Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 106, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1915 — Page 3

LILY SWAN, THE SHEARS SCULPTOR

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 a Large, and Successful Business. By OSBORN MARSHALL. (Copyright, 1915, by the McClure Newspe.- , per Syndicate.) j Do you know what a southern accent looks like, or can you picture to yourself a New England conscience, or “the spirit of tango darkness?*’ If you have a distinct visual image of these and other unseen ' tilings, could you take a plain piece of paper and a pair of sharp scissors and cut out the shape of the image? And if 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” look like? —you may hope to compete in the business world with Lily Swan, known as the “shears sculptor.” Curiosity regarding Lily Swan’s successful 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 possibilities of play that could be contained in a paper doll in the shape of a fox instead of a 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, “I 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 proceeded 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 spme 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 Washington. It was partly through Mrs. Swan’s encouragement that he decided to take the New York state bar examination and start again in New York city, where chances seemed brighter for him than in the lawyerridden 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 husband’s 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 a pair of scissors. She took a 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 old lady neighbor of hers whom Mrs. Swan had met occasionally going in and out of the apartment house where they both lived. A friendship had sprung up and the younger woman used sometimes to drop in on her neighbor with new books and magazines. One day, not long before St. Valentine’s day last winter, the old lady remarked that she had bought no valentines for her little grandchildren, to whom she was writing. "Never mind,” said Mrs. Swan, "I ean make you some that will be quite as pretty as the sort you might buy." So saying, she hurried to her apartment and cut out some valentines from red paper that she happened to have on hand, took them down to her neighbor and with her paste'd them en white Iqtter paper. The old lady sent some of them off to her grandchildren and saved some for herself, and thereby proved to be Mrs. Swan’s 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 '■’omen who happened to hear .about Xnese skillful cut-outs was Mrs. Elmer Black. Success From the Start. gm. Black, as everyone knows, manages to keep an active interest In about as many propositions all at the —me time as any other woman in America. Just at that time she was planning to ret up an exhibit of a series of booths Representing “unusual

occupations” for the woman’s Industrial exhibit which was given at the Grand Central palace in New York. Why not have this skillful artist of the scissors for one of her collection? It was a happy thought, and Mrs. Black lost no time in sending for Mrs. Swan. The result of the interview was that Mrs. Swan agreed to occupy a booth in Mrs. Black’s exhibit for the nine days of the show. The arrangement was that Mrs. Black was to pay the expenses of the exhibition - and Mrs. Swan was to make what money she could from making cut-outs for the spectators at ten or fifteen centsapiece. It would be good fun, thought Mrs. Swan, and she would at least earn a little. Meantime she might be able to take some orders for future cutting. She prepared some sample dinner cards, dance cards, Easter cards and tissue paper dance favors, painted them and had them displayed in her booth. <-Mrs. Swan had always had the gift of what psychologists call quick and vivid visual imaging. You know that there are some people who, if they hear the word “dog,” immediately hear in their mind’s ear the barking of a dog. To those people the psychologists ascribe the gift of auditory imaging. The majority of people when they hear the word “dog” have more or less vividly a picture in their mind’s eye of a nondescript canine, and they, like Mrs. Swan, are gifted with visual Imaging. Only Mrs. Swan’s gift of visual imaging does not stop with

Her Stunt Proved to Be One of the Most Popular.

