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Every morning and afternoon there were optional sightseeing expeditions to the Capitol, Mt. Vernon, Arlington, etc., etc. Scouts swarmed through Washington buying films for their perpetual photographing. On six nights there were "arena displays" given at the foot of the Washington Monument by Scouts of two regions (there are twelve in the U. S.). One afternoon there was a Sea Scout regatta, one evening a fireworks display. But more fascinating than spectacles, drills or speeches by oldsters about Scout ideals was the extracurricular activity in which all 25,000 assiduously engaged—swapping. To Washington they had brought a strange assortment of impedimenta: wampum, pine cones, stuffed birds, sharks teeth, shells, sponges, live hoot owls, pickled scorpions. Texans (dressed in chaps) brought a large consignment of live horned toads. West Virginians brought hunks of coal shellacked for paperweights. Californians brought 20-ft. strips of movie film. With these trade goods, the young merchants wandered around, to the wooden fence near the camp of the Bahamians, the barbed wire fence of the Texans, the Paul Bunyan display of the Wisconsin Scouts, the Florida encampment hung with Spanish moss. All day, every day the tent cities echoed with the wrangling of Young America trading what it possessed for something else it wanted.
The Jamboree cost upwards of $600,000. All the U. S. Government and the city of Washington provided was the land used, the loan of Army tents and similar equipment. Traveling and living expenses were met by the Scouts, each one present contributing $25 (besides his railroad fare) which he, at least in theory, earned.
Boy Scout cheerfulness was put to the test this week by a downpour that lasted all Sunday night and half the next day, turning much of the camp area into quagmire. Undismayed, 5,000 selected Scouts marched to a memorial service in the Arlington National Cemetery theatre, placed a wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Governmental high spot of the jamboree came later this week with President Roosevelt's review. Instead of waiting while the 25,000 passed him, the President was to drive down Constitution Avenue, lined for two miles by cheering Boy Scouts.
*The other two: church on Sunday, review by the President. *Among his jobs was illustrating the first edition of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which injured his reputation because he pictured monks imbibing from tankards.