Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 December 1881 — The Great Vice of New England [ARTICLE]

The Great Vice of New England

Providence Journal. Forty thousand dollars worth of ehewing gum is gathered Tn the State of Maine every year. In Oxford county is a man who makes it his business to collect spruce gum. Every year he buys from seven to nine tons. The gum is found chiefly in the region about Umbagog Lake and about the Rangeley lakes. A number of men do nothing else in the winter season except collect gum. With snowshoes, axe, and a sheboygan, on which is packed the gum, they spend days and n ghts in the woods. The clear, pure lumps of gum are sold in their native state, the best bringing fl per pound. Gum not immediately merchantable is

refined by a peculiar process. Bievelike boxes are covered with spruce boughs, on which is placed the gum. Steam is introduced’underneath. The gum is melted, is strained by the boughs, and then passes into warm water, where it is kept from hardening until the packer takes it out. draws it' into sticks, and then wraps it in tissue paper, when it is ready, for market. The gum meets with a ready sale. There is not a village, town, or city in Maine where it is not in demand. One dealer last year sold fourteen hundred dollars worth. In the large mill cities gum has a free sale. In Biddeford, Lewiston, Lawrence, and Lowell, the factory girls consume large quantities. It is said that in the lumber camps gum is used as a means of extending hospitality. After meal time the host fills his own black clay pipe and hands it to his guest. Later, clear lumps of spruce gum are placed before the visitor, and he is asked to take a chew. Maine produces forty thousand dollars worth of crum in a year, some of which finds its way to this market, from which it is distributed to the various out-lying factory villages,where,as stated before, -it is in good demand. Spruce gum is adulterated, and those who adulterate take the trouble to fashion the pieces of gum to appear like those taken in a pure state from the trees. The ingredient of adulteration is supposed to be the gum of the pine tree.