Читать книгу Friendly Acres - Peter McArthur - Страница 10

Table of Contents

One should not be held responsible for everything he does in the spring. I know that chewing gum is very bad form, but I felt that I simply had to have a "chaw." Just to show you how independent we are of the cities, we have our own gum-trees on the farm. The spruce trees give a supply that has a real tang, though it is so stiff that one feels the need of the "ponderous and marble jaws" of the poet's phrase. I could defend this spring debauch by pointing out that the druggists carry spruce gum as a drug, and that it takes rank as a heart stimulant. But why apologize or defend oneself regarding what is an almost universal practice? Providing gum for the gum chewers is now one of the world's great industries, ranking with the movie shows and Ford cars. I understand that the greatest triumph of the New World in the line of architecture is due to the ceaseless grinding of countless jaws. The home of the chicle trust is a triumph of art, and is said to mark the beginnings of a new ideal in architecture. And the gum chewers have another claim to recognition. The gatherers of chicle have discovered the ruins of an old civilization in Central America, and have given a new impetus to the study of archaeology. And possibly when the historians of the future, those industrious gentlemen who make it their business to keep alive the fires of national hatred, come to add up the cultural and permanent effects of the great war they will find that the one thing worth recording is the introduction of the gum-chewing habit to the effete nations of Europe. Go to, if I have taken to chewing gum who is to blame me? It is possible that I am helping to make history rather than indulging an objectionable habit.