The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1898-07-30
RAW PEANUT EATING HABIT.
Why hath, n. ~. sells More
Peanuts Than Other Places
In the state.

In the state.
The village of Bath" said q whole
sale dealer in nuts sells more raw or
unroasted peanuts than any other place
in the state. As a matter Of fact, the
sale of raw peanuts is quite the feature
OF the peanut trade in Bath, because
there are more people there who have
the raw peanut habit than there are in
any other place in the state. The rea-
son for 1t is that the state soldiers
home is located there. That is why
Baths peanut trade is unique in the
quantity of raw peanuts it handles.
"No one likes raw peanuts until he &c
quires the habit, and then he wants
them just as regularly as he wants his
tobacco. Before the civil war the pea
nut was chiefly q holiday luxury to the
great mass of people in this country.
The day when tine circus was in town,
and the day when the county fair was
whooping 1t up in behalf Of the honest
husbandman and the man with four
minute trotting horse, and when the
great and glorious Fourth Of July had
come round again-and it came round
with bells on in those days-were about
the only occasions when the popular
yearning for peanuts was to any FIX
tent satisfied. On those memorable &C.
casions the nut was shueked and mas
ticated until every bucolic jaw was
lame. II was only in the towns and
large villages that the favored few
could have peanuts with them always.
Before the war there wasn't a peanut
rooster in the whole country outside the
big towns, and the rural dealers bought
their stock of peanuts already roasted.
They were delivered In big, coarse bags.
To-day every crossroads, from Maine TO
California has It, peanut stand, and its
wheeling steam roaster, and the great
American nut has no better on more ex-
elusive standing on circus day or the
Fourth Of July than II has on any or
binary day Of the year, although there
is q greater concentration and appli-
cation OF energy In its shucking and
chewing on those red-letter days.
"a large proportion Of The soldiers
who went south with the union army
were from the rural districts. So, when
they got among the peanut patches OF
Virginia, North Carolina and Tennes-
see they were, metaphorically speak
ing, rightin clover. At iirst they roasted
at their camp fires the peanuts they
pulled from the patches, boz it wasn't
long before they not only learned to
like them raw, but actually preferred
them that way. The result was that the
boys discovered after awhile that they
hankered after peanuts almost as much
as they did after tobacco, and they
brought the longing back home will
them after he war was over. What hal
been the consequence? The demand
for peanuts increased so rapidly will
the return Of peace that the crop theI
grown did not begin TO supplyit. Wide
awake farmers in Virginia, North Caro-
lima and Tennessee saw the point, anC
their patches OF peanut vines, which hat
been not much more than an iEcidenta
adjunct to the farm, expanded int,
broad fields, and improved cultivation
and new methods in caring Tor and dis
posing Of the crop took the place of m
oldrtime carelessness aud crudities
The peanut crop OF these three state
amounts to more than 1000, 900 bushel
, annually result due entirely to tn
civil war and the contracting Of the pen
nut habit of the soldiers. The bulk O
this crop is handled, prepared an.
shipped from Norfolk, the value of /
t being not less than 5000, 900 a year.
Naturally, the returned soldier
loud call for peanuts soon brough
) about a situation that placed them Will
l In his reach and that of the rural popu
E lation to the turthest limits Of way
: back, and the nus ceased forever to d
;. simply a holiday luxury. The floor q
. the bsckwoods grocery is now littere
3 nightly with sbucks Of peanuts, he
t from a revolving rooster, thicker tina
II ever was on any Fourth Of July q
the olden time, aud the old soldier ca
get his supply Of raw peanuts at Way
T back Corner just as fresh and regula
almost as II he were still on the oil
camp ground yAnking the nuts fror
o their native soil.
$50 that Is why the soldiers home 1
Bath makes that village the champio
raw peanut center of the state. Ther
are hundreds Of old soldiers living I
q the home, and many Of them have III
wartime peanut habit and II take
heaps Of the nuts to keep pace with It
, N. Y. Sun.