Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1882 — Chewing Gum. [ARTICLE]

Chewing Gum.

It is a fact of some consequence to dealers in certain goods that the chew-ing-gum season begins with school. There is some demand dnring the summer, but boys and girls generally have other means of diversion and recreation; but when the school-room door opens and the year’s toil begins there is something necessary in study hours. Taffy and other candies leave marks on' fingers and faces, but the hardy gum can be laid away snugly in the corner of the desk, mouth or pocket, and reproduced whenever the pedagogue has his back turned. Very little pure spruce gum is in the market. Packages are received that look like pure gum at first sight, but the lumps are supposed to be forined by the fingers after a little gum, resin and other things have been added. If a dealer is in doubt about the genuineness of this spruce gum, he applies to a Canadian, who can tell at onoe. It must not be inferred from this that the regular diet of the Canadian is spruce KNo; he gets something more on lays occasionally. The amount of chewing gum manufactured is enormous. There is a factory in this city. The gam sold by confectioners is chiefly paraffine wax. Spruce gum is 50 cents a pound for the best in Maine, hence the use of cheaper things gives profit. The gum-makers follow the toy seasons in the form of chewing-gum—that is to say, when tops are the toys gum is in the shape of tops, at other seasons other forms attract pennies. Chewing-gum may seem insignificant as a trade commodity, but it is not. There are large houses in the country engaged solely in the,preparation of chewing gum.— Providence Journal. Ivory white is in such great vogue that satin dresses of this shade are nb longer confined to full-drCss entertainments, but are imported for visiting costumes.