The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1878-12-26
The treat Sweet Question.

The consumption of candy en0TmntIs-
~ increases from year 10 yeIT. The
sweet tooth thai was satisfied Il geneT-
alton ago with a cents worth of, mint
slick now demands 4 pound of cara
melS. \ quarter Of "A pound of 81
cIeiS would have satisfied a Young
mans sweetheart then. and inspired
her with the most favorable estimate
Of his attachment, whereas il will now
cost him at least half Il dollar for fan
cy confectionery 10 produce an equally
strong impression. Ii is not too much
To say that 10 liquor drinking, opium
chewing and other evil and Injurious
habits, We have added, within Il few
years, Il new one almost rs detrimental
To health in the shape of an en0TmnuS
consumption of sweets. The feminine
hall of society Is most addicted 10 il
in some women the craving for CANDY
is almost as strong aS that OF topper
for his glass, and the indulgence grows
with what it feeds upon.
The extent To which the c1nSumT-
tiOn of sugar in all of its various uses
has increased is simply amazing. Su-
gar is produced only To be eaten: il
has no place anywhere outside of the
range OF articles intended To disappear
down the throat. Remembering this,
We may read with wonder the St1tiS-
ties of sugar consumption. In IS;D
the people of the United States ate at
an average Of thirteen pounds apiece
per annum: i'm lS1J they had come tn
the habit al eating forty -four pounds Il
Near-l more than triple increase
and IL csIInut be doubted that since
that time the growth has been steady.
Doubtless, in the present wear,
complaining as every body has been of
small profits and hard times, every
man, woman and child, great and
small. old and young, has united in the
grand result of making way with an aV-
erage Of fifty pounds of sugar. A few
dySpeptics or dipteIic TeIOrmPrS have
perhaps refused tO eat their share. hut
there were plenty of girls willing To
take extra chocolate and marshmallOw
drops and 50 make up for any de;icien-
ry in the returns. I'm such fashion il
has come Ia pass that our sugar bill,
payable in gold 10 The West Indies,
South America and other lands abroad,
is just about one hundred millions of
dollars a wear. From 1871 To 1879 the
average value imported was ninety
millions worth, to which the expenses
and freight and other charges would
fairly add ten millions more. This eX-
ceeded the product of all our gold and
silver mines; if every dollar Of bullion
produced has been sent away il would
not have cancelled our sugar bill. In
deed this has heen the case ever since
the discovery Of gold in IS49; all We
have dug is less in the aggregate than
our purchases from other countries of
sugar and mOlaSses. Cotton alone has
gone out in sufficient quantities to pay
for these sweet imports; neither corn
nor wheat, nor, indeed. the aggregate
of all forms of breadStuffs, has been
great enough to balance them. until
within the last wear or two.
OF course these considerations will
not much influence. any one who
has the taste for confectionery
and has not Vet received warning
from an OyeTwOrked digestion. Candy
is cheap; it is enormously plenty: the
b0untiful provisions of liquids that
cheer and inebriate scarcely Surpass
the abundant supply of the sweets that
SwPeten, while if the Western revOlu-
tiOnaTy effort to reduce beer to three
cents a glass had spread over the cOun-
try as successfully as the potato hug
and the greenback movement, il would
have been no greater a reduction than
there has been in the prices of cOnfec-
tiOnery. How the cheap stuff is adul-
terated is secret of the makers and
Venders; that it contains all sorts of
ingredients cheaper than sugar, some
of them probably innOcuOus and others
very harmful, is tOlPrably certain
COlOring and flavor are produced by a
variety of poisonous chemicals. and
weight is added by terra alba, as well
as other less harmful substances. Tn
on such compositions do We feed in our
efforts to eat an average of fifty pounds
Of sugar 4 year.-Phiid. Times.