Evening star., 1909-04-12
cH|LDREN'S own DAY
Merry Egg Rollers Throng
White House Grounds.
WEATHER FAvORS SPORT
Conditions Just Right for Easter
Monday Festivities.
CHILDLESS GROWN.UPS BARRED
But Few Were There Nevertheless,
Chaperoned by the Indomitable
"Mickie Flynn"
WEATHER FAvoRs SPORT
CHILDLESS GR0WN.UPS BARRED

HIS HAS D6cH u DuSy udy IOT 4ulShfC
Flynn, the veteran steerer Of childless
adults who crave admission on Easter
Monday to the White House grounds. for
Mickie is SO small and SO adept at run
ming the police blockade that he helped
many and many a party OF grown-ups
to get beyond the gates today. in spite of
the strict regulations. The young block
ade runner, wiser than his mates. most
of whom were spotted by the police after
their second offense. did not hang about
the gates, soliciting business at the top
Of his lungs, but hung about in the
offing, or the far distance to use land
term. and sidled up to his prospective
customers, with remark something like
this:
'They don't allow no grown people in
tn White House grounds. less they have
children with EN-
Then after a short parley, in which
would walk beside the grown-ups and
get them inside the row Of policemen,
who were at their wits ends on account
Of the importunate crowd that besieged
wise enough to make his getaway
through gate far away from the one
through which he had entered, and in
short time would hail another ap-
preaching caravan, and increase the
jingling load Of coin in his pocket.
The grown ups brought no eggs, they
drew the line at that, but they sat on
the grass and watched hundreds and
thousands of children rolling and romp-
ing on the three small hills which today
have been carpeted with eggshells. The
children of the rich and the children of
the poor today have rolled their eggs
| side by side in a sort of children's
millennium, in which everything was
a fof l.
ing anOther's egg AS 1t tumbled crazily
to the bottom Of the hill.
No Change in Egg Fashions.
The fashions in eggs have not changed
much. either, since the days when the
blockade-running adults took their has
kets and messed around in the grass
| Red eggs seemed to be the prevailing
| color today. Yellow eggs ran close Sec
ond. and the old-fashioned mottled az
| fair was away behind. There Is a new
egg, sort of imitation cannon ball that
does not break-and 1t Is a perfectly
grand thing to roll and a splendid thing
to toss to one another-but 1t has its
drawbacks. The common or hen egg
when beaten to a fiimsy mass by hard
usage can be stripped of its beautiful
shell and eaten. or the yolk can be used
to smear on the face of an unfortunate
playmate. Not so with the patent thing.
Despite the activities of Mickie Flynn.
the veteran Easter Monday chaperon, the
children were in such majority at the
White House today that the older people
looked very much out of place. If there
should ever be a real children's country,
where no one over ten years old can be
president, and policemen are merely used
for an ornament. it is going to look like
the White House grounds looked today
from o'clock on. Really. 1T did appear
as If the White House We're a great big
playhouse, and that the children had all
swarmed to it, because 1t was nice day
and the grass was green and the fountain
was squirting more prettily than ever.
For once the control of nurses weak
ened bit, and splendidly dressed chill
dren, who for 364 days in the year are
models for other peoples children, today
began to feel the mettle of the White
House grounds and kicked up their heels
and whooped and shouted in a most scan
dalous fashion. for there is no fun in go
ing to the only egg rolling in the United
States and sitting about as if some one
were going to teach school. Every now
and then a demure little girl would sit
upon the ground and roll eggs with her
self: but not for long. because some one
she would know would happen along, and
after that they would indulge in all sorts
of target practice with the pretty eggs
which this morning lay so nicely In q dec
Grated basket but which now are eaten,
lost or stolen by egg pirates
Oranges as Substitutes.
There was an innovation sprung on the
children this year by an enterprising
father who took a day off to carry his
brood to the delectable land behind the
White House. 1t was a basket Of
oranges instead of eggs, and he and his
boys were the observed of all observers
1t was hard to draw an expression of
opinion from the regular egg rollers
about this matter. A Star reporter tried
to interview some of the most prominent
young men and women present this morn
ing on the subject of introducing oranges
for eggs, but without much satisfaction.
What do you think of those oranges?"
he asked a young lady of six.
.Tee-hee,' was the reply.
Would you like to have oranges in
stead of eggs" he asked q small boy
who carried his skates and a base bali
bat.
WHO? Me? Huh. don't roll no eggs
Where are your eggs, he asked a lit
tie mother, surely not over ten years old.
who was dragging line of sisters and
brothers behind her.
1--WE ate 'em comm up here.
What so SOOn?
Yep: we didn't have no breakfast"
They looked as If they might have skip
ped many a breakfast in their short lives,
but If the memory of any hungry days
was still alive it was laid aside for to-
day. They ran in and out among the
children, mingling with the better-cared-
for youngsters with grand freedom,
whooped and shouted when one of them
tossed stick of wood into the fountain.
sazed with joy at pretty hats and whis-
pered to each other about the faces Of
pretty ladies who had spoken to them.
And how many were there! Really. no
one counted them. Not even the police
men who had to examine everybody's
credentials before they could be admitted
IL being understood that credentials mean
children. OF course. this afternoon the
grown people can go in and hear the Ma
rine Band concert. for the order issued
by Col. Cosby keeping out the childless
has no effect after 3 o'clock