Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-03-16
SWEETS FOR THE SWEET.

ssThe old world was essentially a sour one.
It never felt the sweetening influence OF su-
gar" A thought Of this nature occurred to
me as was taken through the workshop of Q
fashionable confectioner lately, and allowed
to see candy in the process of manufacture.
It must be confessed that condiments which
look very tempting when exposed in the shop
window are far from attractive when seen IN
embryonic state, in the kitchen. But, then,
it is as unfair to judge this work unfinished as
any other. Two or three caldrons set over
hot fires, contain pure sugar which is being
melted. AS soon as the liquefaction is COM
Plete, water is added and the mixture is allow
ed to cool. In this way considerable gain In
the weight and bulk of the material is accom-.
plished. On round, tin frames are stuck thir-
ty or forty needles, and on each OF these is
placed half an English walnut. Then the
mixture is heated again and the syrup poured
over the nuts and cooled. By this simple pro-
cess sugared walnuts are evolved.
There are several tables covered with large
marble slabs in the room. On these, caramels
are poured out in a viscOus state, and when
they grow hard they are carefully cut into
rectangular pieces. Some are then covered
with oiled tissue paper, while others are left
in their natural condition and placed on the
counters. The white paste of chocolate creams
is prepared in large vessel resembling cof-
fee pot. When boiled to the proper consis-
tency, so that the material can be poured out
slowly, it is poured into pan, each drop being
cut off with knife. Then the chocolate coat
ing is put on and set aside until it hardens.
Two or three men are making old-fashioned
molasses candy, kneading it over hook, throw
ing it to and fro like shuttle in loom, until
at last the desired whiteness and firmness are
obtained. Others are favoring messes in pans
which will turn out eventually to be very
palatable peppermint or lemon drops. One boy
is kept busy all the time in cracking and
cleaning English WalnUts, which have to be
washed before they are used. This cracking
requires some Skill for the nut must be left IN
two pieces when it is broken into more, it is
not used for sugaring, but is worked up into
less expensive nut candy
At respectable confectioners, where pure
materials are used, little coloring matter Is
employed, the chief being cochineal, which, as
every one knows, is small red insect found
in the West Indies. This gives the crimson
tinge to peppermints and other varieties, ana
is perfectly harmless. But unscrupulous deal
ers not only adulterate their stock itself, but
they use poisonous brown dyes for their choc-
olate; and it is safe to say the variegated
coloring matter in all cheap confectionery is
injurious. After thorough inspection, the
writer went his way musing, inclined to pity
the poor ancients less for their want OF candy,
rejecting that though they had no confectlon-
ers they also had no dentists.
THR UPAs TREE.-No tree has been the
subject of 80 many ridiculous fables as the
upas, and till quite lately they were popularity
believed. On the faith of a Dutch surgeon
named Foersche it was related that the upas
flowed from unique and singular tree, which
vegetated in the midst of a frightful solitude
in Java, ''the valley of DEATH" According to
this traveller, no living creature could resist
the poisonous vapors which 1t exhaled, and for
three or four leagues around only dead bodies
and skeletons of men and animals were to be
met with. The birds themselves which ven
tured into the surrounding air fell to the
ground as if struck by lightning Criminals,
consigned to capital punishment, alone essayed
the task of wrestling its internal produce from
the tree, Many tried the perilous journey, but
very few returned from it.
We owe the refutatiOn of this fabulous mar
rative to Leschenault, recent French travel
er This traveller noticed that the famous
poison is furnished by two species Of trees
which grow amid the forests Of Java. So far
from exercising adeleterious influence upon all
that surrounds them, they are encompassed by
a luxurious vegetation, while birds, Lizards,
and insects lend animation to their bougils and
foliage. The learned Frenchman, while ex-
s1nining one of these trees, which lie had cut
down, had his face and hands covered with the
exudation flowing from the broken branches,
yet he experienced 10 bad effects But when
the upas juice is introduced by means Of a
puncture, the effect is rapidly fatal. Eight