The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-09-01

college boys, but were really harmless
enough. He had also bloomed as an ath-
lete. He was good at everything, but at
football he was superb. He had the weight
for the rush line, and he had the strength
and agility, and a head that was always
planning shrewd strategies. BY junior
year there was nobody In the college like
Ned Peace.
In addition to his athletics, Ned Peace
was a sport. He could drink all night and
show up at chapel, which comes at Prince
ton at an unearthly hour, with as bright
eyes and as steady nerves as the sedatest
freshman whose bedtime was 0 o'clock.
And how he could drink And how the
girls did admire himl And what yarns
his friends could tell of his conquestsl
He used to get into trouble with the fat
ulty now and then. But he was too ath-
letic and too handsome and too brilliant
and perhaps too rich to be judged by ordi-
nary standards. So he travelled the fastest
gait in the fastest crowd that ever broke
the night echoes of Nassau hall with their
shouts and songs.
But when it was time to train Ned
Peace knocked off all his dissipation and
got down to work. He travelled with the
fast athletic crowd and set them good
example every fall and spring. AS soon
as training was over, away he and his
crowd went, adjourning their gayety to
New York when Princeton got too dull or
too hot to hold them. And from New
York came the most glittering yarns about
soubrettes and actresses, of wine suppers,
of greenroom marvels, of exciting adven-
lures with the police or with the wild
orgies that haunted New York's streets in
those wide open days Of 10 years ago.
His fame spread from college to college.
He was the mainstay of the great Prince.
ton football team. He invented the block
game that had to be legislated out of foot
ball when Yale became as expert at it as
Princeton was He visited Yale and Har-
ward and drank the best men at "Morey's"
under the table and drove gayly back to
Boston in a cab, while the last man at the
Hasty Pudding was trying to find the
door on his hands and knees.
Then he met Marie Jansen. 1t was in
his senior year, when he was only grown
up boy, but looked full grown, expert.
enced man. This was the crowning act
Of his brilliant career, for Jansen was
then moro famous and more popular and
younger and prettier than she is now. The
news went all over Princeton that Ned
Peace and Jansen were travelling jolly
fast pace together.
The pace no had set for himself at col
lege was only preliminary canter to get
into condition. AS he had plenty Of money
his time was his to spend as he chose.
And he chose to spend it in mad gallop
down that broad road whereof Sunday
school scholars hear much. He and Jan
sen were the best Of friends, and no one
could have been more devoted than he was
to her. 1t was talked of everywhere, and
finally it was said that they were married.
But this was contradicted and at last died
out. He had fortune Of something over
100000 to spend. He wanted to spend
principal as well as interest. And Jansen
helped him with those pink, extravagant
fingers Of hers.
Then came time-less than five years
after Ned Peace left college-when his
friends were saying that the end had
bit Of land that his father and grandfa-
ther had left him was mortgaged above
the highest tree top. There was no moro
money for the Dig generous hands to dive
into and toss away. But for many months
he and Jansen continued to be friends.
She was fond of her handsome athlete,
and she did not give him the marble
heart" In the days Of his misfortunes.
But with misfortune came dependency,
and with dependency came drink of that
deeper and heavier sort that tells that O
man is crossing the line. Everybodyno-
ticed the change-the bloodshot eyes, the
fat body, the puffed cheeks, the STOPPING
shoulders. And it seemed as If the end Of
the brilliant part Of Ned Peace's career
was at hand.
But there came stroke of luck of the
sort one reads about. Down in Pennsyl-
vania there was one bit Of Ned Peace's in
heritance which was SO worthless that he
had not been able to mortgage 1t. 1t was
a wild mountain side. barren and worth
less. Whhp Ned Peace was down good
many dollars on the negative or borrow
ing side, he got wind that coal had been
discovered ON this worthless land. He
was rich again, richer than before.
He picked up at once. He quit the hag-
gard, despairing sort Of dissipation and
was seen about his clubs and his old
haunts in the swell cafes and restaurants
He picked up oil his old college friends
whom he had rather dropped when 1t be-
came impossible for him to hold I'D bis end