Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-02-19
REDDY WRIGHT.

. i
Whenever I drink gin as am doing
now" said tie Colonel, II am reminded
of Reddy Wright. He was the best gin
drinker that ever faced the flag. l guess
/ never told yen about the romance Of
Reddy Wright.
''This Reddy Wright was q printer,
enc of the old vintage that figured up
the national debt on the basis Of how
much booze it would buy at 10 cents q
throw, and cut his hair with q knife
and fork. He was an inveterate tramp.
guess he set type in his time in all the
big newspaper Offices in the country and
about half the small ones. 1t used to be
his proud boast that he had sped the
leaden messengers Of thought in every
place from north to south and east TO
west on this continent that the foot Of
mortal man had tIod. He used to say
that he had rowed skiff On the turbid
bosom of the wild Atlantic and washed
his feet in the limpid waters of the
great Pacific. but this last assertion was
often seriously disputed. He was Of
good family, had received an excellent
education and was possessed of flow
Of language that would put gas we'll
to shame. Being somewhat deaf, he be-
came impressed early in life with the
idea that everybody else had bad receiv-
ers of sound, and he used to talk like a
man calling for the police. Having high
pitched. peculiar sort Of q voice that
sounded something like man suffering
with the asthma practicing on piccolo,
he generally made his presence apparent
as soon as he arrived. To hear Reddy
Wright calling for chew of tobacco in
q crowded composing room about half
an hour before time for closing up the
forms was worth more than the price Of
admission.
''Some time in his life Reddy's front
name had been Dave. but it was shifted
in the cut to Reddy, and guess nine
people out Of ten that knew him had no
more idea his name WIS Dave than any
thing else. Ibelieve he forgot it himself.
because one time when he went to vote
and they couldn't find the name 'Reddy
Wright on the register Reddy swore
with all the volubility and force imag-
Unable that some sneaking. underhanded,
contemplate plutocrat was trying to
cheat him ont of his franchise. The
clerk didn't know him, but suggested
that one David Wright was registered.
david, h-ll' screamed Reddy,
He's some ringer.
''No sooner had no said it than it &C.
Cured to him that his front name was
Dave, as said before. He felt so good
about calling himself q ringer that he
put Oh q sub that night and wound up
in the workhouse.
Freddy had way when he was
drunk. which was always. of mixing up
technical phrases, known only to print
ers. with the ordinary conversations of
plain English speaking people, in q
manner that was excruciatingly funny
to those who understood it and super
latively idiotic to those who did not.
mind one night after the paper was out
the gang was in saloon drinking beer,
eating lunch, freeing Ireland and criti-
cising the editor. Reddy had just bought
a round, which was ON the bar, and was
proposing toast of smallpox charac-
ter when one of the crowd, printer, &C
cidentally spilled his suds all over the
bar.
Here remarked Reddy, as if he
were talking to a man ON the ground
from the roof of high building That
amt right. I submit to you gentlemen
here assembled that no man has q right
! to pi such precious thing as beer
eff you don't shut up, replied the
man who had spilled his beer, IN pi
your face
Freddy used to land in his home
town about once year and stay about q
month. Then he would go out ON the
road again and nobody would ever hear
word from him until the next time he
lit Only twice had Reddy ever COM
municated with his home. The first
time he was in q little country town
away out west. Winter was coming on
and his wardrobe was not as extensive
as it should have been in more ways
than one. The editor of the little week.
| ~ he was working ON was in q bad way
financially, and it used to hustle him to
I, get hold of enough money to keep Reddy
in gin. Reddy knew it would do no good
to write home for coin, so he cast about
fer an idea He found one. He went tc
the telegraph Office and sent telegram
to his brother. wealthy man, inform.
ing him that David Wright, aged So.
printer, had just died, destitute. and
asking what disposition to make Of the
remains To this telegram he signed the
name Of the editor. The brother wired
back to send the remains home. Dave
took the editor into his confidence, and
the editor wired back that freight on
corpse must be prepaid, and asked 70,
$50. The brother wired the $50. Dave
gave the editor $40 of it and caught the
first train for Denver. When he got
there. he wired his brother, collect-al.
ways collect-a message, about 20 words
long, to the effect that some unprinci-
pied scoundrel down in Nebraska wa
circulating rumor to the effect that be
was dead. he begged his brother not tc
believe any such stories, and assured
him he was very much alive, which he
was.
Another time. later, Reddy was
broke away down in the swamps Of Mis-.