THE PEANUT 



/y 



the most dainty and delicate of fruiting 

 plants. But what a parody of human 

 nature it is ! How frequently it occurs 

 in life, in good fortune, in happy part- 

 nerships, how frequently do we forget 

 those that gave the introduction that has 

 completely changed the course of our 

 life, or how often do we forget the kind- 

 ness that changed our path and led us to- 

 ward subsequent prosperity. 



Let us not forget the pussy willow that 

 stands at the gate of June and welcomes 

 us to the joys of summer. 



The Peanut. 



BY DR. FR.\XK CRAXE. 



(Copyright, 1914, by Frank Crane. Pub- 

 lished by courtesy of '"The Globe," 



New York City.) 



I would lay a few wreaths at the 

 feet of the peanut. 



It is one of the admirable arrange- 

 ments of whoever runs mundane mat- 

 ters that the very best goods of life 

 are for every man, and that the proud 

 and privileged when they nibble their 

 expensive delicacies are toying with 

 the avenging furies, from a pain in 

 their tum-tums to hardening of the 

 arteries. 



There is air, for instance, oodles of 

 it, free ; and if there be aught better I 

 have never found it. Also water. Al- 

 so sunshine. 



More expensive, but still cheap 

 enough for dollar-a-day folk, is corn 

 bread, the thanwhichest of all tooth- 

 some things. 



Right dowm below the high-cost-of 

 living list, down where the multitude 

 mults, even below down where the 

 Wurzburger flows, are the little 

 friends of the hoi polloi, the peanuts. 



Item. They are good. A better nut 

 has not been nutted. If they cost 

 twenty-five cents apiece they would 

 be served as hors d'a-uvres at the 

 Grand Hotel de Luxe, and make glad 

 the small white teeth of the daughters 

 of Millionbucks. 



If they cost $100 a nut their shells 

 would be strung around the necks of 

 the grillionaires' ladies who unveil 

 their beauty upon us the first night 

 of the opera. 



Alas ! They are five cents a bag. So 

 they are nothing but just plain good. 



Item! They are nourishing. Fad- 

 dists and medicine men have denounc- 

 ed all other kinds of food, white bread, 



sugar, coffee and milk, but none has- 

 dared to lift his voice against the pea- 

 nut. 



A sack of peanuts is an excellent 

 lunch. I so lunched yesterday. 1 

 bought a nickel's worth of Dante Al- 

 ighift'eri, who keeps them hot at our 

 corner. I ate them for three blocks.. 

 It is a grand thing to lunch walking;, 

 you get your air, exercise, and nutri- 

 tion all at once. 



They are still better eaten between 

 meals. They are the ideal tid-bit for 

 those who watch the baseball game. 

 They are the right hand of the circus 

 man. On trains they have no fellow, 

 when there is no dining car and na 

 stop for dinner. 



They are the true symbol of democ- 

 racy. 



They are friends of lovers. Who 

 can say how subtle are the opportun- 

 ities of the paper of peanuts consumed 

 by "me and Mame" up in the third 

 balcony, when our hands touch as we 

 fish the gay goobers from the sack,, 

 and munch while we watch Lord Ed- 

 ward being foiled upon the stage? 



"The Star Spangled Banner" may 

 be the national tune, the golden rod 

 or something else the national flower, 

 and the turkey and the eagle the na- 

 tional birds, but the national nut is un- 

 questionably the peanut. 



Sweet is the voice of the peanut man 

 as he sings : "Five cents, a nickel, half 

 a dime. All ready and all hot. Right 

 this way, ladies and gents, for your 

 fresh roasted peanuts !" 



A patch of timber or a wood-lot 

 without squirrels always conveys an 

 impression of lonesome solitude and 

 something gone — like a country grave- 

 yard. There is no other animal of 

 equal size that can add so much of lite 

 and cheerfulness to a hardwood forest 

 or a meadow as a hardwood forest 

 squirrel. Why is it that American 

 men and boys kill them so eagerlv? 

 Surely the flesh of their little bodies 

 is not needed as food. It has a taste 

 so queer and rank that to many per- 

 sons it is decide^lly unpalatable. 

 Americans are the only white men on 

 earth who eat squirrels. An English- 

 man would as readily eat a rat! — \\^il- 

 iiam T- Hornaday, Sc. D., in "The 

 American Natural Hi?tcrv." 