things you can see, like dogs. It extends to things you can’t see, like a “New England conscience” and a "southern accent.” At the exhibition Mrs. Swan made use of this peculiar gift. People who came to her had but to name something they were thinking about and Mrs. Swan would cut out her impression of it "Cut out your impression of love," suggested the sentimental schoolgirl as she deposited her fifteen cents before Mrs. Swan, who immediately began to snip the paper. Then she held out a perfect silhouette of her impression—a mixture of a goblin and a Cupid, with large ears and a cane in his hand. “He has a cane,” Mrs. Swan explained, “because he is totally blind. His large ears show that he is eager to hear things, and there are little horns on his head, too, to show that love likes to be a little devilish, but really can’t” Her next visitor, a dreamy poet, asked for "elation over the approach of spring.” Someone else suggested a militant suffragette and then came such various suggestions as plum pudding, mischief, a gloom, wine, prickly heat —this from an anxious young mother. Always <Mrs. Swan was quick and clever and showed such downright skill in handling her scissors that she proved herself to be a silhouette cutter of the first water. Led to Steady Employment. After the first day’s work at the exhibition Mrs. Swan awoke and found herself—for the time being—famous. Somehow her stunt had proved to be one of the most popular at the exhibition, and every reporter sent to get a story about the show played her up. The result was increased customers. They stood three and four deep at the fence that surrounded her booth. At the end of the nine days Mrs. Black awarded her twenty-flve-dollar prize for the most original occupation to Mrs. Swan. That, with the money earned from cutting the silhouettes, made a neat beginning for Mrs. Swan’s business career. As an outcome of the exhibition Mrs. Swan received an offer almost immediately to go into a litle favor shop with two other women where she could make and sell her unusual cards and curious cut-outs. Mrs. Swan accepted the offer, for she had taken a good number of orders at the exhibition and was sure that more would follow. So successful was Mrs. Swan’s end of the work that before many months had passed she borrowed capital enough to buy out her partners and began to run the business by herself. She took her sisters in business with her and now keeps a staff of young

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER, IND.

girls working for her. Her success has been phenomenal. Mrs. Swan could keep busy all the time designing unusual cards and favors in her little shop, but she sometimes emerges from the hiding place to cut her impressions of things outside. At a children’s party she appeared dressed as a large pippin apple. An enormous red and yellow apple with a funny, chubby face painted on it enveloped her. The children at the party were told to write down any word on a piece of paper and to push it in to the apple’s funny mouth. Then, as she danced a jig around the room, she cut out the figure that word suggested ,to her and pushed it through the mouth, and the resultant shape—a fanciful sprite or weird animal, goblin or fairy—delighted the little people whom she studied to amuse.

But Mrs. Swan, though she is among the successful business women in New York, has only begun her career. From her point of view, this papercutting work is only a side issue. The real business of her life is being the wife of a lawyer who, with her help, may some day make his name in the world of law.

END OF BOYISH WARFARE

Usual Result, According to Their Own Reporting, When Youth Meets Youth. The following is a story on "The Conqueror,” by Page Williams, the fourteen-year-old author, who won a

silver badge in recognition of the merit of the composition. “ ‘Tis!” “ ’Taln’t!” “’Tis!” “ ’Taln’t!" “Step over the line and I’ll lick you.” Five brown toes wriggled over the chalk line. ’.‘Dare you to!” This was how it started. They fought till Jimmy had a black eye and Johnny a bloody nose. They rolled in the dust by mutual consent, they paused. "Guess I licked you good and hard that time." “Didn’t lick me.” “Did!” “Didn’t!” “Did!” “Didn’t —” And they were at It again. “Boys!” The fighting stopped instantly. The teacher stood before them. “What is this about?” “Jimmy called me ‘red head.’ ’’ “Johnny called me ‘snub nose.’ ” “Didn’t!” “Did!” “Didn’t!” The teacher’s eyes gleamed with amusement. “Stop your fussing and shake hands.” Two grimy paws met In a sullen clasp. “Now, go about your business.” “Johnny, have you been fighting again?” This from an Indignant mother. "Jimmy called me names and I licked him,” was the brief reply. "Looks like you were up to something, son,” said father, as, weary and foot-sore, Jimmy entered dhe house. “Johnny and I had a fight.” "Well?” “Aw, could lick Johnny with my little finger!” was the retort, and Jimmy’s remaining eye flashed triumphantly.—St. Nicholas Magazine.

Mohammed and the Mountain.

