Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1900-10-03
MAINE SPRUCE GUM.
The Best Gum of the Forest-How
Gathered and Where Used.

mense fortune made in the man facture
OF pepsin and rub ber gums, but there are
few people who know of the enormous
an industry it has become. One OF the
weslthiest men In Portland Is the pos
SCISSOR OF lands, herds and st eamb boat lines,
and has made nearly all his fortune in
spruce gum.
'The people OF New York." he said to
a New York reporter. fare not spruce
gum chewers, and for that reason they do
not realize what an enterprise the getting
and marketing OF this gum has become,
yet many hundred tons of spruce gum
are consumed in the United States every
year"
Mr.. Curtis, the man referred to, Prob
ably knows more in regard to the spruce
gum history and growth than any other
one man, for he was the pioneer in the
enterprise.
81 prepared and sold the first bit of
spruce gum ever put upon the market
in this country" he SAID. s'That was in
1850. l am no longer young man, you
see, for l am now sixty-six years old.
Yet" he added, laug hing, ~ take a still
youthful interest in spruce gum. / be-
gan first, way back in 1850, by going
about the country with cart and ped
ding he gum from house to house. In
this way | went all through New Eng
land, and the first year l collected 5000
in money.
"Ihen l grew ambitious and wanted to
make the whole United States my field.
It's just rs good an ambition, that of SUBJ
cuing nation to good, healthy, spruce
gum-chewing, as subduing it to tobacco
smoking. Well, have personally visited
almost every city in the United States and
Mexico in the interests Of this business.
My first large order, ! remember, came
from st. Louis firm. / sold them 36, 600
boxes, varying from one to two pounds In
each box, and delivered them all during
the year. Now we have agents all over
the country. One OF our men is to-day In
Butte, Mon., another out on the Pacific
coast. OF course we have scores OF COM
petitors, but there Is business enough to
warrant maDyImore."
gum was found, Mr.. Curtis went to a
large map OF the United States which
hung on the wall OF his private office,
and drew his finger across it from east to
west, starting with New York city as the
southern point.
1--WE sell almost entirely above this line
through the northern states and up
k,A k,n "a
"Probably Michigan, according to its
popuiat ion, usts more OF the gum than
any other state in the union. Chicago
and st. Louis are great spruce gum cities.
New York city? No; New Workers chew
pepsin. DO you know" he added, this
taste FOR spruce gum seems an hereditary
Or. The PEE pie living among tue spruce
forests, as in Maine, New hampshire,
northern New York and Michigan, love
the spruce gum; so also do their descen
dan,s. The southern market is small,
and there the taste is an acquired one,
IKE that for olives ana celery"
the large wholesale houses buy GER
tain part Of their gum prepared, ready for
sending out again, but most of it they get
in the rough state, aud then put it
Through n steaning or manufacturing"
process in their own establishments.
This so-called 'manutactured" gum is
pure spruce, but geIs its name from the
fact that it has been reduced from its
original state.
The spruce gum industry gives en-
pIoyment to hundreds OF men in the
forests Of Maine, New Hampshire, north
ern New York and Canada. For any OF
the farmers it forms an only source Of in
come during the late fall and winter sea-
son. An experienced GUNNER" makes
on the average g 81 a day. His outlay is
small, snd the work is considered par
ticularly healthy. He first equps him.
self Wit h coarse meal-bag, sewed up at
the open cod, vii h hole cut in the CEN
tire large enough to permit of its being
drawn over the head This large opening
is usually bound around and stayed
with Gather. The bag in this way forms
two pouches, one of the m falling down III
front and the other over the back
Of the GUNNER. In one of the pou-
ches he stores away certain needed tools,
as hammer, Ratchet, large knife and SO
forth; in the other such supply Of food
as he thinks will be needed.
The gummer's stay in the forest depends,
OF course, on his success in finding ready
supply of gum-sometimes it is only one
or TWO days, sometimes two or three
weeks. During recent years so many men
have gummed over these forests that here
are now certain we'll known spruce camps,
made Of boughs, and extremely rough and
primitive, yet they furnish very comfort
able quarters Tor the men at night. 1t is
a tradition among the gummers that no
one has ever yet taken cold from lying
o 1T in the spruce forests, however exposed
his condition or intense the cold. Certain
it is that they endure rain, snow and cold
with glowing health that would put the
trained athlete to the blush. The old
"a IL - ia.