A SURPRISE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XX, Issue 1429, 15 February 1888, Page 6

A SURPRISE.

Will anyone tell us where the custom came from which makes everybody try to fool everybody on the Ist of April ? Did you ever pass by an old hat on the side-walk without giving it a kick ? We do not believe such a thing ever happened. Well, a wag seized upon this characteristic, out of which to make a little amusement on All Fool's Day. So he produced a boulder, weighing some twenty pounds or more, and laying it upon the sidewalk placed over it an ancient weatherbeaten hat. The first person who passed that was a jolly, rollicking young man, who went along whistling ' Jordan is a hard road to travel,' and as he came opposite the hat, placed so temptingly in his way, he gave it a rousing kick, expecting of course to see it go shivering into the middle of the street. But it didn't move, and the kicker picked up his toes in both hands, hopped about and became emphatic in his language, in a manner that made the perpetrator of the joke dodge round the corner. In a moment afterwards a gentleman came that way with a cricket bat on his shoulder, which he brought down with a swoop against the hat, expecting to see it take a hoist over the Jamp-post on the adjacent coruer. But it didn't. While the cricket bat, as it rang against the stone, flew half way across the street, aud the striker fell to dancing about, blowing his fingers as if they were cold, and using a good many words not to be found in any religious work of the day. We stayed long enough to see a dozen or more assaults perpetrated on that old hat that concealed the boulder, and every time the attacking party got the worst of the bargain.