I encountered the paper wrap cable many times. When I retired, it still existed in small quantities. And we called it "Icky-Pic". The women splicers liked it because, over the long term, it made their skin soft. ;-) You just can't clean that stuff off. I hated it.
They never did "upgrade" the plant in our COs either. I never measured over 100VAC at any prem, but most of where I worked outside was pretty far from the CO in rural areas. My last day as a lineman was up a 35 footer, replacing a fire-burned pole we hand-set into a hill side of decayed granite. After digging that hole, using pullies and "arm power" to erect the the new pole, and transferring four arms of open wire, I was very happy to be going inside.