The Coolidge examiner., 1936-11-26

| like; later it was dances and plen-
ty of them.
Ace went to Harvard; Harvard
was a tradition in the Blaikie fam
lily. He went to Harvard Medical
Instead of finishing off in Germany,
as most doctors did in those days,
f.. he chose to study in Paris. He
was there when the World war
broke. In the autumn he joined
the Foreign Legion. He was wound
ed that winter; when he recovered,
he volunteered for aviation. He
flew with the French army, until
we entered the war. Then he joined
our army. He became an ace
strange how life fulfilled the proph-
ecy of his nickname! He had five
enemy planes on his record. He
believed, himself, that he had
brought down two or three more;
but that, he could not prove. When
he came back from France, the
town gave him party-no one in
Satuit missed it. We asked him
to come in uniform wearing all his
decorationS-the French and Bel
gian Croix de Guerre, the Me-
daille Militaire, the Legion d'Hon-
neur and the DISC. I thought him,
that night, the handsomest male
creature ever laid eyes on.
Then Ace settled down to a prac-
tice in Satuit. Of course he could
not make money in so small a
place, but instantly he became a
great success. Personality helped
here, his own tremendous strength,
his robust vitality. For with Aces
entrance to a sick-room came a
gust of health-giving air. But per-
haps his greatest asset was that
sympathy with the sick, the old.
the weary and the discouraged. 1t
even helped that he liked girl-ba-
bieS so much. However fathers
felt, mothers always knew an in
finite pride when they pleased Doc
tor Blaikie by bringing forth girl.
But for other reasons, the coun-
tryside adored Ace. One was his
reckless generosity. Anybody who
wanted to sell tickets, or to get up
a fund for charitable purposes
made a bee-line for Ace. He under
stood human nature-on the side of
frailty-perfectly. Mothers of girls
in trouble, fathers of boys in trou-
BILE went at once to Ace, to get
him to treat with seducers and po-
lice.
Nothing illustrates Ace more per-
fectly than the story of his treat
ment of Tom Boylan. Tom was he
village drunk. Ace was always
having to take care of him. free of
course-Tom had no money-for
alcoholism. Once he brought Tom
through delirium tremens. Yet
when Tom got well, Ace always
gave him his first drink-after Tom
had begged long enough for it.
And yet And yet Some
thing had happened to Ace-I don't
mean to his body. Something had
happened to his soul.
In the meantime, had married
Mark Avery. / used TO talk Ace
over with him. My husband, who
was nerve specialist like Doctor
Geary, with an office in Boston,
had served as a physician in the
World war. He had great wis
dom. He said to me once, Mary,
the strange thing about war is that
it frequently ruins good men and
rehabilitates bad ones. Men are
returning to this country on every
transport, who, if they had not
been caught at the right moment
by the discipline of an army, would
have spent most of their lives in
JAIL, On the other hand, war fire.
quently ruins able men-itS rigid
discipline, it's inherent immortality"
War must have been bad medi-
cine for Ace. 1t must have un-
loosed something in him that he
had always held in allegiance be-
fore.
At any rate, from the time he
came back, he seemed to me to
disintegrate. Not physically! To
the very end, he kept his magnifi
cent body in condition. He was al
ways inheriting money. Yet no
matter how much company filled
the huge Blaikie house, Ace was
always leaving on sudden calls.
How often when l have been there.
he has returned with a Wearied
but triumphant, "A big eleven
pound boy!" or "A nice little grill"
Once-and this was the apex of
his medical pride-"Girl tWins!"
The countryside always surged
with gossip about Ace. He was, had
always been, would always be a
terrifc-I use the word of my gen
eration-firt. l will not say that
! he desired all women, but 1 will
say that any pretty woman seemed
! to serve as a challenge to him.
Why, when Mark first began regu-
larly to specialize on me, Ace
looked upon that as a challenge!
l laughed his tentative Wooing out
| of pSictancn A1Onp with tbic fro