American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1916-03-23
MUD WALLS TO WALL PAPER.
An Interesting Development.

That a house should be pointed out,
or spoken of as a sort of curiosity be-
cause it has a wall paper in n or
more of the rooms, seems
able to the people of this age and gen.
Grafton. Fancy Mrs. Jones being en-
vious of Mrs. Smith because she has a
room actually decorated with wall
paper!
Endeavor to imagine two men, after
having pleasantly and easily agreed
upon the amount of money to be ex-
changed for the ownership of a house,
falling to squabbling and haggling in
a most violent manner, as to the price
TO be paid for the wall paper in the
best room of the house. Perhaps it
was the paper in the room in which
.he owners wife's mother a mar
ried and which, for sentimental rea-
sons, she wished to keep, that her
children might be impressed with
what a grand family their mother
came from-whereas their fathers
family never owned wall paper!
Or, to emphatic the scene imagine
the village children pointing out and
telling the new arrival in their midst,
VI Inc nOuoc that hho q pdPCl III
it. How the youngsters from that
house must have held their heads up,
, in moments of childish disputes, when
they delivered the final and most
crushing blow of all, We've got a
wall paper in our housed"
One imagines such grandeur would
almost prevent people from associat-
ing with others, or from behaving like
ordinary unblessed mortals.
To find this condition, in connec-
tion with an article that the child OF
today holds In such light esteem, 1t Is
only necessary to turf the pages OF
history backward a comparatively lit
tie way.
1t is not long ago that we find
Madam de Pompador-that then die.
tatorial arbiter of French and World
Misunderstanding her official seal Of
approval upon wall paper, at that time
made heavy and with much gold on it
by having her apartment hung with
these "Papiers des hides" Where.
upon all the grand ladies Of France
must follow her example, feeling tina
their walls were quite ugly and out o.
date because hung with mere silks OF
v%elvets, while damasks and tapestries
became very "gauche."
While these "Papiers des hides
were becoming the vogue in France
the Dutch and Spanish had been usinl
them for some time. In fact, 1t wal
the venturesome mariners of HOLLAND
and Spain who brought them to tn
French, after first introducing them II
their own countries, where hey wer,
used to conceal, rather than to b.
fastened upon bare walls, and to re
place the hangings of leather.
In the latter country, their first US
was for small screens to be used II
front of fire-places, and for ornamental
ton. From that use, the screens wer
made larger and became the size o
room walls. On account of their beinI
mounted in frames, II was possibl
} to move them about, and SO a hous
, could be sold and the wall paper re
tanned by the former owner.
: The French nom" was, however
misleading. for these pepers came nc
from India but from China, at a tim
, when the ships of the East India Com
I pany we're bringing to Europe curio
!. teas, ETC., from India and the Orien
i which, perhaps, accounts for the nam
The origin Of wall paper is obscure
II has been attributed to Persia and I
Egypt, but the consensus OF opinion
that China first made and used whs
we now call wall paper.
1t is a strange fact that regardin
an article OF such familiar usage. moi