The custom has been traced back for ages; all through Europe, as far back as the records go. The "Feast of Fools" is mentioned as celebrated by the ancient Romans. In Asia the Hindoos have a festival, ending on the 31st of March, called the "Huli festival," in which they play the same sort of first of April pranks--translated into Hindoo,--laughing at the victim, and making him a "Huli fool." It goes back to Persia, where it is supposed to have had a beginning, in very ancient times, in the celebration of spring, when their New Year begins. How it came to be what we everywhere find it, the wise men cannot agree. The many authorities are so divided, that I see no way but for us to accept the custom as we find it, wherever we may happen to be, and be careful not to abuse it. Some jokes are peculiar to some places. In England, where it is called "All Fools' Day," one favorite joke is to send the greenhorn to a bookseller to buy the "Life and Adventures of Eve's Grandmother," or to a cobbler to buy a few cents' worth of "strap oil,"--strap oil being, in the language of the shoe-making brotherhood, a personal application of the leather. But this custom, with others, common in coarser and rougher times, is fast dying out. Even now it is left almost entirely to playful children. This sentiment, quoted from an English almanac of a hundred years ago, will, I'm sure, meet the approval of "grown-ups" of this century: "But 't is a thing to be disputed, Which is the greatest fool reputed, The one that innocently went, Or he that him designedly sent." =Memorial Day= _May 30_ It is said that the observance of this day grew originally out of the custom of the widows, mothers, and children of the Confederate dead in the South strewing the soldiers' graves with flowers, including the unmarked graves of the Union soldiers. There was no settled date for this in the North until 1868, when General John A. Logan, as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, designated May 30. It is now generally observed, and is a legal holiday in most of the States. =THE BOY IN GRAY= _A Ballad for Memorial Day_ BY MARY BRADLEY Fredericksburg had had her fray, And the armies stood at bay; Back of wall, and top of hill, Union men and men in gray Glowered at each other still. In the space between the two Many a hapless boy in blue Lay face upward to the skies; Many another, just as true, Filled the air with frantic cries. "Love of God!" with pity stirred, Cried a rebel lad who heard. "This is more than I can bear! General, only say the word, They shall have some water there." "What's the use?" his general, Frowning, asked. "A Yankee ball Drops you dead, or worse, half way, Once you go beyond the wall." "May be!" said the boy in gray.