Wallpaper and Wallcoverings - cardboard behind wallpaper

We have stripped wallpaper from 2 walls only to find some very old wallpaper behind. The house was built around 1900-1915. Behind the very old wall paper seems to be a thin (one stroke paintbrush layer of textured paint or a plaster) and then cardboard and then plaster (we think). We have tried to get the wallpaper off but it only continues to saturate the cardboard. We are concerned about what we may find behind the cardboard. Have you ever heard of plaster that has cardboard or similar over it from that era? We would be open to suggestions as to tackle this project or is painting over it a possibility? We are only going to be at the house for a couple of years so we don't want to invest alot. I am not wanting to paper over it if possible.

Thanks

jrieman, I doubt there is an easy therefore inexpensive way to get a fix for this but here are some thoughts that may help. Given the age of the home, if your in the states, I would bet that it is true plaster behind this whole mess. What I see so many times in this situation is all sorts of cures for cracked and less than smooth plaster. The problem in removing all to the plaster is there is no telling what kind of indestructable glue was used to attach the liner board, which is what I think you may have, but it is possible that they tacked it on if the plaster was not to hard. What I do is work a small area down to the plaster if I can and see if it may all come off. A lot of the time it will and the plaster most often is in good shape with a few badly patched areas leading someone to a radical coverup. If the whole mess will not give it may be time to KILZ, patch, paint and or texture or consider a texture paper that you may or may not paint. Labor and money wise if you would consider the textured paper it would be the way to go. These materials are inexpensive and really do fit in homes of this age....Mike