Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial. (Wilmington, Del.) 1878-1928, 1920-03-02
CANDY. STORES NOW GET
FORMER SALOON TRADE
John Barleycorn's Friends Are
Turning Surely but Slowly
to Sugar.

Sugar eating has grown 20 rapidly in
this country as q substitute for lndul-
geace in alcohol that much Of the wreck
age OF the liquor business is being sal
vaged for the production Of candy,
ice cream and syrups.
The Bartholomew brewing plant At
Rochester has bee, turned into big
wholesale candy factory. This Harvard
Brewing Company in Massachusetts has
been turned into big chocolate factory.
The Jacob Rupert brewery ard other
brcwerics here are making malt syrup
which forms a basis for candies and
CONNECTIONS. Many OF the smaller brow
cries here would be in process Of con-
! version into ice cream and candy factories
now, If it were not fer the hope that
the Supreme Court would yet decide
that the manufacture OF 2.75 per cent
beer were permissible under tho prohibit
| ton amendment. The Brewers Board
| of Trade has received large numbers
Of inquiries from candy and ice cream
makers who wish TO purchase brewery
property aud the brewery trade papers
| are full Of offers from confectioners
to buy brcwcries.
| Such a tremendous demand has sprung
| up since last July for luxurious fittings
| for candy and soda parlors. A good
many manufacturers of bar furniture
have enjoyed fairly profitable season.
] w. G.. Allen, manager of the froclich,
jacob Cabinet Works, ono of the largest
makers of bar fixtures, said yesterday:
| "The business Of making bar fixtures,
of course. is entirely at an end, but the
making Of similar furniture for other
places has increased at n great rate and
| the business If cahinet-makipg has bad
| n great period of prosperity. We have
never had such demand for fixtures
| for candy and soda parlors. A good
many fine bars have been sold to soda
| parlors. and | believe that much Of tho
| glass ware and other fittings have been
sold for the same purpose. They brought
! little or nothing compared to the orig
| inai price, fixtures which cost s20,ooo
| selling for few hundred. The ordinary
bars however, arc not worth anything
| more than they would bring for fire
wood.
This firm has not missed the loss of
bar fixtures business. II seems % If
every store-keepor has suddenly decided
20 nut n handsome new interior and
show window into his place There has
been a big demand for fine fixtures for
showrooms in hotels and offices. In
consequence this business, instead OF
having q slump, is being taxed to the
limit.
"Experiulents of brewers all over the
country will be told next week At At
lantic City at the convention OF the Ma
tional Association Of Brewers, where one
OF the chief subjects under consideration
will be that of the most successful use
10 which n brewery can be converted.
While many smaller bvewcrics can he
made over successfully for candy and
lce-cream factories, cold storage, ware
housing and other purposes, tho big
breweries which become idle will he
white elephants on the hands Of their
owners. from present prospects.
we will give $4,000, said the man
ager of the Peter Doclper Brewing Com
pany, Inc, Ito anyone who can show
us a successful use for this brewery
if We are forced % suspend on account
of prohibition. We are waiting now
tn see If we can make 275 per cent
beer under the coming Supreme Court
decision While there is considerable
demand for the one-half Of | per cent
beer. many Of NE will he forced to close,
and IL looks rs il the big hrcweries viii
have TO tear down their buildings or sell
the nroTe~tv
That $4,000 offer is made in earnest.
ANY engineer or building expert or any
one els who has an idea on the subject
IA invited TO come here and study this
property and see what can be done with
it Our cellars are too high tn make 1T pos
sible TO rse til m fer Id storage. We
can Z use our tanks Of COO barrel capacity
for making candy or zoe cream. The basa-
ments are too dark and poorly ventilated
for workmen 70 spend an eight-hour day
in. While making beer, they only have 10
visit them occasionally. We are at present
making some of the half per cent beer and
doing little on the side in the transpor-
tation line, but we cant find anv other
use for the facilities of a big brewery"
The Lion Brewery property is being
used at present fos making one-half
per cent beer, operating q garage, an
ice plant and dyeing establishment. The
manager of this liant said that one-half
per cent beer had been increasing in
popularity at a rate which held out some
hope that it would continue TO be pay
ing business, even il the Supreme Court
did not permit the manufacture of 2.75
per cent beer.
The flavor and quality tfhis beer
i. being improved" he said, by process
by which the alcohol is burnt away until
the content is one-half of per cent Beer
drinkers seem to be getting better pleased !
with it. Considering the fact that it is |
winter, the sale recently has been unex- |
pectedly good. In my opinion, the - per |
cent beer consumed in December In this |
city would be about 30 per cent of the
amount formerly consumed when il was |
stronger. In January think the consump-
ton was between 80 and 40 per cent Of
normal. This is much better business
than was expected The people who used
20 drink the stronger beer are still drink
ng this kind. Consumption is reduc-
ID, however, by the fact that they
AN only drink two or three glasses at
time. The alcohol made it possible to
lbsorb large quantities of beer without
discomfort. 1t would be nothing for q
nan who liked beer TO drink two quarts, but |
{ is as uncomfortable TO drink two quarts
f this as it would be TO drink two quarts
f water"
George Rupert of the Jacob Rupert
Brewing Company said that experiments
sere being made at that plant in the
of syrup and other prod
cts, which he did not care to mention,
ut that no method had yet been dis
overed to make large breweries COM
lerrially profitable in the making of
nything except beer He said that brew
rs of this city were making various efforts
D develop a new type of manufacturing
apacity in their plants, but that none
ad reported much encouragement as
et-New York Sun.
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