Wichita eagle., 1889-04-21


shiny rednesS. and in immaculately white
and stiff pinafores that will be sadly discol-
ored and limp before the day is donel Tots
in patched dresses and little pink toes peeping
through their shoes, but happy as chipmunks
on an autumn dayi Hckaninny tots. with
faces as black as Michigan soil, hopping and
skipping with understandable gleel S;rutch
faced totsi Garterless tots, with stockings
hanging down. But all of them dellriously
happy tots
1t is Easter Monday in Washington, and
the children are on their way to the White
House grounds TO spend the day.
The children of Washington have a more
genuinely enjoyable time on Easter Monday
than during all OF the Christmas HOLIDAYS
They look forward to it as the greatest event
of the year. True, during the Christmas
season they are given any amount of plum
pudding, Eince pie, turkey and pink and
yellow candy, but the close of the festivities
usually finds them in a condition OF satiated
disgust and they secretly wish the thing were
over.
Easter Monday does not consist in the
munching of indigestibles. 1t is simply a
grand romp on the unduleting lawns sur
rounding the mansion Of the nations presi-
dent.
Washington is always beautiful in the
Easter season The rains of the early spring
have ceased and tree and flower have sud
denly burst into bloom The air is filed with
the perfume Of the hyacinths that are so
plentiful in the parks. and the hlacs, dande-
lions and snowballs insert their rich colors in
the most radiant spring Kaleidoscope to be
seen in the United States. The grounds sur
rounding tie White House ere beautiful in
design and coloring, and the spectacle of
thousands of children dancing over them,
bothed il the warm light of the spring sun, is
one of exquisite picturosqueness- The groups
of toddlers extend as far over as the Washing
ton monument, which looks like gigantic
marble finger pointing into space. Most Of
the children are with the parents or nurses,
but it requires the most careful watching to
keep the young ones from getting lost in the
ever movinA crowd. The children, most of
whom are provided with little fancy basket
Of yariously colored eggs, roll them down the
slopes of the many mounds on the grounds
and when they are broken they distribute
them among the numerous ragged bootblacks
and homeless uIehins who stand around and
eat an enormous number of eggs without
turning a hair
In this common playground all distinctions
of race color and previous and present con-
dition are razed TO the earth. Tho before
mentioned afiluent tots will roll and romp
and crack eggs with the contingent from
Toddledom II Swampdoodle ope of Wash
ington's rough spots) and before the dsy is
over their mothers are talking confidentially
together, comparing the various points of
their progeny.
The lady of the White House usually min
giles with the children for an hour or SO on
Easter Monday Nellie Arthur, the daugh-
ter of the late ex-President Arthur, used TO
take part in the egg rolling games herself
Mrs Cleveland always made it point TO be
among the children on the White Lot on
Easter Monday, and would amgse them and
coddle and coax them with a skill that was
the admiration of all the newspaper CORE
spondents IN Washington
The spectacle of this most beautiful Of
White House niistresses carrying a little
ragged girl on her shoulders, or taking a
bunch Of violets from her dress to give 20
little boy who asked for them, would make
striking enough pictures TO bang on the walls /
Of the executive mansion y hen Gen. Grant
was president he used TO stroll out 20 bench .
in tho White Lot, where he would sit, putting /
at cigar and watching the antics Of the .
children. The fun is kept up without cessa-
ton from early morning until darkness be- .
gins to fall, when the children, thoroughly .
played out, but with a beaIthy glow in their
checks, are marched of TO home and 10 bed. .
It taxes some days for the gardeners Of tbs /
White House 10 clear the grounds of egg
shells
II il not in the y hite Lot alone that these
Easter egg rolings take place, but in al Of tie 4
larger parks Of the city. The spacious grounds
surrounding the Capitol used TO be great
place for the children, but the great marble
terrace which is now being completed has
epoQed the kin for egg rolling.
CLARENCE Z CULLEN