Evening star., 1939-04-11
30 Men Weld Rakes
To Clean Up Debris
From Egg Rolling
Workers Will Keep Busy
Eight Hours Erosing
Remnants Of Party

Forty workmen assembled on the
White House lawn today to un-
scramble the debris left by 52.259
egg-rolling youngsters and their
picnic-minded elders.
With f1ne-toothed rakes, the Ma
tional Capital Parks men went about
the business of combing egg shells
out of the Presidents back yard
They estimated the job would take
them about eight hours.
Newspapers, orange peels, dis
earded Easter baskets and the rem
nAnts Of picnic lunches were collect
ed by the earlier cleanup men who
started the job an hour before the
last weary youngster was escorted
from the lawn.
White House guards, veterans of
many an Easter Monday frolic,
agreed 1t was a successful affair
The sun shone Only 20 mothers
tainted and a mere 70 children got
lost. Compared to the 140 lost chill
dren last year, business in the east
rose garden, where the lost ones
were taken, was practically as a
standstill.
His Mother Failed Him.
One little lost soul from North
Carolina tried to explain himself
to the guard on duty at the port
Of missing young. Il stayed down
yonder," he said, waving to the
fountains playing across the far end
OF the grounds. Il told mother to
wait for me and she never done it,
The youngsters loved it all. They
smeared chocolate over their faces,
bounced hard-boiled eggs off each
others heads, swung from low limbs
Of the stately old White House trees
and rolled down the grassy slopes
Of the lawn.
Sometimes it seemed their elders
outnumbered them. That might
have been accounted for by the sub
rosa deals outside the wrought iron
gates where ambitious youngsters
collected dimes for playing escorts
to adults, forbidden inside the gate
without bona f1de youngster.
Featured attraction of the day,
particularly for the older folks, were
Mrs. Roosevelt's tours through the
grounds and the Presidents ap-
pearance on the portico.
Just few minutes after his ar
rival from the South, the President
spoke to the crowd and, waving a
greeting, said he wished he could
"be down there with YOU"
Tempers Grew Shorter.
Several thousand people fingered
around the roped-off south entrance
waiting for the President or Mrs.
Roosevelt to make a return ap-
pearance. AS the afternoon waned,
tempers grew shorter and children
got fldgety from the wait. Sporadic
clapping, calculated to lure Mrs.
Roosevelt from within the White
House, was unavailing, but the per-
sistent ones refused to bulge until
the officers went through the
grounds at 5 pm. waving the visitors
1TOm Cne grounds.
Mrs. Roosevelt, meanwhile, was
entertaining 20 sons and daughters
of her friends at children's party
within the White House.
If they put up dance platform"
q guard suggested, you wouldn't
f1nd crowd like this waiting
around for Mrs. Roosevelt to come
out"
As the United States Marine
Band, which had been holding forth
for two hours, signed off with THE
Star Spangled Banner" the exhaust
ed celebrants struggled from the
grounds, leaving the tramped, egg
speckled lawn in possession of the
squad of cleanup men.
One of the workmen whistled as
he surveyed the abandoned grounds.
Must have been quite a party" he
remarked.