Evening star., 1934-04-16
P[ANLAST DETAILS
TO ASSURE CHERRY
BLOSSOM SUCCESS
Various Committees Make
Arrangements for Festi-
val Three Days Off.
SPEAKERS TO PUBlICIZE
EVENT BY RADIO TODAY
lS5,O0O View Bursting of Blooms
Yesterday in Potomac
Park.

WIln tne Cnerry Blossom Festival
only three days away, and thousands
OF visitors already in town for Cherry
Blossom week, the various committees
are sraining to complete last details
to assure the success of Washingtons
first blossom carnival.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday of
this week are TO be packed with events
for the pleasure of the cherry bios
som visitors and the local citizenry
alike. beginning with a sunrise cere-
mony at dawn Thursday and winding
up with ball at the Mayflower Hotel
Saturday night
The festival is to be publicized this
afternoon by brief speeches by Miss
Roosevelt and by Nine Hiroshi Saito.
wife of the japanese Ambassador, to
be broadcast by the National Broad
casting Co. on a coaSt-to-coast hook
up. This program will be from 2::30
to PAS pm.
Shelter Being Made.
An elaborate shelter for the queen
of the festival, Miss Roosevelt. is
under construction Just west of the
roadway to Highway Bridge in Poto-
mac Park. 1t will be a shell-shaped
affair. the top covered with green
canvas and strewn with artificial
cherry blossoms. School children are
now busy manufacturing 1000 punches
OF the blossoms. These will be at
tached to twigs cut from the trees re-
Gently when they were being pruned
The ceremony of the coronation. set
for 2 O'Clock Thursday, will be an
nOunced with flourish of trumpets as
the queen and her II attendants
enter the shelter. Preceding the
queen will be a CROWN bearer, carry
ing the crown on a white cushion
In the shelter the Rev. z. B. Phillips,
rector of the Church of the Epiphany.
will crown Miss Roosevelt queen. The
Georgetown University Glee Club will
sing The Queens Chorus" this brief
ceremony being broadcast by the Ma
tional Broadcasting Co.
Then the mounted entrants for the
horse show will pass in review before
the queens stand and the horse show
will begin
The coronation will be rehearsed
beforehand at 4 o'clock Wednesday
afternoon, and after all the partici-
pants are letter perfect they will ad-
lourn to the MayfioWer Hotel, where
they will rehearse the queens entrance
for the reception which is to wind up
the festival on Saturday night.
Mrs. John Allen Daugherty has an
nounced that tickets for the reception
and ball may be bought at l4l9 G
street. telephone District 0169. Tickets
to other Cherry Blossom events may
also be bought at this address.
The festival, if yesterdays crowds
are any sign, will prove a record
breaking attraction as far as attend
ance is concerned. Yesterday the city
was jammed with visitors, most of
whom made the circle around the
Tidal Basin to view the famous cherry
trees.
Crowds View Blossoms.
Nature had arranged a perfect day
for the tourists and Washingtonians
who wanted to see the blossoms at
their best. The crowds which took
advantage of it were dense, and traffic
on the roadways leading to and from
Tidal Basin was an all-day jam Park
police counted $4,000 automobiles
making the circle of Tidal Basin be-
tween 9 am and pm. indicating that
the crowd, dense as it was. did not
match the record year of 1881 when
the Sunday crowd on the day of the
bloSSoming numbered 34,340 vehicles
The police estimated load on the
a nf 70 Ii,
100000 persons. and an additional
$4,000 pedestrians, or a total of 185,
900 persons who went out to see the
blossoms. There was every indication
that this estimate was conservative,
as hotels almost unanimously reported
that they were jammed and could not
handle any additional business. The
overflow of visitors who had failed
to make reservations found its way
into apartment and rooming houses.
Many of the visitors we're on one-day
excursions run by the major railroad
systems, but all forms of traffic were
heavily taxed, including the air lines.
The regular cherry blossom crowds
were swelled by some 5000 arriving in
town to attend the sessions of the
D. A. r. convention.
During the day the pedestrians had
all the best of it and it was possible
to stroll around the basin and make
much better time than by driving.
The park police had an elaborate
system of routing traffic in effect and
40 men on duty all day to enforce
1t, but the traffic was so great that
cars were slowed down to less than
walking pace.
The crowds did not concentrate on
the cherry blossoms, but turned out
in huge numbers to see the Capitol,
the Library of Congress, the Wash
ington Monument, Mount Vernon and
the other attractions in and near
Washington.
In spite of the jam. park police re-
ported that there were no accidents,
nobody was injured and no arrests
were made. The only incident re-
ported was the finding of a 5-year-
old colored boy, Norman Thornton,
at Seventeenth and Constitution Nor
man told police that he was lost and
couldn't remember his address. He
was sent to the receiving home.
CTDE INIT I'm