The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1895-02-08
An Industry That Gives Employment to
Thousands OF Pcople-America
Is = Nation of Jaw
Workers.
Do you chew gum?

much as he dislikes to see others com.
%placently smack their lips over the bit
of gum and sugar, hides behind the
laudable purpose, SO Called subter-
fuge, in other words-of improving an
imperfect digestive apparatus, Of
whitening the teeth or Of sweetening
the breath.
Said Pope: "Old politicians chew on
wisdom past" This truisn is suggcs-
tive. But the modern chewer, what
ever may be his excuse fer the indul-
gence, is addicted to something more
tangible-and that something is a pc
culiar conglomeration Of stuffs.
If your favorite brand is white gum
your solace is in chewing p~araffne-
which is q mixture of various carbo-
hydrides-that has been dissolved at a
gentle heat in olive oil and glycerine.
tits stirred on cooling and afterwards
compressed.
If tolu occupies first place in your af-
fections you indulge in q mixture of
balsam of tolu-which is made by dis
solving orange shellac and gum ben
zoin in rectifed spirit, with the ad-
dition of a few drops of the oils Of cas-
STA and nutmeg dissolved in a little es-
of vanilla-octmeal and sugar.
There is also spruce gum, made from
exudations of the spruce tree. This
gum from the mandatory of nature is
regarded as both pure and beneficial.
Whether the chewer of gum gets q
liberal allowance of the proverbial
peck Of dirt which every individual is
supposed to eat in his allotted three
score and ten in the sugared, favored,
daintily-wrapped squares of gum is a
conference.-the theme.
There is, in fact. such a mysterious
air Of secrecy abcutsthe manufacture
Of these innocent-looking unsatisfactory
sticks that the wc7,ld-be visitor, who is
not given eItree into the sacred pre-
cincts for love or money, is quite apt
.tto think maybe ''clcanliness is next to
goodness is not the motto Of the
chewing gum m~u1Ssfacturer!!
At+any rate, there are ,innumerahe
fstories afioat as to the ingredients of
. this decidedly popular American prod
uct.
A chewing gum factory that claims
the distinction of being the third larg-
est in the world may be found within
the gates Of Chicago. Though n is
not permitted even to glance into the
great room where the clang of machin-
cry indicates the sacred spot, and
though one cannot converse with the
liege lord who, locked in his private
Office, concocts mixtures to tickle the
palate of the professional gum-chewer,
there are many interesting things to
be heard and many interesting things
to be seen lie the packing department,
One of the managers laughed aloud
at the bare suggestion of admittance
being refused On the ground that the
ingredients are injurious.
Some people actually think" he
said, that chewing.gum is made from
old rubber boots and refuse matter.
The fact is chat only pure materials
are used, the principal ingredient be-
ing an emulation from a species of rub
Der tree native in Mexico"
"What is the appearance of this sub
stance?'
''It is a thick brown sap of the con-
sistency and color of maple sirup. We
get it in the original state, with parti-
eles of bark and dirt. This goes
through a long process Of cleaning.
Then of course the process of making
is a profound secret. There is a man
IN our employ, by the way, who for
twenty-one years has done nothing else
but experiment on new brands of chew
ing gum. No, even a manager could
not take his wife through the factory,
o rigid are the rules. Each employee
knows only his particular part of the
work, so the secret of making, as a
whole, is preserved"
care the materials expensive?"
yes, for the original gum costs $1.10
apound in ton lots, and the essential
oils used cost 81 a pint. These are the
principal Ingredients
"How long d time is required to con-
vert IA lot Of new material into chew
ing gum
almost a week."
An interesting spectacle is to look in
the packing room. Here great trucks
filed high with strips of chewing-gum
ayard long and several inches wide,
all carefully marked with geometric
precision into squares, are rolled in at
intervals from the factory. The deft
fingers of the seventy-five wrappers
young girls-break these strips into
sections, wrap each in a tissue cover
ing and then tinfoil, and pack them
away in pasteboard boxes in an almost
incredibly short time. One girl has
thus filled 1853 boxes in one day, there
being SO sticks in each box, or 5,50s
sticks all told. This is an unusual rec