. The point of view has much to do with the relative force of greetings. Thus Paul Kruger can overwhelm a visitor with what we should regard as rudeness, vet on the day following show by his actions that in his heart was only good will, When Dr. Leyds learned that I had seen (Copyright and all rights reserved.) ‘“The first of April some do say, Was set apart for All Fools' Day; But why the people call it so, Nor I nor they themselizs do know."” Thus an old English poet sings truly, for it would be a hard matter to find any one who can give an urate and correct account of how the Ist of April came to be known as All Fools' day and of the ori- gin of the custom pertaining to it of then trying to make fools of people generally in every concelvable manner. In old books of folklore al- most innumerable statements are made concerning the or- igin of - both name and custom, all dif- fering as widely as the poles and bear- ing mot the slightest relation to each other. A learned antiquary, writing in 1599, claims that our April Fools' day is but a continuation of the Quirinalla, or feast of fools, of the ancient Romans. In "he Britieh Apollo,”” a most Ingenious work in 1708, T find the following: : Coneerning tbe Origio of l:l)e‘ Namqaljd “Whence proceeds the custom of making April fools? Answer: From a memorable transaction happening between the Romans and the Sabines, mentioned by Dionysius, Which was thus: The Romans, about the infancy of their city, wanting wives, and finding they could not obtain the neighboring women by their peaceable addresses, resolved to make use of strata- gem, and accordingly Romulus instituted certain games to be performed in the be- ginning of April (according to the Roman calendar) in honor of Neptune. Upon no- tice thereof the bordering Inhabitants, with their whole families, flocked to Rome to see this mighty celebration, whereupon the Romans seized a number of the Sabine virgins and ravished them, which imposi- tion, we suppose, may be the foundation of this foolish custom.” This most absurd and wholly unjustifiable account of the origin of making April fools is thus ridi- culed by a poet of the time: Ye witty sparks who make pretense To answer questions with good nse, How comes it that your monthly Phoebus 1s made a fool by Dionysius? For had the Sabines, as they came, Departed with their. virgin fame, The Romans had been styled duil tools, And they, poor girls, been April Fools, ‘Therefore, if this be’'n't out of season, Pray think and give a better reason. Some old folk-writers claim that our April Fool customs are attributable to the fact that the year formerly began, as to some purposes and in some respects, on the 25th of March, which was supposed to be the day of Our Lord's incarnation. At that time It was customary for all festivals to continue for an octave. or « the President he promptly recovered from his severe illness, and for the rest of my visit showed me civility. He told me many an Interesting ancedote about Kruger, and Kruger, in turn, spun many a yarn about his early days. We are apt to think plous people necessarily hypocrites, and T found many English at the Cape speak contemptugusly of Oom Paul as a theological humbug. He did not make that Impression on me at all. On the contrary, I believe that his at | uence among those w him lies not merely in that he belongs to a particular branch of the Protestant church, but that he is thoroughly honest in his practices. Of course, rumors are rife that he is corrupt, that he has put away vest sums, that his religion is mere- 1y & cloak for wickedness. That may all be true: but I, for one. have no evidence to support that view, and I find that such stories emanate usually trom a class of people whose trade it i3 to rely mainly upon money for their influence. 1 do not belleve Kruger is corrupt—I do not believe that all American Congressmen are cor- rupt—I prefer to be an optimist. On Sunday morning I saw the Presi- dent, quite alone, walking toward a very shabby church near his home. He wore a black cylinder on his head. It was that kind of hat which appears with us mainly on the negro minstrel stage. His frock coat had the hinder buttons ncar the middle of his back n.m; th;‘ bD";)ms trousers were considerably above Bl ‘anxlen “The Whole outt suggested a caricature of the “stage’ farmer oaving RSONAL IMPRESSIONS AND REMINISCENCES OF OOrM PAUL KRUGER. dana handkerchief. entered the same ¢ course, that I shoul the mere fact that the Pr there. I was judging by wt have looked for in Washix don. The littls Pretorta have held more than & h vet I counted but twenty jon, and of these the mothers with babes In their arms. . President took his seat in an arme? which had been specially provided him beneath the pulpft was the only distinction he enjoyed over the rest of his fellow worsk The service was very stmple—about tha sort of t I shou!d have fou most Metho or Congregation Out of curfosity I urch, anticipat: find 1t ¢ ing-houses in an American village was a long prayer, a long sermon. a h or two, s chapter from the Book PR STERNE L