Page Two
The Chapel Hill Weekly
Chape] Hill North Carolina
lJf E. Rnsfmi'' Telephone V-ISTI or klfil
E'er? Tucwdty and Friday
By The Chape’. Hiti Publt*hinc l ßf
Lons Graves Conn but twp Editor
Jot Josces Managing Edito-
BruiT Aetsttf Asroricrc lauir
Chi ck Havsef Assoncu Lducr-
OrrniJ C/JMJPEr-: Genera; Mcnapr-
O T Watkins .Adrrtuinf Dx'cnn-
Feei Dale Ci*ruictior. .Vcr^pr-
CharitoV Campeeu Mechanical 5u;»:
fcnter-ec t; wronc-cm*.' rr.Alter Tefiruari 21 UCi •'
tl* porlotliM f Cr.iirx Hit. Nortr. Carolina unier
th» ocl of Marrr ?, ;FIV
SUBSCRIPTION KATLb
It. Orange County. Year JA.OO
if months St. 2; i nvtithi J 15( •
Oulsiae (d Ortr.pt County ty the Y tar
State of N C., Yk.. a:>c i. C A-Bf
Other .‘Xfi trie In*!, of C?-tuTr.t»»a £.OO
Canada, Mexico, South Amer.'.t T.W
Europe " -Bf
In the Days When Mud Was a Problem
On the University Campus
Dear Mr. Editor.
In these days of high tension over
th< preset 11 dent cart n. th<
campus, of an election to recall the
editors of the Tar He'. f r the:r oj.-n
--ions on big time foot baa and the pos
sibility that the Board • f Higher Edu
cation may make an important recom
mendation f r or against “Consolida
tion,” it may Iprove relaxing to turn
the clock back t late January 1925
to an exchange of letters between a
“mere student' writing* under the pseu
donym.. Perc.va. Sylvester DePeyster,
and the iat- former President Harry
Wood burn Chase-.
“Trie subject of the exchange was'
MUD. due in large measure to the
heavy traffic incident to the big bund
ing program of the University in the
1920 s and to the Carolina, Inn then
recently completed. The spur track of
the railroad from Carrboro brought
the heavy building materials to the
South Campus near where the present
flag pole stands, but from that point
they had to be hauled to all parts of
the campus. The west end of Cameron
Avenue cam* in for particularly hard
usage.
“But,, through the Tar Heel of Jan
uary 21 arid 2k. 1925, let Mr. Dt-Pey
ster and President Phase paint the
scene and point ouvthejriorai, keeping
in mind th< anniversary of. Hintoi
James day. which falls on February 12.
the day on which the fir.-', student to
erg - • • ■ Americr tab t ei ty
....
ten day - after Ground Hog Day which
is frequently attended by “falling'
weather!
Sincerely,
l>iui- K. Wii-on.
(ENCLOSURES;
( ore< riun y Mud
A Letter to President Harry W <,odburri * hast
Dear Sir;
Often we hav» -n*ri you strolling
about th< campu ■. Br< -idi-nt t’hase,
but alway.- on da - wh'-n th« -in was
beaming down upon us, and the birds
were singing sweetly in the trees that
shade- the d< ar Old We ~
•Such strolls about our beautiful
campus such corrnnunioiis with God
and nature, must have been inspiring
and all that, but right now the popular
subject is MUD.
Yesterday 1 went on a stroll, neither
to admire the campus nor to hold com
munion with the Unseen, but for the
• worldly and compulsory duty of pay
s2.2s for a single text-book.
It was raining most vigorously, as
it has been doing for some time past,
and J was compelled to cross Cameron
Avenue. I searched in vain for one un
muddy spot, hut such was not to be
found. So 1 was forced to wade through,
and President Chase, the mud—soupy,
gooey, sloppy, oozey mud—-was three
and four and five inches deep. Each
step that 1 took, the mud crept up
and up. On returning I had to cross
again, making the sixth time inside
five hours that I had been forced to
wade through that mud. And on this
sixth time, Dr. Chase, one of your
Negro employees came riding down the
avenue at 35 per, in his Ford coupe,
and with a Wave of goo gushing out
from both sides, blanketed me thor
oughly from my belt down to just above
the ankle. The rest of my nether limbs
were safely buried in mud and so es
capel the deluge.