“Yes, I’ve got a big job on hand. Going to move my summer hotel across the south meadow to the lower road." "Gracious! Why, that’s awful! What do you do such a foolish thing for?" "It ain’t foolish. The fellers that make the routes for the automobile tourists fixed up a new map and picked the lower road. That left me high an’ dry. But there’s one satisfaction." "What’s that?” "Mebbe they'll change their minds next season an’ I can move back."— Cleveland Plain Dealer.

TERRITORIALS AS KEEN IS MUSTARD

British Generals Speak in High Praise of Kitehener’s New Soldiers. ASK FOR NO BETTER TROOPS Men Are Wonderfully Intelligent and Acquire Remarkable Skill In Trench Warfare —Hot Bath Every Ten Days for Every British . Soldier. By E. ASHMEAD BARTLETT, International News Service Correspondent. British General Headquarters, France. —At the outbreak of the war almost everyone in England had complete confidence in the British small regular army, and felt certain that it would give a splendid account of itself on the continent. On the other hand there was widespread mistrust of the capabilities of the new territorial army, either for purposes of home defense, or for service abroad. I will give my own impression from what I saw during my visit to the front, and also the opinions of various generals—without mentioning names, which is forbidden by the censor —under whom they have served. e The vast majority of the men who fill the ranks of the territorial forces are drawn from a different class to those who enlist in the regular army. There are clerks from the London financial district holding good positions. There are men who come from behind the counter, and others who fill positions of a highly important and confidential character, such as secretaries, accountants and mechanical experts. Every branch of trade and industry is represented in the ranks. They are men who have joined the force out of a sense of duty, because they feel that every able-bodied man should play some role, however small, in the defense of his country.

Many have been obliged to throw up employment which was bringing them in large salaries, and now support their homes and families on the king’s shilling and separation allowances. Some of the battalions sent to the front had to meet their baptism of fire under the most trying circumstances. French Is Delighted. But Sir John French himself is delighted with them. A corps commander said to me: “I consider the territorial battalions under my command the equal of any of the line battalions. Let them send me out as many as they can. I can ask for no better troops after they had a few weeks of experience in the face of the enemy.” A brigade commander spoke as follows: “My territorials are a wonderful lot I never saw finer troops. The men are wonderfully intelligent. They are as keen as mustard, and are acquiring a remarkable skill in trench warfare.” Take the case of a crack corps, like the “Artists’ Rifles.* Our losses in officers has been so heavy that Sir John French decided on the novel ex-

EUGENIC BABIES BETROTHED

Unless there is serious objection by one or both later on, little Alene C. Houck, pictured below, and William C. Flynn, above, both of whom have won many prizes and are eugenic babies, will be married when they grow up. Alene Houck is seventeen months old and William Flynn is thirty-seven months old. Each has won first prize in three successive baby shows in New York and this has caused the parents eo plight thair troth. '

SCOURGE OF CHRISTIANS IN PERSIA

One of the Kurdish horsemen who have been massacring Christians in Persia near the Turkish border.

periment of keeping the whole of this famous battalion behind the line, and training all ranks as officers. As they reached a certain standard of progress they were given commissions and drafted to regular battalions. I made careful inquiries as to. how this experiment had worked out In practice. One corps commander told me he had received a large number of these new officers fpom the Artists’ Rifles, and that with extremely few exceptions they had turned out admirably. A love of cleanliness is one of the strongest traits in the Anglo-Saxon race. The best of troops speedily lose their pride and self-respect if they are obliged to live In filthy surroundings, amidst which it is impossible for them to clean themselves, their uniforms and equipment The conditions in Flanders throughout the winter have been about as bad as any troops have ever had to face.' The army medical corps took the problem in hand and has shown remarkable skill and ingenuity in its solution.

