Pogc 4
Sweet Se.i
If one has ever studied the ge
ography of South America, he will
no doubt have come in contact with
the river that flows almost across
the entire width of this continent.
The name of the river is the Ama
zon; It is the widest river in the
world. It was earlier named Mar
Dulce by the Indians, meaning
Sweet Sea, to us Fresh Water Sea.
The Amazon is more than a
river; it is a floating sea, about
twenty-five hundred miles long,
(leologists say that once it was an
arm of the ocean cutting South
America into two large island.s and
connecting the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans. Later, when the Andes were
created, the River’s western end
was cut off, and rain water flowing
into the river caused it to flow east
ward into the Atlantic Ocean.
The river at its mouth is more
than three hundred miles wide,
and here the fresh water flows into
the ocean at a rate of sixty billion
gallons per hour. This water, flow
ing at such terrific pressure, con
tinues flowing for over a hundred
miles out to sea: at some points a
hundred miles from the mouth of
the river, one may obtain fresh
water.
Being the drain for more than
three thousand square miles of ter
ritory, the Amazon has over one
thousand tributaries, ten of which
are larger than Germany’s Rhine
River. Having channels from five
hundred to one thousand feet deep,
this network of water is navigable
for more than twenty-three hun
dred miles: thus an ocean-going
vessel is able to sail from the At
lantic to the Andes without diffi
culty.
From the time of its creation, the
Amazon has been the master of
man; not a bridge, dike, levee, or
dam has ever been constructed on
this gigantic flowing mass. This
river, being so unpredictable, may
build an island in one year, and in
the next year destroy it. People
living on the Amazon are always
in constant danger of being swal
lowed by this tremendous monster.
As are all tropic rivers, the Ama
zon is infested with alligators, but
it is unique in the fact that it has
piranhas—man-eating fish which
can devour an individual in a mat
ter of minutes. Strange as it may
seem, there have been salt water
fish such as the shark, tarpon, and
sailfish found as far as two thou
sand miles up the river. It is still
a puzzle to science how these salt
water fish can survive in the fresh
waters of the Amazon.
Thus the Amazon, world in it
self, is the river of all rivers, and
remains an unsolved problem to
humanity not a —“Sweet Sea”.
THE CHARLOTTE COLLEGIAN
September 17, 1956
SPELUNKING STUDENTS—Amateur cave explorers from Sacred Heart, W. C.,
and Charlotte College enter a cave in Western North Carolina.
What Will Your Grades Be?
Circle the correct juiswer, then look t)elo\v to see what your
grades will be this Fall.
Do you usually sit in the front of the class?
Do you prefer to work alone rather than with
other people?
Are you trying to improve your reading skill?
Do you have a study schedule?
Are you in the habit of looking up words not
fully understood in the dictionary?
Do you take useful notes in class?
Do you like to take an exam?
When you are tired or fatigued, do you rest
before you study?
Do you try to take courses in which you are
interested?
Do you have a regular time and place for
study?
Do you skim over your assignment before you
study it?
Do you try to use what you have learned in
your daily experiences?
Do you have confidence in your ability to re-
rememlier ?
Do you stop freiuently during your studying
and make yourself recall the things you are
learning?
Do you take five minute breaks away from
your studies whenever you find your attention
waning?
Do you frequently rewrite letters before mail
ing them?
The ability to study or learti correctly is of prime importance
in college or business. Any Question that you answered no to,
except numbers 2 and 16, may be an area in which you can
improve. To find out what your grades will be count the total
number of yes answers that you have and compare them ''ith
the table below.
Yes
No
1.
Yes
No
2.
Yes
No
3.
Yes
No
4.
Yes
No
5.
Yes
No
6.
Yes
No
7.
Yes
No
8.
Yes
No
9.
Yes
No
10.
Yes
No
11.
Yes
No
12.
Yes
No
13.
Yes
No
14.
Yes
No
15.
Yes
No
16.
TABLE FOR “WHAT WILL YOUR GRADES BE”
1 to 6 D to F
6 to 11 C to I)
11 to 14 B to G
14 to 16 A to B
The History Of Charlotte College
PART ONE
The termination of World W'ar
II released hundreds of young
North Carolinians from their mili
tary obligations and permitted
many of them to commence or con
tinue their formal education on a
college level. The passage of the
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act
(Public Law 346) and the Federal
Kducational Rehabilitation Pro
gram (Public Law 16) by the Con
gress of the United States in
creased the number of young men
seeking college training because the
two acts granted allowances to vet
erans who attended schools or col
leges.
In 1946, because of the above con
ditions, North Carolina colleges had
entrance applications from more
students than they could accept.
Students had to be turned away
because of existing inadequacies of
instructors, classrooms, and dormi
tories. To meet the emergency, the
North Carolina College Conference
and the Department of Public In
struction began the sponsorship of
college centers in Charlotte and
eleven other North Carolina cities.
These centers were under the super
vision of the Directorate of Exten
sion of the University of North
Carolina and provided only first
year college work. With an enroll
ment of two hundred and eighty-
seven students for the school year
1946-1947, Charlotte College was
the largest college center in the
state.