Last night as I lay in bed, my
poor feet ached terribly, Dr. Chase,
and nothing that I could do would stop
'* itG Today I have a cold. All this in
: —L. ’ .. . <
spite of the fart that I wear a pair
of Mr Lacock s heaviest hob-nails, and
two pairs of Grady Pritchard £ 25-
cent Rockford socks.
President Chasi. d- you ever stroll
about the campus or. such a day as
were Monday and Tuesday' Or do you
sit in the warmth and dryness of your
mansion, or palatial office, and never
ever, know that there is mud in Cha?*l
m -
While I am lust a mere student.
Mr. President, and damnably mere at
that. I don’t like cold, wet feet. It
seems t me that in this day of science
and invention anc w;tr, our own School
<f Engineering here on the campus,
somebody, s me where, somehow, could
f.gure -ut away t put enough gravel
r. Cameroi Avenue, arid in front of
tr.e K ■ >k Exchange building, to make
**' *h( water drair, off and not collect
1 bebeve it can be done, if if
w- re tried. Yes. .f it were tried just
r. • It would :>• r igfty convenient for
the 1.999 other rro-D students here
and it would m * c -t mr re than a half
u 'Z* t. of Dr. C ker - bu.-hes.
President r n a-s*. pity the poor co
eds in weather like this!
And President / r.a-e. if nothTg
can be done, if we m.-ust stick in the
rr A until the Legi-lature grants us
$50,090 for pavement can’t Cameron
Avenue be closed uu t car 1 - and other
vehicles that cut the avenue and
make bad matters worse!' Can’t the
Negroes, and workmen, and professors
walk like the rest of us mere students?
Can’t West Gate be shut up until
our pavement comes, and if the pro
fessors must ride, car.’t they go an
extra mile around by the road by the
Tin Can? Slimy mud, three and four
inches deep, ain’t no joke, and to sit
in class with cold, aching feet ain’t
no joke.
They say that the legislators are
coming up here Friday. President
Cha.se; if jt stop- raining in the mean
time, won’t you give us permission
to pull out the fire hose, just for that
special occasion, arid make things, just
for that day, just as they were Monday
and Tu< -day? If we can do that, Presi
dent Uoase, I believe the legislature
will go back to Raleigh and pass a bill,
the first thing they do, entitled, “For
ng ttan enue, .$50,000, and
rr or<- if necessary.”
Sincerely yours,
Pt n ival Sylvester DePey-ter
Ifijura) for Mud,’’ Sa>s Chase
Mr. Per< veter D< pey ster
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Dear Percy;
You v.r;ii me about mud. You
wr '< fei-l:r,g!y and well, with passion
and yet with-du* restraint. Your vigor
and ciaritv -.f expre-sion, your vreah
ilar.. are a credit to your own wide
reading and do the instruction which
ffered I n d< partment o) Kng
] j sh.
Howe-, ii J'ercival, 1 must-confess
that your if ti-nce On the in. port ance
of pavement -mder your feet whenever
you sally forth from "your comfortable
loom evidences a -oftening ol fibre
which 1 fear is all too common in these
decadent d; .-. Not ,-o, I'ercival Syl
vester, did our birefat hers conduct
the;nsi-lvi To theii\ minds, an irn
jiortant, indeed an • ssential element in
the training of youth, was that a cer
tain discomfort, a certain hardship,
should attend tin- process—that is
toughened and strengthened both the
physical and moral fibre of young men.
Consult, ii you like, with the older
alumni of the University, and learn
how definitely such a theory was once
put into practice, and then you will,
J know, be grateful that some few ele
ments of Spartan simplicity and dis
cipline still remain to us.