Bath Every Ten Days. Scattered over northern France and Flanders are many factories for making beet sugar and beer. These possess enormous vats such as most of us are familiar with in breweries at home. As their legitimate occupation, in the case of those situated close to the firing line, is now gone, they have been utilized for the purpose of washing the British army. This experiment of cleaning every man in an army several hundreds of thousands strong once in every ten days has never been tried before in war. Yet so complete Is the organization that, except under exceptional circumstances, every man and officer is sure of his hot bath every ten days. A battalion comes off duty and marches to rest in its billets, the men and their uniforms covered with mud. Above all, it Is necessary to change their’shirts and underclothes. Let it not be supposed that the only enemy our men have to face Is found In the trenches. There is another,

IRISH FOES JOINED BY WAR

Nationalist and Ulster Volunteer* Are Fighting Side by Side in the Trenches. Dublin.—A band of the Irish guards, which even a few months ago would have received an unfriendly greeting anywhere in Ireland, arrived here on a recruiting tour and was enthusiastically cheered as it marched to the Mansion house, playing “St. Patrick’s Day.” There was another remarkable scene here when John E. Redmond, the Irish nationalist leader, reviewed 25,000 of the Irish national volunteers and in a speech said that of the nationalist and Ulster volunteers, who had organized to fight one another, more than 50,000 were now fighting side by side on the continent, or in training to go there. Perhaps for the first time in Irish history such scenes have been witnessed, and certainly there has been a change from the days when an Irishman who joined the army was shunned by many.

BLAMES CAT FOR SHIP’S LOSS

Captain Say* Feline on Schooner Was Cause of Collision Off Hatteras. Newport News, Va.—Capt'Roland F. Quillen, whose three-masted schooner William J. Quillen, was sunk off Cape Hatteras, after a collision with the Norwegian steamer Laly, never again will take a cat to sea. He attributed the accident, which nearly cost his life and the lives of the eight members of his crew, to a gray cat which he had aboard. "I’ve shipped for 25 years, and always have taken along dogs,” Captain Quillen said. "Just before I started from Baltimore for Mayport, Fla., somebody stole my dog. So I got a cat, a gray cat. Cats are bad luck, I guess. This was my first accident. The cat was lost." ---

who carries on a horrible nerve-rack-ing form of guerilla warfare in closer proximity to you after a few days spent in the mud. His pertinacity and vitality is amazing. He requires ten times a» much killing as any German, but our medical service has proved equal to the task of circumventing his wiles. The battalion is paraded and marched to the nearest bath. Often this is under shell fire, and the shrapnel is screaming overhead. But no one heeds such trifles as these. Each man strips and throws his shirts, underclothes, and socks into a heap. His uniform he takes off, and ties to it his tin identification disk. At a word of command groups of fourteen nude forms with a wild howl of joy rush into each of the steaming tubs. From these arise a chorus of screams and chaff as the men soap or duck each other in soap suds.

Clothes Steamed and Washed. Jdeanwhile the uniforms are placed in another vat, and steamed for ten minutes. The heat is so great that no evaporation takes place, and they come out perfectly dry. Each man as he emerges from the bath after his alloted span is handed a towel and a fresh set of underclothes. He then dries himself, puts his. new garments on, and claims his uniform, recognizing it by the identification disk. The underclothes, which he took off are, then boiled or steamed in great vats, and then handed over to the washerwomen who are employed for this purpose at four francs (SO cents) a day. They are then carefully Inspected and if found perfectly clean are made up into sets, and are available for the next battalion which comes to be washed. I was present when a territorial battalion was having its turn. A young printer’s cleric said to me: "This is the day we all live for. It helps you to get back your self-respect just when you feel you are sinking to the level of brute beasts from mud and dirt. I don’t believe one of us would surrender his turn for a fiver.”

MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL

Miss Justine Johnstone, a wellknown model and show girl, has been pronounced the most beautiful girl in America by several artists for whom she has posed, and is referred to as the typical American girl. Her photograph won the $5,000 prize at the photograph show in New York.

• • A tourist without money is a tramp, and a tramp with money is a tourist. M ■-■ . - I