The 1888 entry on Americanisms in the British Chambers's Encyclopaedia says (bottom left of page 228): Dictionaries: The Wild WestĮarly dictionaries say this was a cowboy phrase. This particular story was re-printed in newspapers around the country. Ge spent his money in rioutous living, and saw everything that was going on, and got full of benzine, and struck all the gangs of toughs, both male and female, and his stomach went back on him and he had malaria, and finally he got to be a cow-boy, herding hogs, and had to eat husks that the hogs didn't want, and got pretty low down. "Well, I think the finest thing is that story about the prodigal son, where the boy took all the money he could scrape up and went out west to paint the towns red. The Daily Evening Bulletin (Maysville, KY), Jhas a story about "The Bad Boy": Several of Owensboro's young bloods painted the town red Saturday night. The Breckenridge News (Cloverport, KY), Decemdescribes a "Shooting Affair at Leitchfield":Ī young man of Grayson county named John Jay Hayrraft, who has so conducted himself of late as to render him any thing but a valuable citizen, rode into Leitchfield the other day, got drunk, and, as was his general custom, began to paint the town red.Īgain The Hartford Herald (Hartford, KY), this time of Masays: The boys wanted to paint the town red and jollify generally Wednesday night, but on account of the illness of Mrs. Last Saturday evening some of the boys from the country came to town and got on a regular high daddy and proceeded to paint the town red.Īgain, the Semi-Weekly Interior Journal (Stanford, KY), this time of November 10, 1882: The Hartford Herald (Hartford, KY), Septemdescribes the prelude to a drunken fight: Nicholasville has an organization known as the "Dirty Dozen," who has been daubing the town with red paint, in very unchristianable names. The Bourbon News (Millersburg, KY) of Apsays: The Frankfort correspondent of the Louisville Commercial writes of the lobby at Frankfort: He gets on a high old drunk with a doubtful old man, and they paint the town red together. Semi-Weekly Interior Journal (Stanford, KY) of Masays: In 1883 and subsequent years, the term quickly spread to other states. Most interestingly, all are from Kentucky papers. Searching the Chronicling America newspaper archive, I found many examples from 18, before the OED's earliest July 1883. Whenever there was any excitement or anybody got particularly loud, they always said somebody was ‘painting the town red’. James Hennessy offered a resolution that the entire body proceed forthwith to Newark and get drunk.? Then the Democrats charged upon the street cars, and being wafted into Newark proceeded, to use their own metaphor, to ‘paint the town red’. The first from a July 1883 New York Times: The earliest OED citations are from the US. Here's a contemporary account of the Marquis painting people and doors and windows in 1837 Melton Mowbray, UK, but there's nothing (verifiable) in Google Books for paint the town red from before 1884, then suddenly eight examples, I think all American, and most inside quotes suggesting it's a new phrase. From what I found, this phrase came from 1880s Kentucky, USA, and described cowboys riding into town, getting drunk and causing havoc. I thought it would be interesting to trace the US origins to confirm or refute this. I don't believe this comes from the Marquis of Waterford, when all the early citations point to a US origin.
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