Perhaps one of the Juniors has a printing-press; if so, this is a good chance to use it.

Print hand bills asking “all the wise people” in town to come to your entertainment to be given the evening of April 1, naming the hall and the price of admission.

Tickets should be distributed when asked for; as the hand-bills should announce, the tickets of admission are to be at a certain price, payable at the door as you go out, after the entertainment is over. This plan is in keeping with the rest of the evening, and is also partly to reassure any who suspect that an April First entertainment might be so complete a hoax as not to take place at all.

Have a poster at the entrance of the hall, warning every one, “Who enters here must leave all sense behind.”

The decorations are truly unique. Rugs, strips of carpets, and an occasional chair ornament the walls, while pictures and posters are hung up on the floor. A curtain might be gracefully draped along the floor of the platform. Everything, as far as possible, is in the place usually assigned to something else.

Programmes printed all sides up with care, and as unexpected in typographical arrangement as the furnishings, should be handed around. The announcement at the top of the page should be in small type, the rest in larger size; the margin should vary in width from line to line, each paragraph beginning at the edge of the sheet; and every sentence must begin with a period and end with a capital. The Juniors, with a little suggestion now and then, will find this part of the work great fun, and will learn some things regarding correct rules of printing in the very effort to break them.

The first thing on the programme is, of course, the good-night speech, thanking the audience for their kind attention and generous applause, and inviting them, before leaving, to partake of refreshments. The menus that are then passed may contain all sorts of possible and impossible dishes, but the refreshments themselves must be always something widely different from what was ordered. For instance, if one orders quail on toast, coffee, and layer cake, he is likely to get a cheese sandwich, a pickle, and a glass of water, with the grave assurance that these dishes were exactly the ones that he ordered.

After the refreshments the programme is rendered. “A recitation by little Edith Jones” proves to be some time-honored selection like “Mary had a little lamb,” or “You’d scarce expect one of my age,” recited in a childish lisp and high key, by the largest, tallest boy in the society; in fact, one of the seniors may have to be called upon for this honor, as he should be, if possible, more than six feet tall. “A patriotic address by General Wynhart” should be, on the contrary, a particularly captivating dialogue or duet by two pretty little girls, or a motion song by several tiny tots. “A violin solo by Signor Grateforio” is a song by a quartette. “A bass solo, ‘Rocked in the cradle of the deep,’ by Professor Rorer,” should be a little girl’s lullaby to her doll, very soft and sweet. “Grand chorus by four hundred voices” may be a violin solo. And so with the whole programme, ending with the address of welcome. Aim to have many really fine numbers, but see to it that every one is something unexpected.

As the people go out, the spirit of fun will have so thoroughly taken possession of them that it will be a wonder if there are no buttons or similar treasures offered as the price of admission, or rather of escape; but not many would be so mean, and then it need not be accepted, for, when asked, every one will be obliged to admit that he has had his quarter’s worth of fun.