The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-10-30
SPRUCE GUM.


tention to the gathering of the commodi-
ty, as there is no money in the business.
The saw-mills, pulp-mills and fo est fires
have wroght such devastation among the
vast tracts of spruce trees which former
ly clothed the Green Mountains that the
occupation of the gum-picker is almost
gone. Sometimes a lumberman or a
mountaineer in Woodford, a town adj
joining Bennington on the East, discov-
ers a tree that will yield several pounds
of marketable gum, which is brought to
Bennington, where it finds ready mar
ket at good price. The price, however,
depends entirely upon the quality, rang
ing all the way from fifty cents to Sl.50
a pound. Gum of inferior quality is
readily distinguished by its opaqueness,
and by it's very intimate admiXture of
minute bits of bark, which became en-
tangled in the gum when it eXuded from
the tree in semi-liquid state. Poor
gum is further distinguished as being too
heavy or too light, bitter and perma-
nently sticky to the teeth in some cases
and very hard and crumbly in other
specimens. Gum of the finest grade is
either translucent or transparent, of a
light amber color, filled more or less
with minute bubbles of air, breaking
with a short, shining fracture and hav-
ing a sweet, peculiar and slightly balsam-
ic odor and taste. The word gum"
however, is popularity misapplied, as the
substance uuder consideration is proper
ly speaking a resinOus matter.
1t is a fact not generally known that a
considerable portion of the. gum offered
for sale in Bennington is sent West in
small packages by mail. The reason of
this is that large numbers of Eastern
people who have gone West miss their
accustomed "chew' and send back to
their old home for small supplies at a
time. In this way, too, quarter-pound
packages of gum are sent across the con-
tinent to California, where the article is
valued almost beyond price. The Ohio
and Michigan branches of the Olin fami-
ly, who recently held their annual re-
union in Bennington, ''cornered'' about
all the spruce gum stocks in town.
Several years ago an enterprising
young man, II. w. Martin of Bennington,
worked up very large trade in this
commodity. Tons of gum by mail, ex-
press and freight were constantly sent by
him into remote sections of the country,
and the demand was often greater than
the supply. The gum, however, which
was of extra-tine quality, was obtained
in the State of New York. Mr.. Martin
was subsequently appointed postmaster
at Bennington, and the gum business
was abandoned.
Perhaps the most famous gum-picker
in Vermont is Alonzo X. Bishop of
Woodford. He is professional in this
peculiar industry. Bishop is about forty
five years old, stout, well-built, good
natured, wears long hair and walks with
an easy stride that measures the miles
without seeming WEAKNESS or tagging.
During the hot season, when gum cannot
be gathered in a merchantable condition,
owing to its sickness and its liability to
run together, Bishop poses as farmer and
Yankee-notion peddler. But when cold
weather sets in ''Lon,' as he is familiar
ly called in all the region round about,
penetrates the deep forests of the noun
tain in pursuit of his favorite calling,
which he has followed all his life. With
bag slung across his shoulder and car
rying long, slender pole which is armed
at one end with sharp chisel, that gum
may be detached from tree at a cOnsid-
cradle distance from the ground, this
man roams the mountain often several
days at time, alone and miles from any
human habitation. When deep snow
comes and the air is bitter cold Bishop
puts on his snowshoes and treads I'M
dauntedly the deep gorges and narrow
passes of the Green Mountains, in quest
of gum. There is dash of heroism and
peril in the life of the man, when one
pictures the sturdy figure toiling up
bleak attitudes, pelted by pitlless storms
of wind and snow, his eye fixed on an
impending cliff crowned by melancholy
spruces. Bishop takes the gum to his
humble home, where it is cleaned of all
adhering bark and dirt and sorted into
three grades, which Lon designates as
''good, bad and Indifferent" The gum
is then put up in small bags and gener.
ally brought to Bennington, where the
fine grades find ready market for cash
but the other grades are often bartered
for any small wares that may be wanted
for family use The life of the gum
picker is conspicuous illustration OF
the trite saying that ore-half of the
world does not know how the other hall
lives.
Finally, for many year past, certain
wicked penny-a-liners, regardless of facts
and destitute of chivalry, have given in
round figures the enormous amount OF
gum consumed by Vermont girls. Oh
course the charge is a gray-headed libe
of the first magnitude. So all pen
pictures of Green Mountain maiden
sitting in pretty garden-seat under the
dropping vines, absorbed IN French TO
nance, while the red of ripe lips and the
sweet, pathetic, graceful lines of the
| month ara onn,ioa11u 6icfnrbad Al,