Gilpin observer., 1915-04-22
Story of Young Woman Who
Happened on Novelty in Way
of Occupation.
PAPER cuT.ouTs OF IDEAS
How Desire to Help Her Husband Led
Her to Develop Her Peculiar
Talent Into q Large and
Successful Business.
BY OSBORN MARSHALL.


Do you know what q southern ac-
cent looks like. or can you picture to
yourself New England conscience, or
"the spirit of tango darkness?" II you
have a distinct visual image of these
and other unseen things, could you
take plain piece Of paper and pair
of sharp scissors and cut out the
shape of the image? And If you could
do this, could you do 1t 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?
II you can do these things and have
a good deal of that indescribable thing
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
cessful 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 fox in
stead of little boy or girl or grown
up-lady doll. the more she felt that
she would have to have one. She took
her problem to her mother.
Mamma" said the child, Il 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 a pair Of scissors, she pro-
ceeded to cut one out She had seen a
fox in her picture books and so she
knew how he should look. The funny
thing about it was that when the new
doll was finished It did look quite like
the original animal. She showed it to
her sisters and brothers. and after that
she was kept busy cutting things out
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 a 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
nj xufhn nhn ,Al
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 a 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 1t 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 old
lady neighbor Of hers whom Mrs.
Swan had met occasionally going in
and out Of the apartment house where
they both lived. friendship had
sprung up and the younger woman
used sometimes to drop in on her
neighbor with new books and maga-
zines. One day. not long before st. Val
entine's aay last winter. the old lady
remarked that she had bought no val
entines for her little grandchildren, to
whom she was writing.
Never mind" said Mrs. Swan, II
can make you some that will be quite
as pretty as the sort you might buy"
So saying, she hurried to her apart
ment and cut out some valentines from
red paper that she happened to have
on hand. took them down to her
neighbor and with her pasted them
on white letter paper. The old lady
sent some OF them of to her grand.
children and saved some for herself,
and thereby proved to be Mrs Swans
true fairy godmother. The old lady
was SO struck by the skill with which
these valentines had been cut out
that she showed them to her friends
as they came to see her. until they
were all talking about them Among
the women who happened to hear
about these skillful cut-outs was Mrs.
Elmer Black.
Success From the start.
Mrs. Black. as everyone knows,
manages to keep an active interest in
about as many propositions all at The
same time as any other woman in
America. Just at that time she was
planning to get up an exhibit OF
series of booths representing unusual