A PAPER OF CANDY. 785 



ness, its yellowish color, and its extreme frangibility. The nnts and 

 fruits used in the cheaper varieties are also of poor quality, being 

 mostly worm-eaten, old, or damaged. 



To return now to our boiled sugar, which we left in the half-cooled 

 pasty or doughy condition produced by 250° of heat. A mass of sugar 

 in this state is the common or basic material of all candies ; it is the 

 nodal point of the line, the focus of all the processes. Antecedent to 

 this lump of waxy paste lies a field of waving, tasseled cane, and 

 forth from said lump proceed the thousand fantastic and toothsome 

 dainties that glow in the golden trays of the confectioner's window. 



The candy is worked by placing it on a marble slab kept warm 

 pei'haps by steam (sometimes an iron plate at one end is kept heated), 

 and having movable iron bai's for sides and ends — like the chase with 

 which a printer's " form " is surrounded. When cool enough to han- 

 dle, the flavor and the coloring ingredients are worked in. Clear can- 

 dies are run into pans or trays without being kneaded or pulled ; but 

 if a white opaq\ie article is desired, the mass is pulled on a hook simi- 

 lar to those seen in butchers' stalls — pulled out, folded, and thrown 

 back over the hook, and again pulled until it assumes a sufficiently 

 white appearance. For stick-candy "A" sugar is used, boiled down 

 with a little cream of tartar to prevent crystallization. The striping of 

 sticks is a very curious thing to see. The operator takes from the 

 warm mass of candy a portion which he colors as desired, then draws 

 it out into long, coarse strips, pressing them into the main mass, which 

 is then rolled into a cylindrical shape, and gradually tapered out smaller 

 and smaller until it is of the diameter of a stick of candy ; the mass 

 then resembles somewhat a balloon laid on its side, with its drag-rope 

 extended on the ground beside it. Now, the colored stripes (having 

 been rolled up in the paste) have been drawn out with the rest and in 

 proper proportion, so that they appear both in the inside and on the 

 outside of the stick as stripes. Sometimes a slight twist is given to the 

 long stick before it is cut by the scissors to the required lengths. The 

 working of candy by kneading or pulling it on the hook separates the 

 j)articles and increases the bulk, so that the youngster who buys a stick 

 of white candy imagines wrongly that he is getting more for his penny 

 than if he had invested in a clear stick. 



Lemon and other drops are now made by machines, which consist 

 of two revolving cylinders, with holes on each side so arranged as to 

 come exactly opposite each other when the cylinders revolve ; the 

 movement of the cylinders forces the candy into these molds. 



The flat, striated cream-sticks of the shops are made simply by work- 

 ing the candy very thoroughly until it acquires the creamy texture. 

 Peppermint-drops are made of granulated sugar and water heated to 

 the boiling-point (but not actually boiled), and afterward flavored with 

 the essence. White molasses candy is made of "coffee C " sugar, mixed 

 with equal proportions of sugar-house and New Orleans molasses, and 



VOL. XXXII. — 50 



