The Washington times., 1917-03-25
eJEAN ELoTT
LETTER.
DEAR SUSAN:

DEAR SUSAN:
II. the Eastern Monday egg rolling
IN the White House grounds is given
up this year-and it seems likely 1t
will be on the theory that while the
Presidents person and the Presidents
house are being extra carefully guard
ed, It would scarcely be logical or
wise to throw the south lot open to an
irresponsible and unidentifiable crowd
-thereTl be one man who will be
devoutful thankful.
Col. W. w. Harris. who is not merely
the Presidents chief aide. but who has
charge of public buildings and
grounds, like every other man who
has had that responsibility in recent
years, has groaned at the havoc the
egg rolling wrought in the White
House gardens each spring when
growing things were just getting
good start H will certainly be de-
youtly thankful IL the President
seIzes this opportunity to do away
with a picturesque old custom that
has really outgrown its picturesque
ness and become a nuisance.
=
Presidents Private
Garden Suffers.
It is a perfectly safe prediction
that IL the privilege is withdrawn
this year. with the perfectly good ex-
cuse oS safeguarding the President,
It will not be renewed another year.
All that has been wanted for several
Administrations has been a good ex7
cuse. The South Lot" as old Wash
ingtonians love to call II, is the Pres
ident's private garden. And each
Easter Monday its lawns are con-
verted into q mess of scrambled eggs,
it's flower beds trampled, and its
shurbbery broken. Several thousand
dollars are spent every year repair
ing the damage done by the Easter
Monday egg rollers.
Just when the custom originated
no one seems to know. I have not
been able to hnd out anything about
its beginning. 1t seems to be as
peculiar TO this part of the country
Munmers ts to Philadelphia They
don't roll eggs anywhere else, en-
.cept, perhaps, in Baltimore, to where
the custom seems to have spread
from washington-unless 1t ortgi-
nGted there and spread to Washing
ton.
It has been well established In
Washington for years. 1t is men-
toned IN books dealing with Wash
ipgton life long before the civil war.
But in the earliest illusions to 1t the
terraces and rolling ground around
the Capitol seem to have been the
chief scene of the egg rollers activ-
fly. But the white Lott has been
open to the children on that one day
for fully sixty years. Lincoln's chill
dren watched It from the White
House windows, even as the Roose-
yelts and the Tafts, and the children
OF the Wilson Administration have
done.
But It has been increasingly a nui-
sance-increasingly an occasion that
appealed TO a rather undesirable, un-
manageable element of Washington
youth. The White House police have
found IL increasingly difficult to keep
.fhe youngsters within. bounds. And
: Washington mothers of the better
fciase have not cared to take their
children down into "that unruly mob"
. They have made up. little parties of
egg rollers among children Of their
own friends and neighbors, and taken
them 10 the Zoo, or to more remote
parts OF Rock Creek Park, for a nice.
quiet little Easter picnic, with the
egg rolling as an excuse. The newly
arrived official family usually takes
its children to the White House egg
rolling once-to take part in an an
cient and picturesque custom-but
once Is enough for most of them.
-
EAbolished5 By T. r.
JneHsetuaIIy.
Several times an effort has been
made 20 discontinue the practice. T.
r. tried. He simply announeed-in
true RooseVeItian feshIon-that the