The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-04-27

N| Dainty little tots,
with faces that have been scrubbed into a
shiny redneSS, and in Immediately 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 day! Pickaninny tots, with
faces as black as Michigan soil, hopping and
skipping with understandable glee! Smutch
faced totsl Garterless tots, with stockings
hanging down! But all of them deliriously
happy tots
liz 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 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 tho Christmas
season they arc given any amount of plum
pudding, mince pie, turkey and pink and
yellow candy, but the close of the festivities
usually finds them in u condition of satiated
disgust and they secretly wish the thing were
over
Easter Monday does not consist in the
munching of indigcstibcs 1t is simply a
grand romp on tho undulating 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 hyucinths that are SO
plentiful in the parks, and the ilacs, dande-
lions and snowballs insert their rich colors in
the most radiant spring kaleidoscope to DO
seen in the United States. The grounds sur
rounding the White House are beautiful in
design and coloring, and the spectacle of
thousands of children dancing over them,
bathed in the warm light of tho spring sun, is
one of exquisite picturesqueness. The groups
of toddleys extend star over as the Washing
ton monument, which looks like a 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 moving crowd The children, most of
whom are provided with n little fancy basket
of variously 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
aud homeless urChinS who stand around and
eat an enormous number of eggs without
turning hair.
In this common playground al distinctions
Of race, color and previous and present con-
ditiOn are RACED To the earth. Tho before
mentioned aliIuent tots will roll and romp
and crack eggs with the contingent from
Toddlcdom in Swampdoodlc Conc of WASH
ington's rough spots, aud before the day is
over their mothers are talking coniidcntially
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. Ncllio Arthur, the daugh-
ter of the late ex-Prcsidcnt Arthur used TO
take part in tho egg rolling games herself,
Mrs Cleveland always made it n point to be
among tho children on the White Lot ON
Easter Monday, and would amuse 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 mistresses carrying little
ragged girl on her shoulders, or taking u
bunch of volets from her dress to give to a
little boy who asked for them, would make
striking enough pictures 20 hang on tho walls
Of the executive mansion. When Gen. Grant
was president he used to stroll out TO n bench
in the 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 healthy glow in their
cheeks, are marched off TO home and TO bed.
It takes some days for the gardeners of the
White House to clear the grounds of egg
shells
1t Is not in tho White Lot alone that these
Easter egg rollings take place, butt all Of the
larger parks Of the city. Thespacious grounds
surrounding the Capitol used to be a great
place for the children, but the great marble
terrace which is now being completed has
spoiled the hill for egg rolling.
CLARENCE T. CULLEN