Birmingham state herald., 1896-01-19
THE LATEST THING IN JAGS.
SweIIs Purchasing Brandy Drops
 and Whisky BonbonS.
GREAT DEMAND FOR THEM
On Sundays-Popular With Women and Many Male Drinkers Who Don't Care to
 Go Dry.

l ness is the bonbon with a little jag" | concealed beneath it's sugary exterior, | says the New York World. You can get | drunk on candy. With your chocolate | creams and gum drops you can buy l whisky or brandy and from a box of | sweets you can imbibe enough spritus | frumenti to make you merry and give you a head next morning.
 | AS the innocent-looking confecton dis
 solves on your tongue a liquid trickles out that has the unmistakable flavor of l the good old stuff That's whisky you | say. Whisky it is. and as 1t mixes with l the sugar, ting that has held it, pris- Eoner the combination is agreeable to the | taste. .
 l The steady drinking man who is not | on good terms with the bartender on the | corner finds in these whiskyi2ed candies | the next best method of getting around the Roosevelt restrictions. He gives the wink to his druggist, receives little
 box and goes home equipped against | dry Sunday.
 l rich harvest. Although they have no li- | cense to sell liquor they do not fear any l trouble from what, at first glance, may | seem to be harmless infraction of the | law. But as young girls and boys, as l we'll as grown men and women, are buy | ing the drops, the excise board will have | every excuse for interference as soon as | they have read this article l A reporter bought rye whisky bonbons l at two places in Broadway last Sunday, near Seventy-second street. He also l bought brandy In bonbons at two places. l In two pounds of this mixture of whisky l and candy was enough intoxicating pq- uor to produce a decided feeling.
 | The chocolates put up with whisky in l them were not put on sale in this city | until two weeks ago.. Since then the de- | mand for the article has been great. | Brandy drops were made years and years ago on small scale, but not until l the screws were put on Sunday drinking did the whisky drop make it's appearance. The whisky drop is not different In ap- | pearance from the old-time chocolate or | brandy drop, and is about the same size. | At some of the shops it is covered with l plain chocolate, while at the more stylish | places it is wrapped in tin and gold foil.
 In some of it's forms it is composed of
 a little jug made of, crystalized sugar. into which the liquor is squirted with
 syringe. Then the small opening is plug
 ged with sugar and dipped in boiling
 chocolate and laid on boards to dry The
 foil is put on to hold the compound to-
 gether in case it is exposed to damp at | mosphere. .a.s.a gY;
 The Percentage of Whisky
 l People who have not bought whisky
 drops, and who have no idea of the
 amount of the rye contained in them, will |
 rived from an analysis.sa rrsy, a. -r-t f' l. In a pound of chocolate drops there are eighty pieces. Each piece weighs ninety I five grains troy weight. After a drop is
 broken and the whisky is poured out | there are found fifty-five grains of su- gar and chocolate and forty grains of
 whisky Counting eighty drops to the
 pound, there are 3200 grains of whisky in
 each pound box of the new mixture.
 | half-pint of good rye whisky weighs l inc in at.F- nd If
 olate-whisky drops there is half-pint
 of whisky less fifty-five grains
 | Bartenders say the. average New York ger does not pour out more than one-sixth
 of a half-pint for a drink. According to
 this there are about six average drinks
 of whisky in every pound of the new | candy.
 There is gallon of-whisky, according
 to the statement of manufactures, in
 every sixteen and a half pounds of this
 candy. The price of. the candy, of course | depends on the quality of the brandy
 Some pound boxes cost 30 cents: others | cost 60 cents. Diluted opium is mixed with chocolate
 drops in China. and in New Orleans | factory has been making abslnthe drops | for the last five years.
 All Ask for 'Wink Drops"
 | The salesgirl in one of Broadways | largest candy stores said:
 | '.We have been selling wink drops as | we call them for the last two weeks, and | the sale is growing every day. l suppose | that we sell at least fifteen pounds here | a day You have no idea how many young l fellows-schooboys between 15 and IS l years-buy them They cannot buy l liquor in saloons. so they buy whisky l drops and think they are real sporty. l "Grown men purchase them. too on l Sundays especially, and, say, you would | die laughing to see how embarrassed l some of them are when they come in. l They don't know exactly how to ask for | them and I suppose feel a bit ashamed at buying candy for the liquor there is
 In 1t. :. l 'sWe put up two classes of 'winks.' brandies and swhiskies. It's hard work l for any one not in the business to tell them apart. In fact, in their innocence l lies their charm. "A number Of our women customers-and we have any l number of them--haNe- discovered the | case where the drops are kept. and in- | stead of saying that they want whisky | tray and say: "A pound of these, please | To the uninitiated they appear to be | purchasing ordinary chocolate creams. l We have been selling brandy drops I for years without being bothered by the | law and it was only to meet a sudden de- | mand that whisky was used. The idea l of person getting intoxicated on brandy | or whisky drops may sound funny. but
 there was girl wno formerly worked
 here that ate them to such an extent that
 she used to. 1getosleepy. in the middle of | the day. She lost her place on account | of her devotion to the wink drops.'" It was in 1890 that George Vanderbilt,
 the student of the family. developed an | interest outside. his books. Then he be- | came filled with an ambition to build the | finest home in America The idea was | considered singular, as George is unmar- | ried, and has no matrimonial intentions 1 so far as is known, Richard M Hunt
 was the architect of the mansion and the surrounding buildings. The house. which | contains upward of 200 rooms, is built on a plateau on the Blue Ridge mountain
 top. It Is of Indiana granite, while the | outbuildings are of brick. The stable is
 the finest in.-t the land. and isp stocked
 with thoroughbreds. The nurseries and greenhouses contain a display that ranks
 with those of the finest Botanical gardens lin the world. ThezWhole estate has been
 transformed by Clifford Pinchot, the land
 scape gardener, from wild and rugged
 mountain country into magnificent | ( x.,II 1rax z,-rL&1