FASHIONS IN CANDIES

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 356, 5 March 1903, Page 8

FASHIONS IN CANDIES

Pinny HoTeltiet Supersede th« Styles of Other Day* r ___ SUvolatloa t« <*• CoftfaetfoiM «4 . v CkUAhoo4 B»lm*o taHiw !■- •v cm— is t*« Bo*l»«» •« ■apjlylas; tka !*•«««. ' la the atick candy doomed? Ii the •-Gooseberry Ball" dead beyond hop** Of resuscitation? Has the day of th« "jawbreaker" pasaed beyond recall? > Hundreds upon thousand* of good Fhlladelphiana whoie youthful mem* cries are sweetened in the thought oi those indigestible pleasures will be sorry to hear the "yes" which must •newer each question. Thirty years, 15, years. hare wrought a revolution in the confections of childhood. Just as the old glass jar on the shelf baa been replaced by the plateglaaa showcase, so hare the candy marbles and cocoanut cakes of foTs or 1880 been supplanted by the "penny noveltiea" of the present progressive day, says the Philadelphia Press. "Give the children the pennies and Well look after the pounds," is the re* tiaed reading of the old proverb which seems to have been written io the hearts of the modern manufacturer. In the turning out of penny goods alone his name has come to be legion and his sales amount to millions of dollars a year. Where Ihe trade in this country was once to be measured by from 10,000 to 12,000 pounds a month ft has now grown to such dimensions that Philadelphia alone calls for more than that amount on an average 'day. Where once there was*ao export trad* at all there is now a steadily increasing demand in scores of foreign markets for the American made-penny candy.

One of the leading jobber* of Philadelphia, speaking' of this great growth, ■mid: "To.an outsider such a demand M this is surprising, but it is very easy %o prove its truth. My mailing lists ■how that there are about 1,400 candy •tores in Philadelphia and the towns within a radius of 75 miles, which is any territory. Approximately 1,000 of these handle penny goods. Say that %hj» average daily sales are three dollars, which means about 15 pounds, and there are your daily totals: Three thousand dollars and 15,000 pounds, or •omething like $900,000 and 4.500,000 younds a year. I know it sounds in«redibl«, but my own books for 1900 •how sales well over 1,000,000 pounds, mad I do about one-fourth of the business here." And this is all in "penny novelties." hearts and sugary flowera, peanut taffy in cakes, ana "fudge" Invitingly balanced on the end of a ■tick, saws and planes in chocolate, dolls and bananas of taffy, these are j*Ae wares dear to childhood to-day, .which have supplanted the old-time . "sticks" of lemon, peppermint and maple. Yet these former favorites have not tltterly disappeared. They still are made and still are sold, especially in the iwest and south. It is only in the greater popularity of the comparatively recent "novelty" that they are overshadowed and belittled. The jujube paste holds out the best of them all, but even it maintains its place only because it has bowed to a change in Its outward and visible form—the tablet has become a tiny man, whose market value is just one-fifth of a cent.