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PAGE TWO
Time to Take Inventory
(By Wuldo Jones)
Why have you come to college? What are you
getting out of your school work? What you are
tomorrow will be determined by what you are
doing today. Life is indeed a sequence. We are
passing or failing our work as the result of what
we did or did not do in high school. Recent sur
veys reveal that thse students who fail in school
usually fail when they are out of school.
The student comes to college with noble aspira
tions and good intentions. There are just as many
good intentions back of every failure as success.
The college student is the recipient of various
stimuli which are competing for his response. The
teacher has stimulated him to study biology and
his sweetheart has stimulated him to take her to
the cinema. Perhaps for the first time in his life
the student cannot turn to his parents for help in
making an important decision. He must review
his aims and purposes in school and select the
stimuli that will enable him to accomplish his
mission. Thus, college is the time of decisions.
"Decisions are the hinges on which destiny turns.”
College is a transitional period which marks the
end of adolescence and the beginning of adult
hood. It is the period in which many attitudes
and work habits he has formed. School affords
many opportunities for intellectual and social de
velopments and progress. One cannot stand still;
where there’s no progress, there is retrogression.
It behooves all of us to take stock of ourselves and
resolve with greater determination to achieve our
objectives in school.
“Robespierre, The Incorruptible”
(By Freiderech Silburg)
Maximilien Robespierre was born in Arras,
France, of very obscure parents. His mother died
before he was five years old and his father disap
peared from Arras when he was six. He was rear
ed by his grandmother, a grim, austere, woman,
and this explains why he grew into a timid and
inhibited person who could never loosen enough
to mingle with other people. Consequently, he
could never understand feelings other than his
own.
His start as a lawyer was below average, but
he soon earned the name "The Incorruptible”,
because no power could sway him from a chosen
course. His conception of morals and virtue caus
ed him to turn a deaf ear to all attempts at brib
ery, and later he executed a few of the would-be
bribers that approached him. He came into pow
er as head of the committee of Public Safety, an
organization to prevent influential people from
leaving France. His reputation for strict honesty
helped him with the people of the third estate.
Robespierre set out to impose his views on all
of France as soon as he assumed control of the
government. He wanted a country where the pole
tarians dominated society and everyone led a
virtuous life. The people did not understand what
he was trying to do, but because he used the term
‘‘the people” so often they thought that his every
action was for their welfare.
"The Incorruptible” was sincere in his desire
to better the lot of the masses, but it was not until
just before his death that he realized that the
people did not want to be victorious and wanted
to live a life free from fear of the guillotine. In
trying to convince the people he sent thousands
to their death and imprisoned countless others.
A look from him was enough to make the receiver
tremble with dread and set him to wondering
when he would be led off to the blocks.
The people finally realized that Robespierre was
trying to force them into a society they did not
want, and began to revolt. His friends, realizing
his declining popularity, set about to undermine
him so as to help themselves when the people or
ganized to overthrow his regime. When he died,
Robespierre had no friends.
This book was written by a German student of
the French revolution. It was translated into Eng
lish in 1938. Its purpose was to show how Robes
pierre dominated France during this nineteen
The West Georgian
WEST GEORGIAN STAFF MEMBERS:
Editor-in-Chief Patricia McCready
Associate Editors Martha Wilson, Oliver Lindsey
Sports Editors Billie Cheney, Clarence Salmon
Circulation Manager Christine Eidson
Business Manager J ane
Feature Editors Bobbie Stepp, Jo Garner
Faculty Advisor Miss Marie Campbell
REPORTERS: Margaret Martin, Parrie Rogers, Virginia Brooks,
Charlotte Pearson, Betty Jean Johnson, Barbara Bishop, Matilda
West, Ray Miller, Ottye Lee Mundy, Martha Brown, Marian Moon,
Edith Harrod, Waldo Jones, and Sherman Lindsay.
Published Monthly by the Students of West Georgia College,
Genola, Georgia. Printed by Frank T. Thomasson, Printers
and Publishers, Carrollton, Ga.
Member G. S. P. A. Member
Subscription Rate: Pbsocicrted Golle6iale Press
SI.OO Per Year
A Defense Against Boredom
(By Prof. George C. S. Adams)
It has been said that anyone who is bored is really half dead.
The sophisticated person who pretends to take little interest in the
simple occurrences of everyday life is well on the way to being
bored, for an affected lack of interest often leads to a real lack of
interest. The individual who favors his natural indolence by go
ing to the movies repeatedly in order to be entertained instead of
applying himself to stimulating reading or a creative hobby that
challenges his power to think is encouraging a conditon of mental
laziness that may become chronic. The student who studies with
one ear trained on the radio or on a friend’s conversation is creat
ing for himself the illusion of working. In reality he is letting
himself wander mentally with little effort at self-control and with
out exerting enough brain power to thoroughly grasp what he
should be trying to master.
An athlete who trains hard in college to make the football team
stays physically fit through the habitual use of his muscles and
through proper dieting. If he is sincerely interested in athletics, he
develops his capabilities to the fullest. When he leaves college, if
he fails to take regular exercise, his muscles become loose and
flabby, and his heart, developped to take care of his body’s needs
during his years of strenuous activity, often shows tendencies to
ward irregular action with resultant bad health. Just so the brain,
seldom used for reflective thinking and serious study, develops a
type of atrophy or "mental fat” when a person follows the line of
least resistance and lets himself fall into the rut of seeking ready
made entertainments that fail to arouse in him any mental effort.
We are all told that living by the golden mean brings excellent
results, and this is largely true. Motion pictures or radio programs
chosen with descrimination have real entertainment as well as
educational value, just as a book highly rated by leading critics, or
one which has stood the test of time as a work of importance,
will, if thoroughly read, bring benefits to an inquiring mind.
