The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-11-06

wv
fully done; but however poor they may be
as works of art they are not unwholesome,
which, as we have before said, was far from
being the case a few years ago, before DIR.
Hasscll turned detective officer for the good
of our little ones. Here, for instance is
the report of some mixed sugar ornaments,
just such as we have described the children
coloring -
purchased in Middle Row, Holborn.-
The confectionery in this parcel is made up
into variety of Devices as hats, Jugs, bas-
kets, and dishes of fruits and vegetables
One Of the hats is colored yellow with
chromate of lead, and has a green hat-band
round it with arsenic of copper; second
hat is white, with blue hat-band, this pig
ment being Prussian blue. The baskets
are colored yellow with chromate of lead.
Into the coloring of the pears and peaches
the usual non-metallic pigment enters, to-
gether with chromate of lead and middle
Brunswick green. This is one of the worst
of the samples of colored sugar confection-
tionery submitted to analysis, as it con-
tains no less than four deadly poisons. -
That the fashionable West was guilty of
selling sweets equally adulterated with
those of the Drury Lane and Holborn shop
keepers, we give in proof one more analysis
of Il fish purchased in Shepherds Market,
May Fair: "The top Of the nose and the
gills of the fish are colored with the usual
pink, while the back and sides are highly
painted with that virulent poison, arsenic
of copper" We might describe scores of
specimens purchased in every quarter of
the town full of the like poisonous matter,
but they are now things of the past. 1t is
a misdemeanor to use metallic color in con-
fectionery it is just possible however, that
so we bid parents beware of any sugar
plums with vivid greens and reds, for they
are sure to he poisonous.
Steam has helped us to undersell the
French now we export to that country
much of the coarser kinds of sweets. In
England we make for children; in France
the ''bonbon" is made for children of a
larger growth. Nothing can exceed the
taste with which the sweets are put before
the public across the Channel. The boxes
they are packed in are works of art in
themselves. About Christmas time some
of our leading West End shops are full of
the artistic confectionery from the Partisan
manufactures. 1t looks SO pretty that we
scarcely like to demolish it. 1t must be
remembered that the presentation of cas-
kets of sweets is custom among the fash
ionables in France; our neighbors have,
therefore, to meet the critical and fastidious
taste of adults, and hence comfits, ETC., rise
in that country to works of art. We like
sweets in this country, but we are too great
towards to own it we do not doubt, how
ever, that simpler tastes will prevail, and
cause more artistic skill to be exhibited
than is now thought necessary for our nur-
series. If we expect large export trade
it should not be forgotten that other ma
lions require even their sweets to be pre-
scented to them in a graceful form. In Or
der to show the increase that has taken
place in the trade, we may state that twelve
years ago our entire make did not exceed
eight Thousand tons, whereas in 1862 it had
risen to twenty-five thousand tons, and is
now not very far short of thirty-five thous-
and tons per annum. This amount does
not include the rough sweets made in the
hucksters' shops, nor the toffy made at
home. which is not inconsiderable. If the
whole nation should 60 back to the tastes
of our childhood, like the French, the pro-
duction would at once mount up to double
the score at which it figures at present.
That the English have sweet tooth, wit
ness our rich port wine, which is in itself a
confcction, such rs no other nation but our
selves under the sun will drink. Such be-
ing the natural tendency of our palate, we
do not doubt but that we shall take to
sweets as naturally as the Italians do, albeit
we have no carnival in which to use them
as pleasant missiles.-CdsscTs (English)
Magazihe.