Chewing Gum

CHEWING GUM. It is said that the amount of money spent in the United States for chewing gum each year is greater than for school textbooks. The chewing gum habit is peculiarly American, although the sale has extended in recent years to Canada and England and to other countries in smaller degrees.

Formerly spruce and other native forest resins or "gums" were used for chewing, and paraffin was also sometimes used. But of late years chew ing gum has been made almost entirel of chicle gum, an elastic gum from th naseberry or sapodilla tree and oche evergreens of Central and tropical Sout] America.

Over ten million pounds of this gum valued at more than $5,000,000, are im ported every year into the United States At the factories it is first choppec into fine bits and purified, then it i; cooked in steam-jacketed vessels witi sweetening and flavoring matter. Mint wintergreen, pineapple, and licorice arc favorite flavors, and pepsin and thymoi are also added at times for medicinal purposes. The prepared " d ough" kneaded, rolled, cut into sticks, dried, and wrapped, all by machinery. Par affin is largely used in cheap chewing gums; it may be detected by the ten dency of the sticks to crumble.

The prevalence of the " chewing gum habit" in the United States has been criticized as inelegant, especially when practiced in public places. Those who defend the habit, however, say it is beneficial, not only because it is supposed to relieve mild cases of indigestion, but because it gives those who are nervously inclined "something to do," affording an outlet for their surplus energy.