In college the student has the opportunity of a lifetime, because
there he can learn to think and analyze. Whether he is studying
a scientific treatise, the proposed solution of some social problem,
or a literary work, in the classroom he is offered the help and di
rection of a specially trained person to instruct him in weighing
and evaluating evidence, in separating the important from the
trivial, and in increasing his ability to think solidly and independ
ently. It is to be hoped that every student will make the most of
these years devoted to acquainting him with the important fields
of human experience. His best interests are served by cooperating
in these efforts to free him from the shackles of prejudice, emo
tionalism, and ignorance, and through which he should try to at
tain for himself a sane and rational point of view, to develop with
in himself a sane and rational point of view, to develop within
himself mental resources that will enable him to take such a gen
uine interest in all phases of life that in post-college years he will
never have cause to be bored if the movie, the radio, or the time
wasting friend are not always at hand.
month period and to draw a parallel between his regime and that
of modern dictators. However, I was left with the impression
that the author was an ardent fan of Robespierre’s and wrote the
book to prove it. His attitude was partial, to say the least. By
using long passages to describe Robespierre, he put everything in
a subordinate position.
I was not able to find if this book was banned by Hitler, but it
was printed about the time the Germans were burning all books
that ran contrary to their interests.
THE WEST GEORGIAN
Spotlight
William Oliver Lindsey , Jr.
V. R. A., Choir, Dramatics, and Associate Editor
West Georgian.
I surely hope this edition of the paper isn't
long getting out, because I’m calling Oliver Lind
sey, a LaGrange boy, and I wouldn’t want it said
that my facts were misrepresented.
Oliver was born in Memphis, Tennessee on Oc
tober 30, 1926, making Rev. Lindsey’s dependents
three. From there Oliver was moved to German
town, Tennessee, Peducah, Kentucky, Ripley,
Tennessee. At Oliver’s age of five, the Lindseys
made their Georgia debut in Greenville. Must like
Georgia all right too, they’ve been here since then.
From Greenville to Tallapoosa, Roswell, Powder
Springs, Hampton, Fairmount, and his present
home-site, where he graduated from high school
in ’44.
Oliver’s coming out in dramatics was in the
second grade, in the part of the peracher in a
Tom Thumb wedding.
Yes, Oliver, we know you love music, or your
singing wouldn’t be nearly so effective, but I un
derstand you prefer classics and a few semi
classics.
“What about food?”
"Just give me country ham, all drooly with
gravy, home-made rolls and I’m in pig-heaven.
But squash is the root of all my food dislikes, so
take it away, take it away, take it away.”
Oliver hesitated in saying his ambition was to
be an opera singer because he thinks it too high.
We’ve got to have goals if we wish to attain them.
(Where’d that come from? Am I quoting some
one?) It’s good logic, though, Oliver, and when
you get to Georgia, I’ll bet your voice goes over
as big as it has with us.
At first, I couldn’t get much on this subject with
our tall, admired "Frankie” being so guarded in
his description of his ideal girl. "Just preferable
a blonde, 5’6” or 7” tall, the conservative and
strictly feminine type, and she might play the
piano, but it wouldn’t bee too necessary,” added
Oliver, “And a good cook is most essential, es
pecially in the kitchen.”
Sure sounds good, this ideal girl of your, ol’ boy.
and may you two reign in the world of opera!
Helen Virginia Brooks
President Mu Zeta Alpha, Officers’ Club, 4-H
Club, Press Forum, West Georgian Staff, Demo
cratic Youth Society.
"He’s a blonde, handsome sailor and has—
" Wait there, Virginia, we know he’s first in your
life, but must we begin with him this time?”
“Okay” sigh—"l was born November 14, 1927,
in Lindale, Georgia, to Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Brooks
and they’re my younger brother Billie’s mother
and daddy, too.” (Let me see if I can get "Tad
pole” of M.Z.A. to snap out of this blissful stupor
she’s in—l know she doesn’t like cheese.)
"Virginia, we’re, having cheese for lunch today.”
“Heavens! I hat the stuff as much as I do cer
tain democratic congressmen and furthermore I
don’t like Math nor conceited people.”
"Virginia, did you learn to dislike those certain
congressmen in school?”
"School? Oh, yes, that reminds me, Lindale
Grammar School worked up my demerits on its
records and then Girls’ Hi’ in Rome was my choice
for graduation site in ’44. My life here since then
has been quite happy, but I’ll never forget writing
ransom notes and making quick get-aways on
bicycles.”
"Meaning you were an outlaw?”
“Mercy no- Just a pretense and my favorite
pastime from a way back. Now, my pastime is
still writing, but not ransom notes. I like Eng
lish, Seven-up, my roommates, green Plymouths,
West Georgia and Charles Korvin.
I needn’t tell you how happy it made me to have
Mu Zeta Alpha win first place in the stunt night
program.”
It was something to be proud of, and may man>
more of your undertakings prove just that suc
cessful !
What’s this? My attractive brunette subject has
a quick change of mood, and he brown eyes dance
merrily, her soft melodious voice leads me awa>
again into that dreamy bliss —"And say—getting
back to the subject, my blonde sailor loves swim*
ming, tennis, football, and prefers brunettes to
blondes and he is just—” ,
Pardon me, this is where I came in, folks, ant
even tho Virginia is at present a portrayal c
"beautiful dreamer” I’ll tell you she has hopes
being a journalist. Mr. Journalist-seeker, y°h v ~
surely got some all right in that young lady s tai
ent, too!
Friday, March 29, 1946