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!*- 3, r ^z^1 CELEBRATING GHEWING GUM'S FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY Just Half a Centnry Ago This Month Santa Anna of Mexico Hospitably Passed A round the Chicle. and the Great Ameriean Jaw Movement Began. FOLD away the canopies of the Shakeapeare Masquo; broak up tho type in the special-feat ure : ? are'a Heroinea" and elear the all the trappings inci dent to tho Tercentenary. for the Big Anniversary of 1916 is at hand. Fifty years ago ihis month chewing-gum be? came an Ameriean Issue. Among the honest proletariat of Amerii a Shakespoaro has won his thou? sands. but chewing-gum has won its (or hen tons of thousands, and it is no more than right that it should havo oflicial recognition at this time. Ther" is a delightful little vagary of fate in the coincidence of the fiftieth birthday of chewing-gum falline: in a year of personal unpleasantness with Mexico, for it was from Mexico that the I'nited i'tates received the first intima tion of its national dei-rtiny. It was in the form of a little brown wad of chew a lo chicle. brought to New York in I86C1 hy that crafty political ring of Mexico. Santa Anna. If for nothing else than the memory of this importation, there would lie aufficient ground for what one paper has so aptly termed "a deli cate situation" on the border. On one oi' his eampaign tours for Re volving Preaident of Mexico, General Santa Anna v ni in June, 1866, to con? fer with a friend at SnugHarbor, Staten Island. Little realizing what moment Ita wero to attend his action. cami* ore Thomas Adams, jr., to pay a social call on the distinguished thug. One word led to another and before the afternoon was half over they had reached such a state of familiarity that General Santa Anna had gone to his bureau-drawer and taken out a little ehunk of something resemb'ling over shooing and, placing a piece of it in his mouth. began to chew it with apparent relish, at the same time offering a sector of it to Mr. Adams and his son. With a nice regard for convention, Mr. Adams asked the general what it was before he placed it in his mouth, and was informed that it was the gum of the Zapote tree, known to its friends as "chicle." Thus reassured. Mr. Adams took a chance, and was at once impressod with the substance's possibilities as a com mercial rubber. He asked Santa Anna to give him a piece about the size of a man's fist. and took it home with him for experimental purposes. to see if it could not be vulcanized. In conference with a chemist and a manufacturor of dental supplies, he tried to produce from it a substance thai could be used as a base for ?rtificial teeth. but the thing must have had some intuitive sense of what it had realiy been brought into the world for as it successfully refused to be vulcan? ized and remained just what it was when it first came from Santa Anna's Thc Humble Birthpla bureau?a potential stick of health-giv? ing, circulation-building, teeth-proserv ing, digestion-aiding. brain-refr?shing, chest-developing. soul-tuning chewing gum. One day as they sat round the dilied ? ing table gazing hopelessly at the deli ant mass of chicle, some one said in a pet that the only thing the darn stuff was good for apparently was to be chewed. And Mr. Adams. being of that typeof menpictured in the encyclopedia advertisements who have, without a eol? lege education, worked their way from a line-cut fadeaway in the baekground. representing a barefoot boy, to a half tone picture of a man in a two-button sack-suit, with his hand on an open vol? ume, immediately answered back with. "We'll fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," or "Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute," or some such historical phrase. and the manufac ture of chewing-gum from chicle was begun. In a little house on Palisade .*\venue, Jersey City, with a capital investment of thirty-five dollars, the Adamses, pere et fila, started what might be called th" greatest national movement .'.nn rica has ever seen?the jaw movement. The chicle was boiled on an ordinary cook-stove, like molasses candy. until it had the consistemy of bread dough. when it was rolled into long strips and cut off in inch-sections. Theae were hardened in cold water and packed. a hundred in a box, and the thing waa done. The chewing of gum in the earl) daj - of its manufaclure was more a matter of conecientioufl application to the work at hand than it is to-day. for there was no such thing as flavoring to help along the delusion of having a good time. It was just chewing for chewing*! sake. and the pioneers who ga\e then* time and energy without even a trace of .-pcarmint or blood-orange reward dc serve all thr- praiie due to men and women who blaze the trail for those who follow in effete enjoyment of the fruita of their hardships. lt was necessary at tir.