As for myself, I have reached a
certain age. Discomfort has not the
value for maturity that it possesses
for youth. When, indeed, has an older
generation felt called upon to endure
itself the hardships it has deemed nec
essary for its juniors? ’■
But, Mr. DePeyster, you not only
would do away with salutary discom
fort, you would destroy one of the old
est of the University’s traditions. It
is recorded that when HintoriUJames,
first of the University students, walk
ed from Wilmington through the mud
of winter to take up his residence at
Chapel Hill, in 1795, his feet trod the
soil of Cameron Avenue, then a road
cut through virgin forest. The mud
of Cameron Avenue helped to make
him what he became. Since his day,
. as the generations have passed, pic-
THE CHAPEL HILL WEEKLY
r — f Llkr Chapel BUI jgggu
For several years the Chi Phi house (the frame
structure which now houses the District Health De
partmont) was the lone fraternity survivor of Old
Fraternity Row.
Because of fires and “keeping up with the Joneses."
ne by one the other fraternities had moved out. leav
ing the Chi Phis alone and half hidden in the trees.
My first rec illections of. Chaj-e! Hill centered there.
In fact. 1 arrived at the University with Joe Mor
ris of Chare tte, and he took me by the house and
introduced me to some of the boys. One of them ask
ed if 1 had considered joining a fraternity, and I re
’ plied that J hoj>ed to “pledge Phi P.eta Kappa."
It was there that Ox Shuf rd. Sam Presson and
“Sac" Foard at periodic interval- got the idea that
everyone should be roused from slumber at 2 or 3 a.m.
There it was, too, that Roy McDade slept on a
couch one night with three of Gertie's puppies playing
leap frog i n his chest. The puppies’ father was named
Damnit. R y didn’t awake until a pup named Jim
Magner Later belonging to EYis Fysai) tried to lick
off Roy - oeard.
“Go away." Roy said. “I don’t want to play now."
Many r. n-Cr.i Phis roomed there during the sum
mer month- Among them wa- the ba.-eball player Nor
man Md 'a-k. who habitually walked in his sleep.
Along are ut the same time. Robert C. Ruark wa
a cartoon:.-1 1 r the Buccaneer. Also on the staff were
Pete Ivey, Dm shoemaker. B' b Mason, and E. C. Dan
iel. now pr< •• nerit newspapermen, and Peter Hairston,
who served a r .tch. in the 1955 Gen* ral A.-.-embly from
Davie Count;..
About th. .-ame time, John Manning never wore
a coat m ; ’ ■ - Mavne Albright was invariably
in knickers and most of u- had the seats,of our pants
worn out. It- wa- in the early Thirties. Jack Wardlaw
who now make- thousands selling insurance was strum
ming his banjo virtually for nothing, mostly for meals.
And M. A. Abernethy was editing “Gontempo.”
('. C. Crittendori was telling his history class
aiyjut Civil War supply trains that carried “food,
ammunition, medical supplies, women, and everything
the army needed.” And McGraw-Hill’s George Bryant
engaged Jonathan Daniels in a heated argument over
whether th<-re was beauty in a hog pen, that for the
edification of Phillips Russell’- creative writing class.
Red-headed Albert Suskin turned in at the in
firmary and was inadvertently put in the red measles
ward, and we told the story about Bo Shepard being
taken to the West Point football coach who was look
ing for a quarterback.
“Here - your quarterback, coach." th. story went.
“That little fellow!” the coach exclaimed.
“Yes, what squad do you want him on?”
“Rut him on the yeast cake -quad,” wa the reply.
* * ¥ H
You can tell when a open.- hi- billfold if he is
married—-he turns his baelo
* JT *
CheerfuliM at me; aid he a great ne< d.
Maybe -o, but it i.-rU half a- filling as good food.
• V t * X
Troubles are akin to dog-. The -mailer they are
the more annoying.
H H * *
Given two evils, sorm lolks will choo < the lesser
unless then is more money in the oth< r.
H * % ¥
Television in the home has i lined a good place
to deep
<■-
Chapel Hill Chaff
(Continued from iJajre 1)
in h' oliai ',i not them t. ■;■
i .■(.•] ;■ .i. P ' ».i- V. ')<il
my harifj.- warm.
wv ■ m , i: -ua i <
.Mr ', Ivlwm ■: •• ;. . '■
and J wire out sot a di 1 ■
aroui.o tK* village one am,
noon la t, week we pa--e.j th*-
Roman 1 atholie ehunh und'-i
eon-tjoeiion on (ii/nghoul roao
I hadn’t heel, out that way
for ,-everai weeks arid wa- ■,/
j/rh-eii to ee t.iie building op
1 ration so far advanced.