R TO A CLOUD OF SMOKE, his first visit to the metropolin. But that, after all, was a mere detall. Lincoln was also ungainly, if not ugl man, whom we love dearly for his very eccentricities of dress and feature. The Transvaal Pre on this occasion, carried a hymn book of portentous size in one hand, and In the other a red ban- period octave of of eight days. April1 is the March 2%, and the last day of a festival octave was always marke by the greatest abandon and festivit At the New Year especially all sorts of wild, mirthful pranks were in- dulged In, and of these it is believed that our April fool usages were a pa Origins of a religlous nature have been boldly claimed for April Fools' day by many writers. An old English antiquary, writing in 1783, states that the custom of imposing upon and ridiculing people on the Ist of April may have : lusion to the mockery of the Savior of the world by the Jews. Something like that which we call making April fools is practiced also abroad in Catholic countries on In- nocents’ day, on which occasion people run through all the rooms, making a pre- tended search in and under the beds, in memory, 1 believe, of the search made by Herod for the discovery and the destruc- tion of the child Jesus and of his having been imposed upon and deceived by the wise men, who, contrary to his orders and expectation, “returned to their own country another way." When the early Britons were induced to forsake their Druidical priests and idols and to embrace Christianity, it was their custom for many years after to annually hold In their churches at the commence- ment of April a great festival, resem- bling the Roman Saturnalla, at which they indulged in a thousand ridiculous and indecent ceremonles, gambols and dancing grotesquely to ludicrous anthems. These singular observances referred to the exploded pretensions of the Drulds, whom this festival was designed to hold up to scorn and derision. That there is no more effective weapon than ridicule was again proved In this case, for this feast of fools in London 1 Humerou Origin of the Custom of Making on the First of April is is sa to have begun from *ye mistake of Noah sending ye dove out before ye water had abated, on ye first day of ye month w among ye Hebrews answers to our first of April, and to perpetrate ye memory of this dellverance it was thought proper whoever forgot so remarkable a um- stance to punish them by ndin them upon some fool's errand similar to the ineffectual message upon which ye bird was sent by ye patriarch.” The French associate with the first of April precisely the same jdeas as do Eng lish speaking nations, but the posed upon, whom we call an they style an April Fish or P person iri- ril. In the “Etymology of nch “ro- verbs,” a most curious and deligatful work published in 1356, Billington, ' the author, gives the following explaifition of the origin of April Fool customs . “The word poisson is corrupted thro:§h the ignorance of the people from pas-0n. and length of time has almost totall- defaced the original intention, which w4 as fol- lows: That as the Passion of ot Saviour took place about this time o the year, and as the Jews sent Chris backward and forward to mock and wrment him, i. e., from Annas to Calaphs% from Caia- phas to Pilate, from Pilate t> Herod and from Herod back to Pilate, this ridiculous or rather impious custom took its rise irom thence, by which We send about from one place to anot\er such persons nslwe think proper sutjects of our ridi- cule.” But it 1s not only thrighout Great Brit- ain, France and our OWn country that fools are made on ti¢ first day of April. PRESIDENT QUITE ALONE WALKING, TOWARD A SHABRY CHURCH HEAR #1S HOME The babtes a1 Books, and a benediction to do when what bables are t of the peopls ed upon for some ts dedt d when a had the 3 mien. heels tog: Kruger What hanpened after t become nccessible to influences were s new skin. various ways then t r. Whic Kknow no me years aft voung Kruger be- e subject to melancholla and retired to the wilderness wit g any cna, not even his wife, kr of his where- abouts. He was several days absent and then neighbors we 1ided to him by hes snee of him a day's d been observad rmany an € in dis at the expers® the ciftom has been traced back t the vernal as Ma<h elaborgte sti the ufter the chi fox precisely as we mate them on April Fools' day a of poems bearing tl reral Occasion: on, 1782, April Fools” throne exalts: 1 laughs because she meets Tom and says his tall e In Eng ridicule of an April from earliest ds upon w 1 joke ‘s times, h the v called * errands,” but the and true e of this term complete! n and no an- tiqu: to earth merous as them. Thes ! me of them have they are inge almost become classi: as sending a person the second edit the “History of E some one to a milk pigeon’s milk and to, a s ounce of strap oil, which, shoe= maker has been Initlated Into the joke, the inquirer receives in the shape of a severe blow from a strap across the sho ders. AMY F. STOCKTON PR ST Land in England is 300 times as valuable now as it was 200 years ago.