Gum Man Adams

As it must to all men, Death came last week to Thomas Adams, 80, benefactor of tens of millions of gumchewers, at his Fifth Avenue home, Manhattan.

It was 40 years ago that Mr. Adams and his son paid a call on General Santa Anna of Mexico at Snug Harbor, Staten Island. From a bureau drawer the General produced "a little chunk of something resembling overshoeing." The guests beheld him place a piece of this substance in his mouth, chomp his jaws, smile. They dubiously examined the "overshoeing," which the General called "chicle" and said was the gum of the zapote tree. They too chomped, smiled.

Going home, Mr. Adams pondered chicle's possibilities as a commercial rubber, but his subsequent attempts at vulcanizing (baking to harden) it, all failed. He tried to utilize it as a base for false teeth, but that failed. With $35 capital, Mr. Adams founded Adams & Son, chewing gum manufacturers, which merged in 1899 into the American Chicle Company, capital of about $2,000,000, producers of sticks of "health-giving, circulation-building, teeth-preserving, digestion-aiding, brain-refreshing, jaw-developing, soul-tuning chewing gum."