The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1888-03-28
WOMEN PAPER HANGERS.
An Illustrative Example and Its Moral.

Two sisters in Des Moines, Ia, are
professional paper-hangers. and charge
ut the same rate as men working in
: that picturesque but protracted calling.
The profuse use of the step-ladder would
make it entirely appropriate to call
these women step-sisters, but the fact
remains that their kinship is of the in
innate nature mentioned. Yet it must
not be thought from this incident that
not less than two women and only
blood relatives can enter this light and
airy business. Unlike the suffrage right,
the right to WELD a brush, to mix paste,
and to adjust the elusive room paper is
open to all women corners. If the Des
Moines example should be followed and
women in all parts of the country
should enter this sphere of work a
mighty change would come over the
spirit of the householder's dreams. a
mind which has never scared with Mil
ton or foated along the innocuous sur
face of Tupper's verse or climbed the
rocky heights of Walt Whitman's wood
cut sort Of stanzas may yet readily I'M
agine the methods of hiring the woman
paper-hanger and her methods of doing
the work.
1t is well known that the man hanger
is never to be seen at his place OF busl-
ness. Only his slate is there, and that
tells that he is elsewhere. In fact
there are persons willing to make atfa-
davit that the ordinary paper-hanger is
entirely slate formation. How differ
ent would be the case if woman were
to be engaged to make the walls attract
i've. Repairing to her shop, she is
found knitting her brows over fine
piece of needlework, or smiling over
novel which is ending well. A canary
bird sings in a cage made out OF a dis Ii
used paste-pot Vines run over trellls
work of miniature step-ladders. On
the table lie carelessly the proof-sheets
of How Not to Paper Room. F." You
make known your errand and hasty
consulting of the appointment book fol-
lows. Yes" says the paper-hanger,
at last; Il can come as well as not. The
authors breakfast will be over at 9 a.
m., and the Society to Prevent Cruelty
at the Polls does not meet till 7:3O p.
M" Having engaged your paper-hang-
er in this charming and unconventional
way, you may well be prepared for
novel style of paste and scissors work
There will be no going out at II to
sharpen scissors nor repeated ab-
sences to "get tools.'' The remotest
corner will at last feel that it has rights
which paper-nangers are bound to re-
spect. If a graduate, the employe will
cheer your heart by asides, like Ten
nyson has just such q paper in the
room where he writes" or Private
Dalzel composes under a similar bor-
der"
Thus the day will 60 pleasantly. The
paste will be a jewel, so well made.
The brush, with an embroidered handle,
will glide over the happy walls. The
clippings will fall like apple-parin gs in
romantic-shapes. There vii! be nothing
prosaic, and the bill will be sent in
done in worsted work. The most en-
couraging fact in the Des Moines case is
that no men have yet sawed the sisters
step-ladders, or tipped over the paste, or
sent them to the wrong house, or in a
I dozen ways tried to discourage their
venture in calling where the good
seem to die first These sisters may
soon lecture on ''What I Know About
Paper-Hanging," and in this way East
ern women may early learn of the best
way to enter and work in the business.
The glad day may yet dawn when Mas
sachusetts women will put dado on
the State-House dome, and border
in patriotic hues on Bunker Hill monu-
ment.