I ■ said to my .l It “It a
j/ity Angela is not goinj/ to
stay till it's finished. Then,
at last, she could go to chun-h
111 ( ha pel Hill.” __
This needs an explanation,
which I will now give.
•Sixty years ago, in the mid
dle of the 18‘JO’s, three young
women and their aunt, Mrs.
Harry Martin, were summer-
hoarders with rny mother
- in our home where the Caro
lma Inn is now. They were
Winifred McCaull, Angela Mi
Caul], and Margaret McCaull.
When they were spoken of
together,, they were called “the
McCaull girls.” They were pret
ty, lively, and intelligent, and
not only did they charm the
community but their sweet
nature made everybody love
them.
One thing about the McCaull
lure to yourself what feet, feet that
later were to bear their possessors
into the high places of State and Na
tion, have trodden this sacred mud. Ev
ery foot of this mud has held in its
tenacious embrace some noble form.
And now you, sir, would cover with
a six-inch slab of concrete the soil
of this via sacra; you would conceal
it and its memories forever from mor
tal eyes!
Indeed, Percival Sylvester DePey
ster, it is time to take .thought of the
girls that mam tni-m p« i .n
in 1 hapel lliil that they
were Roman 1 a ? Cnn ■ O n
people of today, with -•> many
Catholi' among , will Cm!
it diffii- 1 t to nd'-; Ctnd how
peculiar that wa- sixty year
ago. In that remote era and
111 th j remote eorner of the
world < -th' ■ were
-trange a- lbrigal Tigers and
were regarded hy a consid<
able part of the population .
just about as dangerous.
At that time | was a schoo
boy and was an intere-te,i
observer of the spell the M
Caul! g'lrls worked upon the
University students who
thronged to the house to rail
upon them. (Iti those day
young men who were attentive
to young women were called
“suitors” and “beaux;” it was
not till many years later that
“dates” meant anything hut
a kind of fruit.)
I wasn’t jealous of the stu
dents, for I hadn’t arrived
at an age where I could even
be considered as a suitor or
a beau. But I was jealous of
the McCaull girls because of
one privilege that they pos
sessed and I didn’t. No doubt
they said their prayers de-*
votedly but, there being no
Catholic church in Chapel Hill,
they didn’t go to church. 1 had
taken an intense dislike to
church attendance, probably be-
old traditions of this place. It is time
to ask ourselves whether the urge for
material progress is not supplanting
the old simple virtures in our midst.
.Shall we, in the name of progress, abol
ish one of the most typical of our in
heritances—that fine, rich mixture of
red earth and H2O, th6 memory, and
often the visible traces of which, Uni
versity men carry with them to the
ends of the earth? I repeat, shall we?
Sincerely yours,
H. W. Chase -
cause it was something en
forced upon me. When I would
start for church Sunday jnom
ing, there would be Mrs. Mar
tin and her nieces, sitting on
the front porch or the lawn,
chatting, reading, and, if 'the
weather was warm, as it of
ten was, waving their palm
leaf fans. How happy they
looked! And so, as I went to do
my penance, my thought was:
“What luck, to have a three
months' vacation from going
to church!"
I was not the only person
who observed with envy our
boarders’ immunity from
church attendance. One other
I remember was Dolph Man
gum. a University student who
had won great popularity with
his merry humor, his guitar
and banjo picking, and his
ballad singing. He said to me
one day: “i've had enough
churchgoing to last a lifetime.
After I graduate I’m going to
join the Catholics and pick out
a place to live where there's
not any Catholic church.”
*r * *
It seem- a pity that, con
sidering the town's urgent need
for parking aieas, the public
i- told to keep off twos, that
■ • M : eat val le.
