Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-04-07
HEN-FRUIT DAY.
Thousands Of Children Egg-Rolling In
the White House Grounds.

THE GREAT ANNUAL PICNIC OF WASHINGTON Chill.
DREN-So DISTINCTION ON ACCOUNT OF AGE,
RACE, SEX OR CoLoR--AS ANIMATED SCENE
RoMPINd AND LuNCHING ON THE GREEN swARD.
Were there no calendars a slauce at the
White House grounds today would instantly
show person that today is Easter Monday.
Eggs, egg shells and children abound, older
folks look on and every square inch of ground
is utilized for romping or for lunch eat
ing. 1t is the great annual national
chlldren's picnic, continuance of the custom
that has grown up from the time when the
babies used to roll their brightly colored eggs
down the terraces at the Capitol grounds and
then roll down after them. 1t il not much of an
egg-rolling this jubilee of the little ones that is
! going on today on the lawn of the Executive
Mansion, but 1t is more of a spring feast where
the sacrifices 10 the goddess of sun and flowers
! are IN the form OF dozens upon dozens of rain
bow.tinted eggs and cords upon cords of bread
| and butter.
| GATHERING FOR THE FUN.
The gathering began soon after breakfast,
| although there were bad weather signs to be
| seen then. The wet streets caused many a little
| heart to feel like lead this morning when the
dawn came, but there was soon a procession
| moving toward the home of the President
even before the guards had all reported for
assembled to witness the driving of stakes
| along the tops of the east and west terraces on
which wires were stretched to prevent the egg
| rolling down the side turf
They come alone, in pairs. in triplets, but
more often in throngs or hordes of from five to
dozen, each with small basket of eggs, and
| the largest one with lunch Mammas were
sprinkled through the gathering more like
| shepherd dogs than chaperones, and the small
boy, with neither egg basket or lunch, was
| everywhere.
INFANT LESSONS IN GAMBLING.
He produced eggs from mysterious depths of
his garments and traded right and left, giving
green for red, hard boiled for soft raw for
cooked, and occasionally trying the toughness
OF an egg shell Oh that of another.
The spirit OF the gambler was abroad in
strength, shown i'll the twinkle of the eye as
the owner OF some particularly tough egg
cried out: Want ter pick Butt or pint"
oh, show me more SHELF 'Dont break nv
knuckles" and other similar phrases of the
vernacular OF Easter Monday.
Here was a melancholy object in white and
yellow-a forlorn boy scraping from himself
smashed in his hand by mischievous young
ster, and his woe was sharpened by the thought
that he had just been on the point of doing the
same thing himself to another boy.
ALL SORTS.
The children ranged from two years to sixty,
! from the color OF the paper The STAR is
printed on to that of the ink that makes these
letters. Race lines police lines and care lines
were all Obliterated. Etiquette hid her
face behind q veil for n while and con-
yentiOnal propriety stood outside of the park
and hung her sad face over the railing. But
| there we're no sad faces inside, all was Joy and
gaiety, laughter and music, eggs and yellow
stains.
THE MARINE BAND.
- Al n
for two hours delighted the thousands Of chill
dren and grown people with light music, ia
| miliar airs, such AS .'McGinty" and .'Razzle-
Dazzle" ..Suwanee River" '"where Did You
Get That Hat and Listen to My Tale OF Woe :"
| Meyerbeer and Thomas were cast aside for two
| hours OF popular music, and Hub Smith and
| Billy Rice were the favorites.
| Ii was during this period that the presiden-
tial household made its bow to the gay scene
| below the south porticO. All OF the babies
| were held up to kiss theic hands to their
! youthful countrynen below.
AND THE PRESIDENT SMILED.
Outside of the grounds half hundred fakirs
and peddlers pushed an Easter Monday trade
in eggs, candy, oranges, bananas, lemonade,
balloons, squawkers, pies, pickles and peanuts.
man. ssSn his ,,s wealth
son and sold several cubic yards of
frozen sweetness at 5 cents glass Frank
Shorty confined himself to the lumpy sort OF
| cream, which he dispensed from several white
covered push carts, appearing in half a dozen
places at once in the most surprisingly ubiqui-
| tous manner.
At noon the departments caused the throng
in the grounds to swell temporarily, but the
| return OF the men to their desks did not
materially diminish the crowd, as the steady
sunshine kept calling out the children who had
remained at home because OF the threat of
rain.
As The STAB went to press the White House
people were wondering il there was any of
Washington that had not visited the grounds.
The crowd was unegualied
The Y.P.S.CE. of Orange Valley, NJ, have
presented President Rankin an elegant national
banner for Howard University.
The fair arranged for the benefit Of St
Joseph's Church will open tonight at the Ma
tionai Rifles Armory and continue ten days.
The Navy Boat Club, VIM. II. Brown COM
mander, which will appear in the Emancipation
parade with ship, has been assigned to the
south Washington division. q. johnson has
been appointed chief of staff for the South
| Waship ION division