Evening star., 1941-04-07
.CityPrepares
For Record
Spring Rush
Hotels Are Filled,
Rooms in Private
Homes Sought

The birds were singing, the sun
was shining and the cash registers
were jingling in Washington today
as the city braced itself for what
probably will be the greatest spring
rush it has ever known.
There were few hotel rooms avail
able in Washington today. BY
Thursday or Friday, there will not
be one room empty, and lot of
people who are now living in hotels
are going to be set out on the side
walk to make way for those with
prior reservation.
The Board of Trade appealed
again today for more private citizens
to list rooms for rent over the COM
ing week end, which will see thou
sands coming to Washington for
Easter, the Cherry Blossom Festival
and the opening Of the D. A. r.
Convention.
The Washington Hotel Association
said lucky person could probably
turn up a room for a day or two at
one of the smaller hotels, but that
as far as the general situation in
hotels here was concerned the
standing room only" sign was out.
1000 Rooms Available.
The Board Of Trade still has 1000
for Easter Week visitors. II is be-
lieved that this number will be suf-
ficient. but board officials asked
everyone who has a spare room 10
list it for rent.
The Washington Tourist Camp
said it was nearly full today and
that by Thursday all its accommo-
dationS would be gone. The camp
has 144 cabins and l8 apartments.
which accommodate 100 persons
each.
Railroads. airlines and bos COM
panies reported that their business
had already approached record
breaking proportions. American
Airlines broke its all-tlme record on
Wednesday, bettering it on Thurs
day and smashed it again on Friday.
The Keystone Automobile Club
announced that it had list of
rooms available for visitors and said
that inquiries at its Offices in other
cities had established a record num-
Der of requests for routings TO WASH
ington.
The traffic crush yesterday in the
Tidal Basin area gave a hint of
things to come. Park police were
hard put to handle the line Of auto
mobiles.
Red Cross Meets April 81.
The city will be jammed as never
! before until nearly the first of NAV,
it was indicated. After the D. A. r,
/ convention closes at the end of
/ next week. the Red Cross will con-
vene from April 2l to o. There
will be no hotel rooms available until
after that date.
All Palm Sunday records at the
Botanic Garden were broken yes
terday when 10000 visitors poured
in to see the spring flower show.
william A. Frederick, in charge.
/ said the exhibition will be bright
ened up for Easter Sunday with sew
eral thousand pans of tulips, hum
dreds of calceolarias and Kaemp-
feri, desiduous type of hardy azaleas
just coming into their best bloom.
The show is in the exhibition con-
servatory of the Botanic Garden,
between Maryland and Independ-
ence avenues. First and Second
/ streets S.W. At present it contains
the most distinctive of typical
Easter blooms. There were more
than $500 plants of Erabu and
Creole Easter lilies on display yes
terday. There are 4,500 cineraria
plants
American Bulbs Shown.
/ There are also hundreds of pots Of
jonquils and variety Of narcissi,
spotted in among the cinerarias.
The bulb display this year reflects
war time. since the best bulbs always
have come from Holland; but plants
from native American bulbs are
being shown.
Mr.. Frederick promises that the
garden will make a showing this
year for the first time of the
Amaryllia, or Knights Star lily,
plants which now are being culti-
waited in the propagating houses.
In order that Easter visitors from
out of town may not be crowded
out Sunday, Mr.. Frederick urged
that school children attend the show
/ during the week.