The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-04-22
LILY SWAN, THE
SHEARS SCULPTOR
Story Of Young Woman Who
Happened on Novelty inWay
of Occupation.
PAPER CUT-oUTS OF IDEAS
How Desire to Help Her Husband Led
Her to Develop Her Peculiar
Talent Into a Large and
Successful Business.
BY OSBORN MARSHALL.
Copyright, 1915, by the Mcclure Newspa-
per Syndicate)


per Syndicate)
Do you know what a southern ac-
cent looks like; or can you picture to
yourself New England conscience, or
"the spirit of tango darkness?" If 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 IL you could |
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 indescribable thing
known as business ability-by the way
what does business ability" hook 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 a 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, 81 want
paper-doll fox"
Never having seen that sort of
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-
Heeded 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 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 a pair of scis
sors. She took piece of paper which
lay beside her and, remembering hel
old childish trick, cut out a picture ot
her impression of herself. She looked
at it and was rather pleased with the
resemblance. But it didn't occur tc
her that she had found the clue to hel
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 IL
and out of the apartment house where
they both lived. A friendship haC
sprung up and the younger woman
used sometimes to drop in on hel
neighbor with new books and maga
zines. One day, not long before ST. Val
entine's day last winter, the old lad!
remarked that she had bought no val
entines for her little grandchildren, tt
" whom she was writing.
Never mind" said Mrs. Swan, Z"
can make you some that will be quit
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 hav
on hand. took them down to he
. neighbor and with her pasted then
= on white letter paper. The old lad
: sent some of them off to her grand
y children and saved some for herself
and thereby proved to be Mrs. Swan
true fairy godmother. The old lad
= was so struck by the skill with whic
these valentines had been cut ou
that she showed them to her friend
: as they came to see her, until the
were all talking about them. Anon
, the women who happened to hea
u about these ,skillful cut-outs was Mr..
t, Elmer Black.
d Success From the Start.
g Mrs. Black, as everyone knows
n manages to keep an active interest i
It about as many propositions all at tn
'. same time as any other woman
y America. Just at that time she wa
g planning to get up an exhibit of
series of booths representing "unusus
occupations" for the woman's indu
4, trial exhibit which was given at tn
IS Grand Central palace in New York.
J. Why not have this skillful artist {
il the scissors for one of her collection
q 1t was happy thought, and Mr.
e Black lost no time in sending for Mr.
Is Swan.
If The result of the interview was tn,
10 Mrs. Swan agreed to occupy booth |
70 Mrs. Blacks exhibit for the nine day
ol of the show. The arrangement We
,e that Mrs. Black was to pay the e
1t penses of the exhibition and Mr.
II Swan vas to make what money 81
could from making cut-outs for IL