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PAGE TWO THE CLARK PANTHER, SEPTEMBER, 1949 THE CLARK PANTHER * A Journal of College Life Published from September to June VOICE OF THE STUDENTS MOUTHPIECE OF THE COLLEGE A promoter of school spirit by encouraging projects and efforts among student groups and individual students. A medium through which an opportunity is provided for students to obtain experience in news gathering, reporting, book-previewing, edi torial, and creative writing. An instrument for fostering friendly and constructive criticism of campus activities. DAVID CHARLES COLLINGTON Editor-in-Chief HULEY B. DODSON WILLIAM STANLEY Associate-Editor News-Editor Ethel Watkins .. James Woodard Harold Hamilton Fred White Harry Atkins — Society Feature Feature Art .. Sports Julius Conway __ Lillian Graves Alfred Wyatt ..... David Stanley ... Fred Ross Photographer Fashion Circulation Poet Business Manager ADVISORS John F. Summersette, Darwin T. Turner, Franklin S. Jones REPORTERS Alfonso Goggins, Emanuel Fryar, Lorenzo Jones, Lorenzo Manns, and David Kilgore TYPISTS Lois Richardson, Annie Burts, Ruth Paradise, Jerodene Hodges and Frances McGuire Helen Thomas, Marion Brown Staff Secretaries BE YOURSELF . An often misused and reversed interpretation has been attached to the quotation “Be Yourself.” This old adage has meant for years that a person is attempting to be facetious, obtrusive, or offensive toward someone else. Many of us seldom stop to think that such a quotation may be used to their own advantage. We never stop to analyze our abilities because we are too busy attempting to adopt the traits of someone else. It is a tremendous task for a person to be himself. A great per centage of us actually underestimate our abilities and, of course, there are those who overestimate themselves. We underestimate our selves because we lack the inspiration to plunge feet first into a task. Opportunities are open to all of us, but we shelve those opportunities and are content to remain placid because of an overwhelming fear of failure. Failing once, we are too discouraged to start again. Overestimation of one’s ability may often prove detrimental; how ever, we must give this person credit for his sweat and toil to achieve the success that slips farther and farther away with every effort. This complex problem could and will eventually lead to frustration. Such a person need not rationalize or compensate because he has taken more of the pie than he could eat. The simple adage “Be Yourself” may be just the cure for this person’s many ills. It is here that he should accept the stark realization that reaching for the stars is futile. He should stop, check his potentiality closely, and choose those endeavors which will come within the range of his ability. Ultimate solution to the problem of overestimation nears when the person admits to himself that he cannot surpass or reach his intended endeavor and must step down to a level within his means of attainment. A wise choice in this man over makes a happier and more mentally sound person. Thus success is his to achieve. The best may be gained from life when a person recognizes the true extent of his ability; at this time he recognizes himself. Then, he gears his level of aspirations in accord with his personality and intellectual ability. —Huley B. Dodson. A MESSAGE FROM YOUR “Y” REPORTER By Daughtry L. Thomas Did you know that when you join the YMCA you become a part of an amazing fellowship which reaches back in time to 1844 and reaches around the world? The first YMCA was founded in London in 1844, followed by the London YWCA in 1855. The first student YMCA was formed at the University of Virginia in 1858 and the first campus YMCA at Illinois Normal University in 1873. The YMCA on this cam pus has a very rich heritage also. The YMCA and YWCA are pioneering organizations. Many features of campus life had humble origins in the “Y’s”. Among them are student employment bureaus, student counselling, campus cooperatives, student government, freshman orientation, summer camps and confer ences, and use of the discussion method. A unique contribution to church life has been the training of students who now in their adult life are leading the movement toward church unity in communities and in the World Council of Churches. But the greatest contribution of the “Y’s” is the awakening of the minds and spirits of students who later become leaders in the social, political and religious movements of small communities and of the world. Did you know that our YMCA and YWCA are a part of the Cen tral-Geneva Region? There are very good chances for us to send representatives to these conferences where one will have the chance to meet students from other colleges. Brady Jones, past president of the YWCA and Jesse Gibson, past president of the YMCA, attended conferences at Berea, Kentucky last year as our representatives from Clark. We here at Clark College are members of the campus units of the YMCA and YWCA and of the National Student, YMCA and YWCA. Membership is open to all young men and women of the campus com munity who share our purpose and wish to further the program. Marva Bell is president of the YWCA. Rodney Reed is president of the YMCA. THE POET’S CORNER TO BE WITH YOU By David Stanley My •every waking hour Is spent in thoughts of you, All through each dreary day, There’s nothing else I do. I long to see your smile, See you in all your grace, And all the things you mean to me, Which no one can replace. To me you are like a heavenly star, Brighter than all the rest. Shining for me alone, And bringing me happiness. Though we’re apart for now, Fate will soon play its part, And you’ll be in my arms again, With love for me in your heart. REMEMBERING By David Stanley A dance floor, music, a girl, That I held in my arms, Alone in a noisy crowd, As I floated on a cloud. Strolling down a lonely path, Humming a lovely tune, The brown eyes I gazed into, Under the light of the moon. As I recall these things, My lonely heart feels blue, I remember many things, But they all add up to You. IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE That the President’s name be tween 1900 and 1904 was, and still is Harry S. Truman. * * * That the Geigar-Counter can be used to locate and outline brain tumors. * * * That the life span of bachelors is shorter than married men. * * * That the present world birthrate is 55,000 born per day. * * * That the giraffe has no vocal cords; he talks with his tail. * * * That a camel can see backwards without turning his head. * * * That 69 out of every 1,000 men in Georgia are psychopatic cases. The National average is 52. * * * That fish actually breathe. * * * That approximately 61 million men and women of our 155 millibn people in America drink some form of alcoholic beverage; 750,000 of these are chronic alcoholics. THE FRESHMAN SPEAKS By Councille Blye After I gave driver number six of the Lincoln Cab company tend ings, things