Permission to offer second year
college work was granted to Char
lotte College Center in November
of 1947. This permission was the
result of a request made in July of
1947 by Dr. Elmer H. Garinger,
Superintendent of Charlotte City
Schools, to the steering committee.
The addition of second year work
caused the enrollment of Charlotte
College Center to become larger
than the enrollment of all other
College Centers combined; three
hundred and four students were
enrolled in Charlotte College Center
in the fall of 1947.
WORKING THEIK WAY
(Continued from page 2)
calorie. At Duke I ran across a
different solution to the problem.
There is a place up there that lets
you have all the vegetables you can
eat with your meal. The method
is to eat only once a day. One fel
low became so adept with this
method that he found that he
could fill up each time he went
home and not eat for two or three
days upon his return.
There are two other places of
eating other than the ones the col
leges list in their catalogs. A popu
lar place at the University of Cali
fornia is the automobile. The stu
dents stop by a supermarket and
pick up some bread, milk, peanut
butter, and a little fresh fruit.
Everything except the milk will
last for about a week. The average
cost is about fifty cents per day.
Then, there is that old standby of
every college. The hotplate in your
room which is used to warm up
something good—like a can of pork
and beans.
Clothing for the woman student
can prove quite a problem; but the
average male can get by with a
good suit, a sport coat, four pairs
of trousers, seven good shirts, and
two pairs of shoes for the entire
four years as his basic wardrobe.
This would be subject to the cli
mate the college is located in and
may require such items as an over
coat and several sweaters.
The major cost in clothing is not
initial but upkeep. At M. I. T. some
of the boys have a schedule. Every
other time they have their clothes
dry cleaned. In between dry clean
ings they wash them in the sink
and press them by a combination
of sleeping on them and then hang
ing them up to let the smaller
wrinkles hang out.
When it comes to the problem of
shelter the majority of our college
students are not so resourceful.
They usually sleep in dorms, board
ing houses, or anything else ap
proved by the college.
However, there is one gentleman
who found a way around the prob
lem. I won’t give the credit of hav
ing him to any college, but I will
show his method of improvement.
When he decided to go to college
he bought himself a secondhand
Nash, the model with a seat that
converts into a bed, and a Y. M.
C. A. membership. Every night
after school he goes down to the
“Y” and does a few push ups, chin
ups,skips rope,shaves, showers, and
changes into the clothes he’ll wear
the next day. Then he goes to the
public library, which stays open
until nine p. m. and studies until
the library closes. His next step is
to eat and drive the car to a neigh
borhood where it will be inconspic
uous and retire for the night.
All this a part of a course which
is not taught in any college but is
learned by all. We only hope that
ten years from now our respective
colleges will be able to point
proudly at their alumni as another
example of the paradox that the
only people who can live happily on
a thousand dollars a year are those
most likely to make ten thousand.
Proof of the Pudding
We judge a knife by its ability to
cut, a pudding by its taste, and a
college by the men and women it
graduates. These are a few of the
proofs of the pudding from some
of the students I have known at
Charlotte College.
Steve always said that he never
would have started college if it
hadn’t been for the convenience of
being able to attend a college near
home. He found that Charlotte Col
lege was easier than he had ex
pected it to be. Granted, there was
lots of work to be done but Steve
found that as long as he did his
work; he made a majority of “A”s.
After completing the two-year pro
gram at C.C., he transferred to
Wake Forest where he was elected
Phi Beta Kappa. Not so long ago,
Steve and Jane decided to get mar
ried. I was fortunate enough to be
able to attend their w'edding. I met
a large number of Steve’s class
mates there from the Bowman Gray
School of Medicine that Steve is
now attending. When they found
that I planned to attend C.C., they
were unanimous in their praise of
the little College. If I had had any
idea of C.C. being a scholastic
handicap, it was dispelled by talk
ing to these men, who were honor
graduates of almost every well-
known college in the country.
Later when I talked to Steve his
answer was typical of the answers
I have received from almost twen
ty men, who have attended C.C.
and are now at larger colleges. “If
you can make good at C.C., you
can make good anywher-e and I
think you’ll find it easier to get
a good start at C.C. and then trans
fer to a larger college than you will
to start at a college away from
home where you have to adjust not
only to college but to a change of
environment as well.”
There is another aspect of C.C.
graduates. Those who have to work
long and hard to get through col
lege. Tom was one of those. He
didn’t have a G. I. bill, a scholar
ship or parents to help him. His I.Q.
wasn’t spectacular but he knew
where he was going and he went.
He said that it was harder to move
a ton of dirt than a ton of coal, and
he knew because he’d worked with
both of them. Sometimes he would
have to quit for almost a year in
order to make enough money to
start again. He didn’t wait for edu
cation to come to him. He went to
education. He fought college like an
opponent in the ring. At first it
seemed a losing battle, most of his
grades were “D”s but gradually
almost too gradually they began to
rise. A “D” became a “B”, a “C”
became an “A”, and Tom was on
his way. It’s not so hard now, Tom
has his B.S. and his good grades
and determination have secured for
him a position that is a long way
removed from the red clay in which
he used to work.