Year: 1879

We will not undertake to say how
many tons of gum it takes to keep
American jaws wagging, but it is q
number of thousand, according to com.
mercial statistics. Yet even they dc
not afford us an adequate idea of the
fuel that is necessary to generate and
keep alive the force and motion charac-
| teristic of the gum-chewer. The buxonl
maiden of the backwoods and the ire.
pressible boy that Keeps her company
repair to the monarchs Of the primeval
forest and search for the generous ooze
which, manipulated into unctuous cuds.
is rolled as sweet iTursels under and
over the tongue, and indeed made init
mately acquainted with every ridge.
valley and elevation of the mouth. For
backwoods boys and girls it is not q
pastime to be particularly inveighed
against. They doubtless consider it 8
luxury, and of luxuries they do not have
any too many. They get the pure ex.
udations of the spruce or the pine tree.
and they fatter themselves that the
choicest of bon-bcps or the freshest OF
French confectionery would not be more
satisfying than the plastic pellets their
woodward rambles furnish them. While
it may not be the luxury that refines, ii
brings more contentment than much
that is supposed to achieve that
desirable result. Let the juvenile
that cultivates gum-chewing as an
encouragement to home industry chew
on. Its tendency may be to impair his
digestion, but he can overcome that by
his habits of exercise and his proneness
to feed on raw turnips and red-cheeked
apples in their season, and so the de-
lights of rumination will not be pur-
chased at too dear cost.


1t is the gum of commerce to which
we object-that fearful compound that
suggests sweet-meats at the outset and
is at last resolved into q hopeless, un-
less and flabby, that tires the jaws but
still excites them to renewed exertion
by its slippery evasion of each dental
pressure. The schoolgirl and the lady's
maid, when once enslaved by gum, ex-
asperate our nerves by their tireless and
aimless mastication. They grind and
grind with such regular and ceaseless
motion that it seems as if, like the fa-
NOUS cork-leg of the man of Rotterdam,
the force of inertia had become so great
that the grinding would go on even
when antagonized by the will power.
We have often thought of this, and the
recent misfortune Of Kentucky girl
whose face kept the characteristic and
all-embracing contortions of gum chew
ing long after she had desired to rest
from that pastime proves to us that there
has always been foundation for our ap-
prehensions. Nothing but chloroform
and enforced quiescence of the whole
system would stop that terrible wagging.
But when in the presence of habitual
gum chewers we feel more Ill at ease to
see them with motionless jaws than to
observe their works in active operation,
for In the former case we expect mo-
mentarily to come upon some clammy
reminder of the practice which so en-
crosses them adhering to the top of q
chair-post, the corner of table or the
edge of mantel-piece. The precious
cud will wear almost q season if called
upon for such extended duty. 1t pros
pers by persecution. Torture and man
gle it as one may, it is still ready to be
pasted on a door knob to await calmer
moments. Many young men and maid.
ems have worn themselves out trying to
to prove its destructibility, but it Meth.
er dissolves, nor is abraded, nor breaks,
nor runs away. o, that terrible cud
that drives from the human face its
soulful lights and shadows in its strug'
gle to open and shut and perform the
sodden duties of a machine. Parents
and guardians should insist upon wean
ing their daughters if the latter can moi
shake off this disgusting habit by the
strength of their own wills and the die
tates of their own sense of propriety.-
Boston Post.