The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-12-25
improvement in " Sweets

occasionally had a cent to spend for
candy, and Fourth of July and Christ
mas brought her a quarter or a halt
pound of confectionery, and, with the
help Of occasional raids on the sugar
bowl and bit of frosted cake now and
then, she considered that her wants
were all supplied. but the small girl of
to-lay expects pound boxes of all kinds
of choice dainties at short intervals, and
thinks that the person who gives her a
cent means to insult her. 1t must be
said in defense of the modern little girl
that the candies are a great deal nicer
and more tempting than they used to be
in the days when peppermint stick, and
lemon braid, cream, lobster, and rock
candy were the staple sweeties, and all
the fair possibilities of chocolate were
unknown. Even peppermints, which
used to be about the size of a dime, and
not strong enough to keep one awake
through a whole sermon, even when
ones grandmother permitted one to
steal all that one wanted from her
pocket, have now developed into great
disks that make more than one mouth
full, and are strong enough to keep a
Congressman awake through an all-night
session.
Children who like candies that will
last" buy the imperials, little colored
pebbles almost as had as adamant and
fiery flavor, whether it be cinnamon or
cloves. Girls with old-fashioned moth
ers, who think that molasses is healthier
than sugar, have their choice between
candy precisely ike that which confec-
TONERS used to sell fifty years ago, and
Boston chips, and molasses cream
candy, which is brittle and very light
colored.
These are the candies that content lit
tie girls until they begin to go to school
and to feel social cares pressing upon
them, and the necessity of outshining
some one else weighs down their young
spirits. Then they come home and de-
mand gum drops, and condemn the
mammOn-wOrshiper who substitutes
gelatine for gum-arabic, and tries to de-
ceiye them. They are clamOrOus for
taffy; not only the plain squares, but
the vanilla cream taffy, and Everton
taffy, and the little pink square drops
containing walnut meats, and the almond
taffy; and they soon manifest nice APP
probation of the comparative merits of
peanut, almond and English walnut can
dies, and look with plying sorrow upon
the uncle who asks them if one kind of
nut candy be not as good as another
Still, after acquiring all this knowledge,
they realize that there are lOftier heights
for them to scale, and they envy the
grown-up sister who now and then gives
them dainties of which they do not know
the names, and who seems, to their
childish eyes, to live in rain of con-
fections.
The most delicious and most expen-
sive of the things to be found on the
cOnfectioneFs' counters are the crystal
lized apricots, figs, amber and green
lines, pears and gree cages, and most
of the persons who buy them select them
almost piece by piece, making up their
boxes to suit themselves. The fashion
of doing this has come up within a few
years, and the confectioners who first
allowed it made large profits and greatly
increased a demand for the better class
of candies. A customer fits from jar to
jar and case to case saying, Give me
this, and this, and this,'' until she can
see nothing else that she wants, smiles
little when she is told how much the
whole weighs, and pays for a pound
and half of candy instead of the pound
that she meant to buy Sherbet candy,
made up of three thin, lOzenge shaped
layers of sugar, differing in color and
flavor, is a favOrite with high school
girls, and so are the cream walnuts and
and crystallized walnuts. Dyspeptics
piously avoid the last two things, which
are rather less digestible than melted
butter, but they look so nice with their
brown skins peeping through their coats
of white sugar, and they are so tempt
ing in the long thick bars into which
they are sometimes made, that they
please every body. Two other kinds OF
bar candy, the grated and sliced cocoa
nut, are much liked and are much sold
for children's parties, at which it is de-
sirable to have pretty dishes of confec-
tiOnery, as well as broken into bits and
mixed with other things for boxes.
1t would be possible to have a varied
stock and candies of many prices with
out going beyond the class of chocolates,
which grows larger and larger every
year. There are several kinds of plain
chocolate loZenges, and next to them in
cheapneSs come the nonpareil chocolates,
which are lozenges studded with drops
o. sugar looking like homeopathic pills
Tor fairies. Cream chocolates may be
filed either with vanilla or orange, as one
pleaseS, and some cOmfectioners use
raspberry and other fruit fiavOrs. Van
lila cream chocolates have little cherries
inside them, making a delightful min
Cling of sour, sweet and bitter, and the
almond caramel, which comes in little
cubes cased in paper, ranks next in eX-
cellence. This paper wrapping is an
Improvement aided the last few years
for convenience in packing, chocolate
being any thing but beautiier to pink
or white candies that lie next to it for
any length Of time. Almonds are cased
both in plain chocolate and in mixture
of chocolate and sugar that crystalliZes
upon them, in plain sugar poured upon
them in the form of thin sirup and
making the variety known to the trade
as rough, and in smooth almonds which
are polished by constantly moving the pan
in which they are dried. In the last va
riety the nut is not burned; in the 9TH
erS it is. The name of jelly chocolates
sounds imposing, but the things them
selves are rather disappointing and seem
rather tame after chocolate creams, but
they are liked by the admirers of soft
candies.-BOStOn Transcript.