CHEWING GUM

No language that is unfortunately understood by the greater portion of the people who speak English, thousands are saying on the first of January—­in 1890, a far-off date that it is wonderful any one has lived to see—­“Let us have a new deal!” It is a natural exclamation, and does not necessarily mean any change of purpose.  It always seems to a man that if he could shuffle the cards he could increase his advantages in the game of life, and, to continue the figure which needs so little explanation, it usually appears to him that he could play anybody else’s hand better than his own.  In all the good resolutions of the new year, then, it happens that perhaps the most sincere is the determination to get a better hand.  Many mistake this for repentance and an intention to reform, when generally it is only the desire for a new shuffle of the cards.  Let us have a fresh pack and a new deal, and start fair.  It seems idle, therefore, for the moralist to indulge in a homily about annual good intentions, and habits that ought to be dropped or acquired, on the first of January.  He can do little more than comment on the passing show.

It will be admitted that if the world at this date is not socially reformed it is not the fault of the Drawer, and for the reason that it has been not so much a critic as an explainer and encourager.  It is in the latter character that it undertakes to defend and justify a national industry that has become very important within the past ten years.  A great deal of capital is invested in it, and millions of people are actively employed in it.  The varieties of chewing gum that are manufactured would be a matter of surprise to those who have paid no attention to the subject, and who may suppose that the millions of mouths they see engaged in its mastication have a common and vulgar taste.  From the fact that it can be obtained at the apothecary’s, an impression has got abroad that it is medicinal.  This is not true.  The medical profession do not use it, and what distinguishes it from drugs-that they also do not use—­is the fact that they do not prescribe it.  It is neither a narcotic nor a stimulant.  It cannot strictly be said to soothe or to excite.  The habit of using it differs totally from that of the chewing of tobacco or the dipping of snuff.  It might, by a purely mechanical operation, keep a person awake, but no one could go to sleep chewing gum.  It is in itself neither tonic nor sedative.  It is to be noticed also that the gum habit differs from the tobacco habit in that the aromatic and elastic substance is masticated, while the tobacco never is, and that the mastication leads to nothing except more mastication.  The task is one that can never be finished.  The amount of energy expended in this process if capitalized or conserved would produce great results.  Of course the individual does little, but if the power evolved by the practice