The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-17

you have, perhaps, seen, below the level of
the street, the huge copper canldrons in
which the Raccharine substance is boiledt
That Is perhaps all you can ever see of
candy-making, unless you can convince the
proprietors Of the establishment that you
are in nowise financially interested in the
candy trade. There are secrets which they
do not care to have known in the trade, and
IL Is necessary for them to take precautions
20 keep those secrets from leaking out.
Once inside the factory you are confronted
by walls and bare rafters made white with
powdered sugar. a half hundred workmen
with bare arms and wearing huge aprons
move about in an atmosphere. which is
about as warm as one can stand, aud laden
with an almost overpowering odor of sugar.
There are at least q dozen of the copper
cauldrons filled with gallons Of sugar and
water undergoing the process OF being
transformed into thousands OF jars Of stick
candy, for the delectation of more thousands
of north and south and east and west side
youngsters.
Each of the canldrons contains a guam
tity Of water, into which fifty pounds of
the best white sugar has been placed. Stick
candy is the healthiest you can eat because
it is made of pure sugar and water, favored
with some sort of essential oil aud then COL
ored. The material with which this color
ing is done Is harmless. Il is coohinsal,
mixed with cream of tartar, soda and alum.
Such small quantities of each are used in
the candy that even IL you should eat an
unusually large number OF sticks they would
not jure you because of the coloring. OF
course, stick candy is like everything else,
if you eat too much Of it you are liable to
have pain, but you can't blame the ingre-
dieuts for that.
The fiavoring ia as harmless as the color
ing matter. Only pure essential oils are
used, and it may be well to remark that
New York is the city which furnishes these
oils TO candy makers throughout the length
and breadth of the United States. Lemon
and peppermint are the favorite flavors.
but large quantities Of sassafras, cinnamon,
wintergreen aad strawberry are also used.
When the experienced eye of the candy
maker tells him that the sugar and water is
done, the contents are dumped into an iron
pot and carried from there to a huge mar
BILE slab, plentitully sprinkled with pow
dered sugar. A workman turns the mass
over and over on the table as it spreads out
while undergoing the cooling process. Then
he mixes with the candy small quantity
Of essential oil, which he pours out of a bot
tie before beginning the folding.
As soon as the mixture is COOL enough to
handle he divides IL and gives one-half to
another workman. Then he rolls his share
into the shape of loaf Of bread and pre-
pares for the interesting process Of putting
Tue STAMPS WHICH Will d1u W us Vdlu6 at
least a 1000 per cent. In the eyes OF the
juvenile population OF toe country. Trans
form the pile into sticks as it lay, and it
would be plain white candy. While it was
yet warm he had cut off large chunk and
had pulled IL over hook until it was almost
pure white This piece he divided into dozen
narrow strips, which were well satu-
rated with coloring matter. These he stuck
on the loaf parallel.
There was furnace filed with glowing
Goals back of long wooden table. This
was to keep the candy soft enough to work
The loaf was placed in front of the furnace
aud the candy maker dipped his hands and
arms to the elbows in powdered sugar
Then he began to knead the loaf as you
have probably seen baker knead bread.
After he had worked it this wav suffl-
cIently. he began rolling IL over and over
with the palms of his hands. When It had
been worked cut into a long strip stretch
ing half way down the table, another work
man took hold Of it and reduced It still
further in diameter, while constantly in
creasing its length until It reached third
workman at the extreme end of the table
from the first one. This last man rolled it
with his palms until it was the size of a
stick.
Thus in q few moments the 25-pound
lump was transformed into 6-foot strips
with stripes, all ready to be cut into proper
lengths for jars. Here were go feet of
stick candy decorated with red spiral stripes.
produced by the rolling process. When the
strips got more than two feet in length and
almost the desired diameter, the men would
roll half dozen at a time.
All that remained to be done was to cut
the long strips into short sticks. pack them
Ia boxes and ship them TO the candy shops.
All this Is commonplace, except the cutting
process, which Is done with a long, sharp
pair OF shears. 1t is no easy matter to cut
stick candy without breaking it. All the
long strips are laid together and the lower
part of the shears is slid along the table un-
der them. while the upper blade comes
down and snaps them apart as clean as IL
they had been cut with a razor. The i'm
perfect strips and waste candy ars brushed
into pile to be thrown into the cauldron
and used in making a candy Of mixed
favors. After this comes the packing
shipping and eating process. and you have
complete history Of the simple stick of
candy from the factory IN The oousumar