The Caldwell watchman. (Columbia, La.) 1885-1946, 1915-04-23
Story of Young Woman Who
Happened on Novelty in Way
of Occupation.
PAPER CUT.0UTS OF IDEAS
How Desire to Help Her Husband Led
Her to Develop Her Peculiar
Talent into Large and
Successful Business.
BY OSBORN MARSHALL
copyright, 1915, by the Mcclure Newspa
peI Syndicate

cent looks like, or can you picture t,
yourself a New England conscience. O
the spirit of tango darkness?" If yol
have a distinct visual image of thes,
and other unseen things, could yol
take a plain piece of paper and a PAL
OF sharp scissors and cut out the
shape OF the image? And if you coulc
do this, could you do it in 60 seconds
almost without looking, and have
something to show for your labor
which would strike other people as
being the living image of what you had
set about to cut out?
If you can do these things and have
a good deal Of that indescribabIe thine
known as business ability-by the way
what does business ability" look like
YOU may hope to compete in the
business world with Lily Swan, known
as the shears sculptor"
Curiosity regarding Lily Swans sue
cesstul career leads us back not so
many years to the time when she was
SIX years old. She had many paper
dolls, but it occurred to her childish
mind that the paper doll she wanted
most of all was a paper doll fox. The
more she thought about the possibil-
tiles of play that could be contained in
a paper doll in the shape of a fox in.
stead of little boy or girl or grown
uplady doll, the more she felt that
she would have to have one. She took
her problem to her mother.
Mamma" said the child, 81 want a
paper-doll fox"
Never having seen that sort of a
doll, Lily's mother suggested to Lily
that she make one herself. So Lily
got a piece of paper and, stretching
her chubby little fingers around the
handles of pair of scissors, she pro.
ceeded to cut one out She had seen a
1oa In her picture books and so she
knew how he should look. The funny
t4lng ABOUT it was that when the new
doll was finished it did look quite like
Ithe original animal She showed it to
filer sisters and brothers, and after that
she was kept hnsv -.,..'..-- 1r-'-7-1
for them to play with.
Wanted to Help Her Husband.
About two years ago Lily Swan
made up her mind that she wanted to
earn some money. She had grown up |
to be woman and had married a
young lawyer named Swan, who had
been admitted to the bar in Washing
ton. 1t was partly through Mrs.
Swans encouragement that he decid-
ed to take the New York state bar ex-
animation and start again in New
York city, where chances seemed
brighter for him than in the lawyer.
ridden city of Washington.
So, being very young and energetic,
Mrs Swan decided that she would like
to help keep the pot boiling during the
first uphill years Of her husbands road
to legal success. She sat down one
day in her little apartment in New
York and tried to think out way Of
earning money. While she thought,
her hands toyed with pair of scis.
sors. She took piece Of paper which
lay beside her and. remembering her
old childish trick, cut out a picture of
her impression of herself. She looked
at it and was rather pleased with the
resemblance. But it didn't occur to
her that she had found the clue to her
problem Of earning money.
The real instrument OF Providence
at this stage Of her career was an ole
lady neighbor of hers whom Mrs
Swan had met occasionally going II
and out of the apartment house where
they both lived. A friendship hat
sprung up and the younger woman
used sometimes to drop in on ne
neighbor with new books and maya
zines. One day, not long before St. Val
entine's day last winter, the old lad
remarked that she had bought no va
entines for her little grandchildren, t
whom she was writing.
Never mind" said Mrs. Swan,
can make you some that will be quit
as pretty as the sort you might buy
So saying, she hurried to her apar
ment and cut out some valentines frol
red paper that she happened to aaV
on hand, took them down to NJ
neighbor and with her pasted the
on white letter paper. The old LAD
sent some OF them off to her gran
children and saved some for herse
and thereby proved to be Mrs. Swan
true fairy godmother. The old lat
was so struck by the skill with whl'
these valentines had been cut o
that she showed them to her frlen
as they came to see her, until tn
were all talking about them Amol
the women who happened to ne
about these skillful cut-outs was Nj
Elmer Black.
Success From the Start.
Mrs. Black. as everyone know
manages to keep an active interest
about as many propositions all at
same time as any other woman
America. Just at that time she v
Manning to get up an exhibit OF
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