The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-09-11

college boys, but We're really harmless
enough. Ho had also bloomcd rs an ath-
lctc. He was good ut everything but nj
football he was superb. He had the weight
for the rush line, and he had the strength
and agility, and head that was ALWAYS
planning shrcwd stratcgcs. BY junior
year there was nobody In the college like
Ned Peace.
In addition to his athletics Ned Peace
was sport. He could drink all night and
show up mt chapel, which comes ut Prince
ton at an uncarthly hour, with as bright
eyes and as steady nerves as tho scdatest
freshman whose bedtime was 8 o'clock
And how he could drink And how the
girls did admire him! And what yarns
his friends could tell of his conqucsts!
He used to get into trouble with the fac
ulty now and then. But he was too ath-
lctic and too handsome and too brilliant
and perhaps too rich to be judged by ordi-
nary standards. So he Travelled the fastest
gait in tho 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
MS training was over, away he and his
crowd went, adjourning their gaycty to
New York when Princeton got too dull or
too hot to hold them. And from New
York. camc the most glittering yarns about
soubrcttcs and actresses, of vino suppers,
of grccnroom maryels, of exciting advcn-
lures with the police with the wild
orgies that haunted New Works. 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 lcgislated out of foot
ball when ! ale became as expert at it as
Princeton was He visited Yale and IIar-
ward and drank the best men at ''Morcy's"
under the table and drove gayly back to
Boston in n cab, while tho last man Mt the
Hasty Pudding was trying to find tho
door on his hands and knees.
Then he met Mario Jansen 1t was in
his senior year, when he was only n grown
up boy, but looked full grown, expert
cnccd man. This was tho browning act
of his brilliant career, for Jansen was
then moro famous and more popular and
younger and prcttier than she is now. The
news went all over Princeton that Ned
Peace and Jansen wcro travelling Il jolly
fast pace together.
The pace nc had set for himself at col
lcgc was only preliminary canter to get
into condition. AS no had plenty of money
his time was his to spend as he chose.
And nc chose to spend it in IL mad gallop
down that broad road whereof Sunday
school scholars hear much. Ho and Jan
sen were tho 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 contradictcd and Mt last died
out. He had Il fortune of something over
5000, 600 to spend. He wanted to spend
principal rs well rs interest. And Jansen
helped him with those pink, extravaganza
fingers of hers.
Then came "a timc-less than five years
after Ned Peace left collcgc-when his
friends wcro saying that tho end had
come. All tho cash was gone, and every
bit of land that his father and grandfn
thcr had left him was mortgagod above
the highest trco top There was no moro
money for tho big generous hands to dive
into and toss away But for many months
he and Jansen continued to DO friends
She was fond of her handsome athlete
ana she did not give him the marble
heart" in the days of his misfortuncs.
But with misfortune came dependency
and with dependency camc drink of that
deeper and heavier sort that tells that a
man is crossing the line. Everybody no
ticed the changc-tho bloodshot eyes, the
fat body, the pulled checks, tho stopping
shoulders And it seemed rs If tho end OF
the brilliant part of Ned Pcacc's career
| was at hand.
But there came stroke of LUCK of the
| sort ono reads about. Down in Ponnsy-
vania there was one bit of Ned Pcacc's in
hcritance which was so worthless TINT he
had not been able to mortgage 1t. 1t was
u wild mountain side barren and wort n .
less. When Ned Peace was down good
many dollars on tho negative or borrow
ing side, he got wind that coal had bcc;.