Egg-citing Time At White House

In an enduring springtime ritual, President Clinton blew the opening whistle Monday to welcome thousands of children to the White House lawn, where they rolled eggs in the first easter egg roll to be cybercast on the Internet.

Â"This is the only thing every year, no matter what else happens, I know I will do right,Â" the president said, pressing a nickel-clad whistle to his lips, blowing authoritatively, and starting eggs whizzing across the green grass.

The Marine band, seated in the shade of the South Portico, played, Â"The Easter Parade,Â" instead of Â"Hail to the ChiefÂ" as the president entered. Mama and papa Easter bunnies flanked him and waved to the kids.

Giant costumed Easter eggs, each wearing a bright Easter bonnet, danced near a display of Easter confections made by pastry chefs from around the country. One showed an egg-shaped globe held aloft by two angels. Another featured Socks, the White House cat.

The White House kitchen dyed 7,200 hard-boiled eggs for Monday's egg roll, an Easter Monday event that dates to 1879 and the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes.

An additional 2,500 eggs were ready for children to color themselves at the event on the sprawling South Lawn and the adjoining Ellipse.

Some 25,000 durable wooden keepsake eggs, each bearing the silhouette of the White House and the engraved signatures of the president and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton were ready for distribution to the guests, ages 3 to 6. No adults are allowed without such a child in tow.

This year, in an innovation unimaginable to Rutherford and Lucy Hayes, the egg roll, story-telling by celebrities, and Clinton's welcoming remarks were being cybercast over the Internet.

Â"For the very first time hundreds of thousands of young people will be experiencing the egg roll here at the White House via the internet,Â" Clinton said.

The presidential tie to the egg roll began when Congress abandoned its own long Easter Monday children's festival and decreed in 1878 that the western slope of Capitol Hill and the Capitol's sweeping lawns and terraces could no longer be used as Â"playgrounds or otherwise.Â"

Â"Little attention was paid to this until Easter Monday 1879, when the Capitol police refused to admit the children to the grounds,Â" historian William Seale noted in his book, Â"The President's House.Â"

Â"A furor arose and the children went to the grounds of the National Observatory and the White House, the latter apparently even if not in fact at the invitation of the president,Â" Seale wrote.

Â"They laughed, yelled and played,Â" The Washington Star reported.

The Clintons celebrated their own Easter holiday Sunday at Camp David, the presidential retreat in western Maryland. The president watched the Masters golf tournament on television and received thanks from world leaders for his help in brokering a Northern Ireland peace agreement.

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