One C the big paved yard
back of the bus station, own
ed by the Carolina Coach
Company. Frequently persons
who come to meet bus.-es have
to find places for their cai
ori the streets while this wide
expan.-e of pavement lie- bate
before their eys. Is it reason
able for the company not to
provide places for the cars of
patrons, the condition now pre
vailing. and yet bar this space,
from use? Observe the sta
tion, the busses as they come
and go, and the whole prop
erty, and you see that a good
proportion of the now unused
space could be used without
any interference to bus opera
tion and without causing pas
sengers to run any more than
the ordinary risk run by all
pei sons on busses and on
streets.
The other place J have in
mind , the east side of Hen
derson street from the post
offiie down, to Rosemary Uri
ti! now parking was allowed
on both sides of this block
for the particular benefit of
p‘-oP!c going to arid from the
po-t office. With a 10-minute
• unit, and cars constantly mov
ing in and out, the pavement
was put to the ideal parking
e that is, short-interval u -
'I he traffic, being one-way,
was ahie to move smoothly and
with few delays between th<-
lwo low, of parked caC-
A large nvr/ibei of people
who use the p.,-t office every
day havi b*-» n incovenjenred
without appreciable advantage
to anybody by the aldermen’s
i riaeting an otdirianee again t
parking be d. 'he ea-.t < urh
Ihe only ariswei I pot at the
Town Hall, when 1 asked , the
rea-on for «hi measure, was
that it wa 1 - adw *,j hy a Dur
ham traffic i-yj/v- 11 whom the
■ idennen i ..* : tit U con <t a
.lion I arn infoimed that he is
a roan of expenen,.- and ex
-1 ■■ -cm i <-pillation, t/ it tie didn’t
V •- (jdiape) If.i, . ooT -ad ,!• i
abo it J1 et.de t ,n I hope
Ct,. i! tde, r;jen w~: I • peal tpc
ordinance.
liOiisy Dumpers
H> I I* Husk ins
In Statesville Record &
I .a nil mark
People who throw IfJ ef / ; ;
bage on <>tbei peopii-’.v pi op
city should first remove their
mail from ii. That i-, unle-s
they just don't give a damn.
What we an- talking about
is this business of people who
live in town hauling their
trash out arid dumping it on
people who live in the country.
We live in the country east
of Statesville. Our driveway
has every characteristic of a
private drive, ft is entered
through a gate with a name
plate on it.
Our house is situated some
<ioo feet beyond the gate.
Yet, despite this, it is fre
quently used as a garbage
dump, or a taxi turntable, or
a public parking lot.
Some few weeks ago a
Statesville taxicab pulled down
our drive, turned around in
our yard, and then headed back
out toward the highway. About
midway on the way hack to
the highway, the cab stopped
for several minutes.
Since it was before break-
-..1 ' >»-<« i-e....: ■ , , ........ 4
Off thv Tmrn
; J:
R> Chuck Hauser *
I WENT INTO THE BANK of Chapel Hill by the
rear door the other day, and stopped at the first writ
ing* table apainst the wall to make cut a deposit slip.
I looked around the table for a pencil, found none
(someone'had thoughtfully removed the desk pencil .
from its chain), and reached in mv pocket to dip out
one of my own.
"Hold it!” said Bill Cherry, whose office is in
the wooden counter-like enclosure at the rear of the
hank. And he came running* out of his g*ate with a
pencil held hig*h.
“Thank you.” I said.
“Didn’t want to g*ive you any more 'ammunition
for your ’column,” said he. And then added, ‘ Funny
thing about those pencils. A lady came in the other
day, stopped at this same desk, and looked for the
pencil. Someone had walked off with it, so I came out
and gave her a new one, just as I did for you. She
made out her deposit slip, opened her pocketbook,
dropped the pencil inside, and took it home with her.”
I offered my sympathies and promised Bill to
bring him some pencil stubs I had been saving* at
the office for a rainy day.
*****
THE CAROLINA BASKETBALL TEAM appeared
in bright new uniforms the other night, but I'm
not sure I care for their choice in evening attire.
