St. Landry democrat., 1888-01-21
ABOUT cHEwlNG-GuM.
the Materials Efaed in Its Composition
and the Processes of Manufacture.

boasts of two or three factories, and
many of them ship as high as one thou
sand pounds each day. This will give
some rough idea of its consumption.
The chewing gum of commerce is not
the old spruce-born article so dear to
the memory of our childhood, but is a
highly favored combination. partly
CONNECTION and partly indestructibility.
II is as varied in its outward form as
the current snake story, and much
more attractive. Knowing that its
patrons were principally among the
Young Of both sexes, and especially the
Young women, that most interesting
element of modern society, reporter
started on trip of investigation. He
was armed with the utmost resolution
to expose the manufacturers in the use
of an hurtfHl ingredient aud to fully
explain the methods of its growth.
Weird storiescf refuse animal fat and
other unsavory contigents were in his
mind, and if there was any leaning
whatever twas against the use and in
PRODUCTION of the gum.
Upon application to one factory, the
reporter was told to go through the
building himself without q guide or es-
cort, and was given full permission to
examine every box or department and
to question all hands engaged on the
premises. This easy confidence of the
proprietor rather disarmed suspicion,
but the advantage was all the visitors,
as the house had not been appraised
and had no opportunity to get ready
like a well regulated bank receiving
the Government examiner.
On the top floor was found the raw
material. A negro engaged in empty
ing it from sacks and shoveling it into
a measure explained that it was a gum
calIet! ehich. The chich, which is the
gum of Mexican tree, was about the
color ofpeW maple sugar or beeswax
and rather harder than either. In
other bins was a darker gum which he
explained was from the ''sweet-gum"
tree of Tennessee. A barrel or two of
parafIine white wax stood in another
part Of the room and with some cans
of halsam of tolu completed the
stores.
On the floor beneath the first steps in
the manufacture and, in fact, all the
simple methods were gone through
with The chich, which is the basis of
all dark gums. so the boiler explained,
was slowly Slowing over fire in big
caldron. On two large tables, clean as
the boards of bakery. two negroes
were kneading great rolls of the gum
ito get it smooth, they said. As they
worked it they occasionally put in some
powdered sugar as housewife works
flour inte her pastry dough. Now and
then the gum would stiffep and then u
lever was use9 to manipulate it. In
the big pot where thu chicl was
warmin. a man would occasionally
iadle a quantity of the balsam of tolu
and these two articles, together with
the sugar made up the entire combina-
tion of the gum. When perfectly
smooth the roll of gum was run under
a heavy roller not unlike colossal
wringer. This reduced it to a large
cake Of uniform thickness just as cook
rolls out pie-erust. The gum was then
allowed to cool, and after being pow
dered with white sugar was marked off
into little akesready for wrapping and
packing, The foreman Of the room,
who seemed well acquainted with the
agents he was handling, said that the
natives OF Mexico who gathered the
chich had to carry it over sterile
country to shipping point. The
crossing of this desert with the pack
mules that bore the cargo often occu-
pied week, and the men during that
time were frequently without water.
They had learned that death under
such circumstances resulted not from
thirst, but from the dryness of the
ahroat and the failure Of the saliva. It
was their custom to chew the gum,
and thus avoid the difficulty. Pieces
OF the material were also fastened to
the bits Of the pack mules and upon
this the animals champed and invited
the saliva which fortified them against
the trouble, too.
The Tennessee or sweet gum is used
in manufacturing another kind Of gum.
That is also combined with tolu balsam.
The balsam, which has medicinal
value in throat affections, is insoluble
in water and when mixed with either of
the gums mentioned furnishes lasting
flavor. In some of the darker gum a
little favoring of licorice is mixed.
The foreman explained. too, that the
taste for chewing varied with the differ
emit sections of the country. In the
South and through Texas the Black
Jack and strip gums made from the
gum If the Tennessee tree. was most in
demaBd. while in the North and North
west ard this middle section chich and
tolu were the only saleable articles. In
the Eest aud through the oil regions
si1e current gum was the pure white
gum made from the paraaline wax sweet
ened with sugar and favored with es-
sentisI oil. Paralline is 4 product Of
erude petroleum. LII is, in fact, the re-
fnse after the extraction Of the coal oil
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