The New Era Fools Kentuckians

April Fool.

When in the course of time a day comes to hand that is observed by the public on account of some special event it is the policy of the NEW ERA to have some matter appropriate for the occasion, and so, as Thursday was the day that for centuries has been observed as “All Fool’s Day,” we had a number of fake news items in regard to various improvements about the city. Many of our readers, when they saw the items, remembered that it was the first day of April and with a laugh and a wish that the improvements spoken of were really going to be made, passed the matter by, but others swallowed the whole batch of items. Among the latter was Mr. Jesse L. Edmundson, of the Hopkinsville Independent, who came out in that paper reproducing the items, and saying that Messrs. Gotrox & Push would begin work on the street railway early in the summer, and also speaking of the new four-story building to be erected in front of the police office, and of the improvements to be made in the opera house. Mr. Edmundson forgot that it was April 1st.

Kentucky New Era – Apr 3, 1896

This was really a pretty good April Fool’s joke played by the newspaper. Below are the “news articles” that were published in the April 1st edition of the paper, which were referenced above. At first I thought placing the fake articles directly above an obituary was in really poor taste, but then I realized the obituary was also part of the joke!

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Searching Ancestry.com for a Fogy Mossback turned up nothing, so I googled it and came up with the following definition:

From Webster's Dictionary 1993

Too funny!

Tags: 1896, April Fools Joke, Daily Kentucky New Era, Holidays, Humor, Kentucky