The Chapel Hill weekly., 1962-12-09


also Frank Graham) loved
considered a person to be an in
terruption. He looked on MIN as
an opportunity. He was happy
in company. Nothing could break
either his acquired power of
mental concentration or his self
developed art of jolly relaxation.
During my four student years
in Chapel Hill / lived for three
of them at DR.. Battles and for
one in South Building, which was
then a mixed dormitery and
classroom building. Each place
had advantages which | enjoyed.
| did not find that either of
them had a decisive effect on my
ability or rather my determine
ton to study. That believe rests
with the student. Ii he is determ-
ined to study he can study any
where. The history of individual
scholars demonstrates that. The
student can not simply pass the
buck to circumstances. DR.. Bat
tie, however, makes a wise OBJ
Servati0n on mental coucentra-
ton, decisive use of time, and
the art OF cheerful relaxation in
the midst of interruptions. The
strategy of the art of living con-
sistS in expecting them and
learning how to handle them.
In administrative work corre-
spondence, conferences, the tele-
phone, visitors, change the SUBJ
ject on an average of once eve
ry fifteen minutes.
My residence at DR.. Battles
was not simply a perfect place
to study. 1t was a beautiful place,
but it was transcendently DR..
Battle. Here l had a perfect bal
ance between solitude and So
ciety, EmerSOn's ideal. | had the
run of the campus at will, and
/ had a perfect place in which
to keep my date with my books.
Mine was the lower office"
from ''off-hOuse," a building
apart from the main residence.
DR.. Battle was at work on THE
Memories of an Old Time Tar
Heel" in the upper office. Since
then the two offices have been
made into cottage which still
stands. 1 was not isolated in
my office. made friends who
would visit me in my Sabine
Farm as my office came to be
called in memory of Horace,
whom at that time practically
all Freshmen read. All told |
had an informal fraternity, the
only kind | ever had and the
best kind. The only rival to the
Sabine Farm was DR.. Bain's
cottage, built originally as an
infirmary and standing where
the new wing of Spencer Hall
now stands.
Certainly our fraternity had
the best faculty adviser that any
fraternity ever had, DR.. Battle!
/ can not boast of any deeper
quality of intimacy with DR.. Bat
tie than was available to every
other student, for he loved all
students and gave himself un-
Stintedly to every operation on
the campus. But by mere juxta-
position | had more than usual.
As | look back | reproaeh my
self for failure to deepen the
quality of my relation with him,
but know exactly why ! did not:
He was busy and ! was busy. He
was always available to me. He
invited me TO his house; went
only once. He made me free of
his scuppernong grapes and his
apples; l found plenty of time to
commune with these. The fact
is that | was shy, and, also,
there was the same emotional
block to intimacy with the facul-
ty as there is today. We romance
about students and faculty be-
ing constantly in each others
houses in the simpler days, but
we did not practice it one bit
more than we do now, and for
the same reason; busyneSS each
with his own schedule, and pri-
marily, shyness. A student ov-
ermuch given to running with
the faculty was contemned as a
bootlicker getting a boot" on
him). We each went our separate
ways very much as we do now.
The place for vital student-faculty
contacts is in the classroom, in
the campus office, and in meet
ingS. In five years of teaching
from 1857 through 1862 i handl-
ed 5000 sophomores. | informed
them that my home was open
to them; few ever came. But
| got to know them in the class
room, some more intimately in
my office, and others more con-
veniently in meetings here and
there. Nor, as a matter Of fact,
did student in 1912 know every
Il.