CANDLEFISH 



1153 



CANDY 



CANDLEFISH, a salt-water fish, from twelve 

 to fifteen inches long, belonging to the smelt 

 family. It derives its name from a peculiar 

 custom among the Indians of Alaska, whose 

 coasts it frequents. The Indians literally make 

 a candle of it by drying it and forcing through 

 it the pith of a rush or a strip of bark as a 

 wick. When the wick is ignited it burns freely. 

 The extreme oiliness of the fish, strangely 

 enough, is not unpleasant to the taste, for the 

 oil has a fine flavor. When fried the flesh is 

 considered superior to that of the trout. The 

 oil is sometimes extracted and is used as a 

 substitute for cod-liver oil. 



CANDY, kan'di, a name given to almost 

 any sweetmeat which has sugar as its main 

 ingredient. Different methods of making, with 

 the addition of various flavorings, fruits, nuts 

 or other ingredients, produce almost innum- 

 erable kinds of candy, and the demand is so 

 great that new and tempting combinations are 

 being constantly evolved. The United States 

 uses more candy than any other nation in the 

 world, the output of its factories averaging 

 over $135,000,000 each year. The range of 

 prices at which it is sold is wide. Some of it, 

 containing a large proportion of glucose, is put 

 on the market at ten cents a pound, while 

 other varieties bring as high as a dollar or 

 more a pound, in part because of the maker's 

 name. 



If the candy that is eaten each year were 

 evenly distributed among the inhabitants of 

 the country, it would not be at all harmful. 

 Physicians generally agree that a moderate 

 amount of pure candy, eaten immediately after 

 a meal, is thoroughly wholesome, for the sys- 

 tem needs a certain proportion of sugar. If 

 eaten constantly, however, at intervals during 

 the day, even the best candy will do harm in 

 many ways. 'Especially important is it that 

 children should not be allowed to eat much 

 candy, and that such as they do have should 

 be pure. Constant visits to the candy shop 

 with pennies and the purchase there of the 

 cheap, brightly-colored candy so attractive to 

 children's eyes, work great harm. 



Story of the Candy Industry. So prom- 

 inent a place has candy made for itself in 

 social as well as industrial life, so almost nec- 

 essary has it come to seem to many people, 

 it is difficult to imagine that a comparatively 

 short time ago there was no such thing. But 

 if children before the beginning of the nine- 

 teenth century had candy at all, they had it 

 in the form of little sugar pills or pellets given 

 73 



them by the doctors, for the first candies were 

 made by physicians and druggists. The pur- 

 pose was to conceal the unpleasant taste of 

 medicines, and there are still on the market 

 to-day many drugs which are mixed or coated 

 with sugar to make them palatable. Some of 

 these, as peppermint, hoarhound or winter- 

 green drops of various kinds, have passed 

 from the medicine class and are now chiefly 

 eaten as candy. 



The popularity of the doctors' sugar-coated 

 pellets suggested to certain enterprising men 

 in England the idea that sweetmeats without 

 medicine might be even more popular, and 

 with their earliest products the candy indus- 

 try began. It spread in time to all civilized 

 countries, but it was only with the invention 

 of machinery which made manufacture far 

 easier, cheaper and more rapid that it became 

 a great business. 



As in all industries, there have been con- 

 stant improvements in method. Manufactur- 

 ers are now compelled by the laws of most 

 states and provinces to keep their factories 

 clean, light and airy. Then, too, the harm- 

 ful coal-tar preparations which were once used 

 to color candies are generally forbidden by 

 pure-food laws, so a person may to-day buy 

 colored candies without the fear that they are 

 poisonous. Even green-colored candy, for- 

 merly avoided because it was supposed to 

 contain arsenic, is now harmless, for in almost 

 all cases the dye used is simply spinach juice. 

 See ADULTERATION IN FOODSTUFFS AND CLOTH- 

 ING. 



The Making of Candy. There are so many 

 kinds of candies that an enumeration of them 

 and of the methods of manufacture would be 

 an impossibility, but they divide themselves 

 naturally into certain classes. All cream can- 

 dies, for instance, have as their basis what is 

 called a fondant. This French term is com- 

 monly used because France was for a long 

 time the only country which could make these 

 creams in perfection. The fondant is made, 

 in the factories, by adding to a large quantity 

 of sugar a small amount of glucose, and boil- 

 ing the whole with water until a thick, clear 

 syrup is obtained. This is poured upon huge 

 marble slabs, allowed to cool, and then worked 

 with long paddles until it becomes white, 

 creamy and smooth. Innumerable kinds of 

 candy are made with this fondant as a basis 

 chocolates, bonbons, patties, nut- and fruit- 

 nougats, cocoanut creams, and so on. 



Fondant is easily made in the home by 