-t to give away the pieces of gum with purchase- ol candy. so that the ehildren might have a chance to take it home and try it over on their piazzas. with the idea that they would soon come back for more. once they discovered what a source of annoy ance it became to th^ir eMers. The pay chology of this scheme wu perft-ct. for the firs* retafler who tried it was be sieged on th*' following da> by young sters from the neighboring school. clam oring for more gum. In sheer self-de fence the parenfs took to chewing it also and the habit was on. ce of Chewing Gum. It rieeds but a glance at current sta tistics to show to what tremendous heightfl it has risen. We have it on otherwiae unimpeachable authority that if all the energy expended in chewing gum were to be converted into calories we would have a force suflicient to pro pel a ferryboat from Peck Slip, Eaat River, eastward to Pier 19, North River, via Lisbon and Hong Kong, or, in elec trical terms, a current powerful enough to lift a weight of 43.305.000 tons 34.000 miles per minute per second per kilo watt-hour. Thia BOUnda stagg"ring. It is, But it is a development of the gum chewing habit that we must fact with? out flinehing and without pussy-footing. The beneficial effects of this national pastime must not be overlooked. Chew? ing-gum came into a nation of tobacco chewers and refined it and elevated its tone until Charles Dickens, the author, wouldn't recognize the old places were he to pay a visit to this country to-day. It has contributed greatly to the neatness of the personal appeamnce of the nation. as it is estimated th tt in the mirrorsongum machines there are 345, 659.256 cravata and 756.586.589 wisps of hair adjusted during the ealendar year And one need only look at the car cards to see that the use of chewing gum. especially when brought home in a box, has been the means of keeping the home life of the nation in a state of pres ervation. Were it not for chewing-gum what would there be for the little ones lo run prattling to their daddy fnr as he appeara at the gate? What would Christmaa bc without a erate o?* chew? ing-gum peeping frori tho top of each stocking? What would any dinner party resolve- itself into had not the hostess suflicient MVOtr faire to place a stick of gum at each place as a delicate rcminder to her guests that one can never be sure iust what goes on in the kitchen. and that it is better to be safe than sorry ? It is fer these benefita to our national life thai we should at thi- time give tome tangible evidence of apprei iation. Granted thai shakespeare had talent. Granted that his lines have been more tniaquoted than the lines of any other author. and that whatever play of hi-; you want from the library is always out. But these are no reasons why the anni veraary of his death should be cele brated with special rotogravure section and bowling matchea while the anniver* lary of the birth of a truly Ameriean in 'titution should go unnotieed. America ? aricana! Ameriean celebration for Ameriean eelobrities! At this time. when nothing but intense. fresh-every hour patriotism will win the day, let us turn our plaudits to our native genius. Born, Commercially, in New Jersey. Chewing Gam Has Grown to a Point Where 300,000,000 Cravats Are Adjusted at the Slot-Machine Mirrors Annually. Plans for the celebration of the Flf tieth Anniversary of the birth of Chicle Chewing Gum are already under advise ment in a Committee on Arrangements appointed by a Committee on Appoint ments which came aa the result of a meeting of the Kxecutive Committee last month. The Committee on Publicity has given out the following tentative programme as arranged by the Enter? tainment Committee: On the first day there will be a pa geant, participated in by all the .-school children of the country simultaneously in their respeetive school buildings. At the door to each school room will be a waste baaket, auitably deeorated with the school colors, and presided over by Q toaeher. The pupils will march in In dian tiie past the baaket, each depositing a wad of gum therein and then pass on to their seats. This pretty little folk step has been practised for many years hy individual members of the classes, but this is the lirst time that the spirit of tho thing has been crystalli/.ed into a community affair. There will then be a ma-ique of tre mendoua proportiona, representing in historical form all the caxus bclli fur niahed this country by Mexico, bepin 1 ing with the .A.lamo and working up in intensity of otfence to the introduction of chewing gum by Santa Anna and the vogue of tho Mexican war eorrespond ent. This masque is expected to stir public opinion to a sense of its national honor as nothing else eould, and it ia confidently expected that close upon the performance will come a declar.it ton of war with Mexico and at last a mainte r.ance of .Xmerican rights. Coincident with the masque will be solemnized the laying of the comerstona of the new Seven Points Missior. on the site of the old mission of the same name minus two. A monster parade will close the cele bration, and tt is estimated that it will take three days for it to pass the n view ing stand. In fact. it is doubtful if it ever passes it, as the stand Ifl co be lo cated on a side street not on the line of march. Headed by the surviving gum chewers of 1866, some of them the very ones to whom, as ehildren. the first chicle gum was given as a bonus for buying candy, the parade will include in its ranks representatives o\' every pro fession in industry, including haseball players. On being interviewed after tho parade (Ieneral Wood will say: ' it wat nothing short of Inapiring, and only goel to show that every red-l I (0 Ied Ameri? can is back of this moven/nt." And if you doubt it. stand in the sub? way some night and watch the people opposite chewing gum. You will be? come so interested that you will forgd to chew your own.