began to happen around Clark College. Upon my arrival, I was greeted by a group of seven upperclassmen who exclaimed, “They have started coming in, poor fools.” That was no more than I expected because before I left for Atlanta, I was told what to expect from upperclass men. I was given a warm welcome by Mr. Mazyck and Mother Fraser. After meeting Mother Fraser, the slight homesick passion left in a whirl. I had informed the home folk of my safe arrival, and was altogether at ease until I went to lunch and learned that I was “Dog Blye” and had to purchase a dog cap the next morning. I was told to come in one room and make a skirt from a very ex quisite blanket. I began to cut the skirt out and stitch it. When fresh man week ended, I was just about to insert a dot and adjust the band. After carrying 18 glasses of wa ter, 6 pints of ice cream, 12 cokes and 4 dozens of donuts, I was re leased at 5:30 a.m. I never thought a piano would be of any use to me while taking lessons, but I found it to be the ideal front on which to put a mattress for an all night snooze. I was released during the place ment examinations hours, but had a list of chores to perform after each test. When freshman week ended, I began clases and had become ad justed to college life. After meeting my teachers, going to classes and meetings of various organizations, I felt as though I was a full-fledg ed college man. I ended my freshman week ex perience by writing a letter home. In the letter, I made the assertion, “The beautiful buildings and grounds of Clark make me feel proud to be a Clarkite. The teach ers and fellows here aren’t so bad after all.” ART AS EXPERIENCE In our times many words are often confused as to their denotative meanings and we are often baffled at the multiplicity of definitions given for the same word. The term “art” has suffered this abuse and for centuries has lived in a vacuum of mystery and uncertainty. Im properly used, it has been concerned with only the museum, the gallery and the concert hall. “The realm of art is identical with the realm of man’s deliberate control of that world of materials and movements among which he must make his home, of that inner world of random impulses and automatic processes which constitute his inner being. The breaking of a stick, the building of a hut, a skyscraper, or a cathedral, the use of language for communication, the sowing or the harvesting of a crop, the nurture and education of children, the framing of a code of laws or morals, the weaving of a garment, or the digging of a mine—all of these are alike examples of art no less than the molding of a relief or the composition of a symphony”, says Irwin Edman, professor of Philosophy, Columbia University. Experience then, is the very essence of art. This experience might be as simple as the aimless movements of a baby or as complex as of the working of some chemical formula. It is the segment of one of these experiences that the artist works with, be he poet, sculptor, musician, architect. It is one of these segments that we enjoy. To the extent that experience has form, it is an art. Painters sometimes speak of dead spots in a painting: areas where the color is dull or unin teresting or the forms weak technically. Experience is full of dead spots. Art gives it life. It is one of the chief functions of the artist to render experience satisfactory by rendering it alive. The still life is not to be gaped at for practical satisfaction; rather it is to be looked at with the aesthetic eye, a satisfaction for the soul. The symphony is not to be listened to for commercial reasons, but should rather transport us to another world—a world of aesthetic sensuality. The artist does something to events that compels the eye to stop and find pleasure in the beholding, the ear to hear for the sake of listening, the mind to attend for the keen impractical pleasure of discovery or suspense or surprise. Won’t you help re-live some of these experiences of Beethoven, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Wordsworth and' some of the others who beg us to live with them, seeing this life as an experience? Won’t you try to think as Edman thinks about the whole realm of the arts? Note :Mr. Sherrod is instructor of art at Clark College. —Arthur Sherrod PRESIDENT BRAWLEY WELCOMES THE FRESHMEN It is indeed a pleasure to have this opportunity to welcome new Clarkites to the family circle. It seems to be a tradition to think of this program as a welcome to freshmen alone. This I think is very erroneous. An important ele ment "is overlooked—-the faculty. It is antiquated to think of a college faculty as being on one side of a stream in a tug-of-war game with students on an opposite bank. We like to think of our faculty as our close friends and trusted advisors. In this spirit we greet you and say we are especially glad to have you. There is one feature of this pro gram, however, that seems never to change. It always turns out to be an experience meeting in which considerable effort is exerted to advise freshmen. In fact, in many instances, it is a series of warnings against the proverbial pitfalls to be encountered in life. As for me, if there was any value in this sort of welcome it was not obvious then. I was actually bored. But, when I tried to devise a new scheme, I found the task harder than I expected. It seemed heart less to skip it. This exercise today makes me very conscious of the fact that time is elastic; for it seems only yesterday that my class was welcomed. I mention this not as a boastful reminiscence of how long we have been here, but rather with a note of seriousness. I can think of many things I would do if we were starting again. But there are circumstances over which we have little or no control—such as growing four years older. The plight of the human race would be a horrible thing to imag ine if we did not profit by the past experience of our predecessors. We would be not better than the low est forms of animal life. So, if ex perience means anything, I would urge you to remember three things. Socrates, one of the greatest philosophers of all time summed up the art of living in two counts. Said he, “Know thyself,” and “Be moderate in all things.” If you add these two to the golden rule of our Lord, you will have a code that covers. all the laws of morality, justice and fair play. Remember that all life is like an ever moving procession. Clark Col lege is like a piece of fabric and we are all weavers. The design has been schemed, but the pattern that it will become depends upon each of us. You will pass this way once only. First, observe, for an observing freshman makes an inquisitive sophomore; then, work, for the stu dious junior often makes a wise senior; and the wise senior is the gift of the college to the betterment of society. The student body of Clark Col lege welcomes you and sincerely hopes that the years you will spend here will be the fullest and richest of your young experience.