The uniforms were white, with large blue numerals
edged in black, and blue sox. The shorts have a wide
waistband made of what appears to be some sort of
webbing in a tight red check, and this same red web
'bing is used over the shoulders of the warmup jackets,
which have a-big caricatured ram’s face on the hack
and a tarred heel with the player’s numeral on the
left sleeve like an Army uniform patch.
The strangest thing about the new uniform is
the stripe down the side of the shorts. Now every
basketball uniform I have ever seen has had a stripe
down the side of the shorts, but usually the stripes
are thin. The ones on these new jobs are Carolina
blue and they are quite wide, creating an optical il
lusion which makes the players appear right fat
through the hips.
The new uniforms didn’t seem to bother the boys’
playing ability, however, as they pulverized William
and Mary with that meatgrinder second half.
*****
I WALKED INTO THE Pine Room in the base
ment of Lenoir Hal! the other noon to grab a bite
of lunch before going to a short story writing class
I’m taking under novelist Max Steele. As soon as
I went through the door, I knew something was dif
ferent. There was a lot more ligrht in the place, and
the source of the extra light, I noted a moment later,
was a brace of giant floodlamps pointed at a table
across the room.
Seated at the table was a man with a microphone,
and with him were two University students. A movie
camera stood a dozen feet away, whirring busily, and
at a nearby table sat an earphoned gentleman twirling
dials on a complicated looking baby control hoard.
I walked over to the group and immediately ran
into Uharles Dunn, a former- Weekly staffer who
-i i med to he right, in the middle of things. Charlie
•i-xplained that he had been appointed official News
Bureau guide, for the group, and they represented
T'-knows, the Hearst-owned film outfit which supplies
tin TV" network- with spot news stuff.
A minute later the action sequence at the table
wa- finished, and the man with the microphone walked
up to us. Charlie introduced him as Jack May, who
wa- chief of the crew and worked out of the Telenews
Washington bureau. Mr. May explained t hat he was
getting film for Al'C’s John Daly show to tie broad
cast. at 7:15 that evening. The subject was how
integration (of the three undergraduate Negroes) at
■ the University ol North Carolina-contrasted with the
violence which attended integration at the University
oj Alabama. "*
The lights and camera were moved around to
another table by this time, and Mr. May sat down and
interviewed the three colored students—the Frasier
boy- anil John Brandon. Charlie briefed me on how
the film had to be completed to make a 1:55 plane
out ot Raleigh-Durham for Washington. I promised
to watch the show, and took of* for class.
I haven’t called Charlie since then to find out
whether they missed the plane or what happened, but
the film didn’t appear on Daly’s program that night.
Maybe there was too much other news breaking to
include what was essentially a sidelight feature of
the situation here. But those Telenews boys spent a
lot of money getting to Chapel Hill with all their
equipment, and I’m still expecting to see the films turn
up somewhere, either on TV or’possibly in the news
reels at a local theatre.
fast, we didn't bother to dress
and go up and investigate.
When we did pass the spot
on our way to work, we found
that the occupants of the cab
had thrown their paper cups
and empty whiskey bottles out
on the drive and driven off.
Only a few mornings ago,,
on our way to work, we found
that someone had thrown a
load' of trash, including beer
cans and empty bottles, out
alongside our drive some 300
feet from the highway. We
got out to clean it up and
found, among other things, an
airmail letter from a woman
in California addressed to a
woman who lives on Newbern
avenue. We know of no reason
8 IMW fB IJf ■ i m W JB
lllfl 1 ITT wt] B fl "9{* H Tl;
HOME OF CHOICE CHARCOAL BROILED HR KORY SMOKED
STEAKS—FLAMING SIHSKEBAB—BUFFET EVERY SUNDAI
Tuesday, February 14, 1956
why garbage originating on
Newbern avenue some three or
four miles away should end
up in our driveway. But there
it was.
Now, we know what we
are feeing to do the next time
a taxicab pulls into our yard
and turns around without dis
charging a passenger. We are
going to ask the city rab
inspector to find out what he
was doing there. But we frank
ly don’t know what we are
going to do about the garbage.
We suspect we will just con
tinue picking it up. Hereafter,
we hope, no identifying ma
terial will be left in it. We
just don't want to know that
sort of people.