Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1883-11-08
A SWEET SUBJECT.

and What 1t Is Made or
"Sweets for the sweet" it is written
Sugar is generally regarded as the
sweetest thing that there is, and candy
is supposedly made of sugar. Little
children, when given a penny by the
fond parent, generally run to the near
est candy store "to buy something.
That something" is generally stick.
or little mixed candy, so-called, or a
paper of lozenges. "Do you know,
said a gentleman well known in the
medical profession to a reporter for the
Times few days ago, "that there are
great many more 'children suffering
from diseases of the stomach and
bowels than there ought to be?''
The reporter replied that he had no
personal knowledge of the fact.
"Well," said the gentleman, "within
the last few days | have attended sew
eral little children whose diseases were
caused by and traceable to nothing
else than the eating of adulterated
candy. The cheap candies sold at the
little toy and confectionery stores in
every part of the city are largely adul-
terated with white earth, or terra alba,
which is also known as Fuller s-earth
This stuff irritates the coatings and
membranes of the stomachs and in
testines of the children, and produces
early decay, nervous diseases and often
death. 1t is this sort Of stuff that
should be prohibited from being sold"
A retail confectioncr said: There is
no doubt about the adulteration of can
dies. When sugar costs eight and three
quarter cents. a pound you can't expect
a retailer to sell good candy at thirteen
cents a pound, or even at eighteen.
There is mixed candy sold in some
places at retail as low rs twelve cents q
pound, and then there is some sold a
little higher.
"Plain candies can be sold at retail
mt profit at twenty-five cents pound,
but no sort of fine, fancy candy can be
made for much less than that sum per
pound. l regard the dealing in the
adulterated stuff rs not only demOraliz-
ing to the business, but decidedly injuri-
ous."
A well-knewn wholesale manufacturer
said: Every man who buys candy at
wholesale knows what he is buying.
There is no deceit practiced in the
wholesale trade. 1t wouldn't pay the
manufacturer to act otherwise than
square with his customers. l doubt if
there is a wholesale confectioner in the
United States who would not like to see
adulteration stopped. 1t is a bare-faced
fraud on the consumer, and the worst of
it is the injury falls upon innocent little
victims who are mainly the children of
the poor. Let ME see: There is invested
in wholesale candy-making in Chicago
somewhere about SS00,0O and some
thing like So, 600, 900 worth of goods are
sold by the manufacturers every year.
There are at least two concerns who
have upward Of from $l15, 900 to $780,
600 in the business, and there are sever
al who run from $4,000 to $4,000
each. OF course, a good many pounds
of good candy is made, but there is also
a large amount of villainous stuff put on
the market and consumed"
"Can't this adulteration be stopped?"
ut could by united action, but it
can't be prevented SO long as there is
more money in making the slush and
frothy stuff than in making pure goods.
am satisfied that it is wrong that
ought to be remedied."
'What enters into the adulteration?"
''Terra alba. l am buying sugar to-
day for nine cents, and l am selling
mixed candy at the same price. l ask
you: What must the candy be? Do
you suppose that l want to sell that
stuff? But what can do? Here comes
q man, and he says: Il want a carload
Of candy, and don't want to pay more
than eight and one-half cents a pound
for it? What can say to him? 1 !
know what he wants. He saws: Make
it as mean as you like. only make it |
look nice don't cheat him. We
only put in greater percentage of
terre alba, that's all; and he knows it.
If l refuse to sell him the stuff nv COM
petitOr next door or over the way will |
sell him all he wants, and l must see
my trade GO. While he buys a big bill |
Of poor stuff, that class of customer
always buys a moderate amount of
good goods"
''How great is the percentage of
There is sort of graded stuff. 1t
runs from ten to thirty per cent, but
here is more than thirty per cent.
candy sold. To seventy
part of sugar there are thirty parts of
earth, and some candy is even meaper
than that. But don't make this mis-
take and say that there is no pure
candy made in Chicago. As much, and
more pure candy is made here as in any
other city in the United States. You
must pay a good price for pure goods.
said before. there is more money
or the manufacturer in the adulterated
goods than in the pure stuff, and that is
why the market is kept stocked with it."
"Where does the adulterated stock
mostly 60 TOP
There is some sold here, but not go
much as some people would think, but 6
great deal of 1t goes to the Southwest,
lmong the negroes and New Mexicans.
The latter seem to take kindly to earth
ldulterated candies, for the greater it is
ldulterated the reader sale it seems to
lave there. Up in the Northwest,
where there are lots of Yankees, Irish,
and Germans, they won't
lave the adul.erated stuff. The Ger
mans are great for rock candy, and
hat has to be pure. The Norwegians
axe more kindly to taffy or darker
andes, but these are nearly always
,ure. Now, there are the Mormons.
10 you know that they won't touch any
hing that is adulterated if they know