Daily Kennebec journal., 1900-12-21
GOOD CHEWING GUM TOWNS.
A Salesman Says They Are Mostly in
the West and Northwest
New Orleans Times Democrat

j. ]. Amend. travelling representa-
tive Of one of the largest chewing gum
manufacturing companies in the Unit
ed States. yesterday, expressed sur
prise in speaking to n reporter that the
establishment of chewing gum fac
tory at this point is talked of.
1T is true that much of the gum we
use comes by way of New Orleans, in
it's raw state. from the tropics" he
said, but / can see no other reason
for putting up a factory here. / don't
believe sugar is any cheaper here than
il is in the North, and glucose is no
cheaper, if as cheap. Then this is Il
very poor market locally for chewing
gum"
1T is?"
The worst in the United States"
Why is that?'
Il don't know the reason but it is a
fact, nevertheless. Why. 1 know lots of
towns in other parts of the country
that use ten times as much chewing
gum-yes, 50 times as much-as New
Orleans. and they are not nearly as
big as this city. either. I've been
around to the drug stores since l have
been in the city and l find that their
sales are very light. The 1irst-class
stores tell me that sometimes they
don't have a call for chewing gum
more than once in two or three days.
They only keep one or two kinds on
hand, whereas in such stores in the
North and East a dozen different kinds
will be kept constantly for sale, and
the demand is steady at all times"
Where is the best market for chew
ing gum in the United States?'
An West and North of st. Louis.
Lots Of gum is sold throughout Kan
eas. Nebraska. the Dakotas and Min
ncsota. Kansas City is a great town
for it
How about Chicago"
"Oh. Chicago is one of the greatest
chewing gum cities in the country. Chi
cago has gone ahead of New York in
this respect. New York used to he
great town for it, ana one couldn't go
anywhere in the city without seeing
girls working their jaws as If their
lives depended on ii. But the carica-
turists and the paragraphists made
such fun Of the habit that a great
many of the girls stopped chewing and
the sales fell off very heavily. Boston
was a pretty good gum town at one
time. but never so good as our West
ern cities.
"As a rule the newer the city the
better the chewing gum trade in it, In
an old city. like New Orleans the peo-
ple don't seem to take to the habit at
all. The French element here hurts us.
for the French are not gum chewers
The Germans don't chew gum. either.
In some of the places where there are
many Germans. as in some cities OF
the Northwest, we sell but little chew
ing gum. The young people like it but
the old people won't let them use 1T.
have seen many q boy spanked by
his German mother for using chewing
gum
DO you export much of it?"
only to England and Australia.
None of the European nations take
kindly to chewing gum. They wont
have it at all in Germany. and there
is absolutely no sale for it in France
or. in fact, on the Continent. England
uses a great deal, but they don't care
much for variety of brands there.
"Do YOU think the chewing gum
habit grows on one like the cigarette
or the opium habit?"
Not to such an extent as those you
mention. Now take it in our factories
When we employ new girls we tell
them to go ahead and chew all the gum
they want. The first few days their
Jaws are never at rest, but about the
end Of the first week they don't chew
quite so steadily. At the end of two
weeks they chew very moderately, and
after they have been in the factory a
month they don't chew at all. They |
are cured, and you couldn't hire an old
hand to chew gum.