The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-01-18
GUM MADE
A / 0RTUNE
DR.. Beeman Here on a
Pleasure Trip.
HIS FACE is WELL KNOWN
Pepsin Proprietor Tells How Adver-
Using Made Him Mil
liens.

WSQuGSQdy, Is 6QCSl OF thC
Hawaiian hotel and will remain
in Honolulu until the return of the ST.
ezra on the 29th of this month.
DR.. Beeman, than whom perhaps
there is no better known man in the
United States, comes here purely for
pleasure and expresses himself in glow
ing terms of the condition Of things
as he finds them here. The Doctor has
been engaged In the manufacture and
sale of the famous ''Beeman's Pepsin
Chewing Cum at Cleveland, Ohio, for
the past ten years. retiring from active
business on April Is, 1899.
DR.. Beeman's account of the circum-
stances leading up to his commence
ment of the manufacture of chewing
gum is interesting. Told in his own
words, he said: I'm 1882 was prac-
ticing physician near Cleveland. About
this time all of my worldly goods con-
sisted of $500 and an old bay mare. I
was engaged in the manufacture of
pepsin in small way and always tried
to get my patients to use it as an aid
to digestion.
"Gum-chewing had become quite
fad and thought that perhaps my pep
sin could be added to the gum and
thus the sale of both articles increas-
ed. had in my employ a young lady
as bookkeeper and after talking the
matter over we decided to go into it
together on a small scale. Our first con-
| coction was something awful and /
had little. hopes of our ultimate sue
cess. Keeping at it, however, we man
aged to get our first gum on the mar
| ket about February of $780, 1t appear
ed first put up in fifteen-cent pack
ages, but these did not find ready
sale owing to their price. It was found
necessary to cater to the small trade
of children, and the five-cent package
was introduced.
Success Immediately followed and at
the end of the first year a dividend
was declared from which I received
81 500 and my lady partner the sum of
$3.50. This so, encouraged US that We
plunged into the gum business on a
large scale and at the end of our sec
ond year our sales amounted to over
$500, 0O0.'
That peculiar style of advertising
that has made Beeman's gum such a
success and has introduced the genial
Doctor into every home in the United
States was then taken up, and when
the old company went into the gum
trust on April Is, 1899, Mr.. Beeman re-
jceived for his interest something over
Item years before had been compelled to
work for $50 per month saw her bank
account Increased by $250,0o0.
"An interesting incident connected
with the sale Of our gum" continued
In 60 hot -I,ny,
we first placed it on the market the
w. c. T. U. would not even look at 1T.
but as soon as we convinced them that
the use of the gum had decreased the
|tobacco-chewing habit by nearly so per
cent we had them all passing resolu-
tons endorsing our product"
In explaining how he came to use so
many bald heads in his display adver-
Using. Dr., Beeman said: Some time
ago the editor of a weekly newspaper
in Maine sent me a marked copy of his
sheet containing roast on my gum
ads. The editor referred very causti-
cally to my plan of putting my bald
head into every periodical in the coun-
try and said that the plan Of plaster
ing the barns and fences of Maine with
the same likeness was repulsive to him.
After reading the EDITORS remarks / re-
allied that if one bald head would Gre
ate all of that commotion, twelve bald
heads would create twelve times as
much"
| AS result today every billboard In
the country advertises Beeman's gum
and the twelve bald heads go with it all
in row. Since the trust was formed
something over year ago, dividends Of
IL per cent on common stuck and per
cent on preferred stock have been de-
Iclared. The trust is capitalized at
fs9 900 O0O