Evening star., 1921-11-06

Girls employed in the bureau Of
chemistry in the Department Of Agri-
culture have gone suddenly peanut
crazy" Peanut venders who former
ly managed to eke out q meager ex-
| istence. showing cart along from
corner to corner are now jostling for
points of vantage near the building
on 18th street southwest, where busi-
ness recently has taken on a bonanza
aspect.
Such has become the habit with the
young ladies that small bags Of pea
| nuts, for convenience sake, usually Of
the salted variety. are daily smuggled
into vanity bags and lunch packages
and into the various Offices OF the bu-
reau, later to be munched during
work hours in STANDARDIZATION with
syncopation Of other ofiice noises.
While the craze originated with the
girls, it ie said that a number of the
men, significantly Of the bald or near
bald type. have stealthily espoused
the cause of the heretofore lowly
peanut. with the result that the pre-
diction has been made that before
long V1rginia's foremost fabacious
product of the soil will become Amer
ica's premier table delicacy.
y \ * x
TT all has como about because one OF
the fair clerks in the bureau Of
chemistry by chance came across a
paragraph in very technical bulletin
she was typing which arrested her at
tention as nothing else in dozens Of
similar papers had done. This para
graph told Of the remarkable results
from a hlrsute and from a corpulent
standpoint which were obtained when
rats. previously fed on a bean or corn
ciet, were changed to a peanut menu.
The stenographer pondered.
II rats fur. or hair. or whatever 1t
Is they have, was benefited by the
locks, previously bobbed by Dame
Fashion and lately disowned by the
same lady, take new lease on life
II treated to similar diet? She
asked laboratory assistant about 1t.
He advised her that he thought tho
hair on the rats, he explained. while
a side issue from the experiments be-
ing performed, nevertheless occurred.
This was due to the large content OF
rare acid. called cystine, in the
peanuts. a German scientist. he
added, Is isolating this cystine at the
present time with view to putting
it on the market as hair restorer.
That sounded encouraging to q girl
whose evenings before tho mirror
hing could induce her abbreviated hair
to attain normal length. as the
change in style Of headdress demand
ed. She confided her discovery to her
chum, and as it was to be kept &
secret between the two. the chum
cept her sister and close friend at
the next desk-and so the dark secret
is now guarded faithfully by most
OF the girls in the bureau.
From that moment peanuts began
west way. Several male friends got
hold of the secret and men COM
menced to be seen crunching peanut
brittle, where peanut brittle once
had been denied entree. Several of
fastly refrained from indulging In
the legume fest. On being pressed
for q reason they frankly admitted
they feared that the hair-propagating g
activities Of the peanuts might spread
to the fair faces into which the
kernels, IL they can be 60 designated,
were being fed. Laboratory experts
confessed they had not thought Of
that contingency and stated they had
no data on the subject. So some of
the girls have adopted a watchfuI
waiting policy. with tho smooth tex
ture of their workmates' cheeks con-
|, stitut!ng the cynosurc of daily in.
epections.
X X * !.
A NEWSPAPER correspondent, hear
ing Of the strange developments
| at Uncle Sans Agricultural Depart
| ment, journeyed to the scene of festi-
vities and interviewed the chemists
| whose researches and experiments