The representative., 1900-12-06
KANSAS CITY CHEWS GUM,
New Towns Use the Most of It-New
Orleans a Poor Market


Orleans a Poor Market.
]. ]. Amend, travelling representative of
one OF the largest chewing gum manufac
turing companies in the United States. ex-
pressed surprise in speaking to a reporter
that the establishment of a chewing gum
factory at this point is talked of.
ut is true that much of the gum that
we use comes by way of New Orleans in
it's raw state, from the tropics he said,
up factory here. l don't believe sugar
is any cheaper here than it is in the
North. and glucose Is no cheaper, If as
cheap. Then this is a poor market locally
for chewing gum"
"Is it?"
The worst in the United States
why is that?''
Il don't know the reason, but it is
fact, nevertheless. Why, I know lots OF
towns in other parts of the country that
use 10 times as much chewing gum-yes,
80 times as much-as New Orleans, and
they are not nearly as big as this city,
either. l have been around to the drug
stores since l have been in the city, and
l find that their sales are light. The first
class stores tell me that sometimes they
have call for chewing gum more than once
in three days. They ox.y keep one or
two kinds on hand, whereas in such stores
in the North at least dozen different kinds
will be kept for sale, and the demand is
steady all the time
Where is the best market for chewing
gum in the United States?"
'All west and north of st. Louis. Lots
of gum is sold throughout Kansas Ne
braska, the Dakotas and Minnesota. Kansas
City is great town for it"
How about Chicago?"
ooh, Chicago is one of the greatest chew
ing gum cities in the country. Chicago
has gone ahead of New York in this re-
spect. New York used to be great town
for it, and one couldn't go anywhere in
the city without seeing girls working their
the caricaturists and the paragraphists
made such fun of the habit that a good
many of the girls stopped chewing, and
the sales fell off heavily Boston was
a pretty good gum town at one time, but
never SO good as our Western cities
"As rule the newer the city the bet
ter the chewing gum trade in it. In an
old city, like New Orleans, the people
don't seeem to take to the habit at all.
The French element here hurts us. for the
French are not gum chewers The Ger
mans don't chew gum, either. In some
of the places where there are many Ger,
mans, as in some of the cities of the
Northwest, We sell but little chewing gum.
The young people like it but the old peo-
pie won't let them use it, l have
many 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 won't have it at all
in Germany and there is absolutely no
sale for it in France. or. in, fact, anywhere
on the continent. England uses great
deal, but they don't care much for a va
riety of brands there
do you think the chewing gum habit
grows on one like the cigaret or the opium
habit?"
Not to such extent as those you men
tiOn. Now take it in our factories. When
we employ new girls we tell them to go
ahead aud chew all the gum they want The
first few days their jaws are never ~
rest, but about the end of the first week
they don't chew quite so steadilyAt the
end of two weeks they chew 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 New Orleans Times
Democrat