Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1886-11-13
A FAMILY OF GUM CHEWERS,
Their Jaws are Never at Rest Except
When They are Sleeping-It
Costs Them Money.

Their Jaws are Never at Rest Excep,
When They are sleeping-It
Costs Them Money.
HASTINGS, MIMI, November 11.-Amone
the arrivals in this neighborhood from the
East last spring was a family OF gaunt,
long-legged. ~thin-chested, r%aw-boned people
named Ide, who came from Vermont. They
bought a farm about four miles west OF
here, and settled down to get a living out
of the soil. Last Monday Henry Ide, the
oldest SOL OF the family and the gauntest
and thinest-legged of them all, drove up to
the general store OF G.. W. Denny, in this
town, with sixteen bushels of No. 1 hard
wheat to sell. After some little dickering
about the price, seventy cents was finally
decided upon, the whole amounting to
$11.2O.
"Now is there anything in the store you
would like to have in the way of trade"
said Mr.. Denny when this result had been
reached.
"Got any gum" asked Henry.
"oh, yes. We have several kinds of
Il guess I'll take it out in gum, then,"
said Henry. pretty near out at the house
and we don't want to buy any more for a
month, anyway"
When Denny had recovered from this
staggering demand he went into the store
and began to gather together all the gum
in the establishment. He says hat by
throwing in all the spruce. tulu, arabic,
rubber, ~tragacanth and every other kind
of gum in the store, just stopping short OF
a gum boots, and by charging retail prices
for the gum and wholesale for the wheat,
he just managed to make S11.2O worth OF
gum, with which the lean and delighted
Henry went away.
Mr.. Denny's curiosity was so much
aroused by this singular transaction that
he determined to visit and learn more
about q family that bought $11.2O worth
OF gum at a time. He went out day or
two after Henry's purchase. and he reports
a curious state OF things existing in the Ide
household. The entire family. he says,
chew gum as long as their jaws a wag. |
When they sit down to a meal each one
takes a big quid OF gum out OF his mouth
and pastes it up on the wall behind him.
The moment the repast is over each one
again. The ceilings Of the house are COW
cred with old guilds that the children have
up there in sport. and he estimated
that he saw as much as a bushel lying |
in corners and under tables.
The family consists of the father
mother and six children, the youngest only
8 years old, and they all chew gum
faster, and more untiringly than
two train loads of Vassargirls could. The
old lady told him most of the family went
to sleep with their gum in their mouths,
md she believed some of them chewed in
their sleep. No one ever thought OF leav-
ing the house on an GRAND without a plen-
tiful supply of the Indispensable article,
once when the supply ran out in har-
vest time work had to be suspended until
OF the boys could ride into town and
;et some. The children, she said. had
,ractised it so long that they could chew
Ill day without having to stop to rest
more than once or twice. Their extraor-
linary indulgence seems to have produced
10 marked effect Upon the family, and ex-
ept their exceeding 1ankness and DIN air OF
Constitutional weafiness, there is pothing
in their appearance. The old ~
old Denny BIZ thought it cost him utere
han 9160 d year lcf gum.