Painting the town red by ajisaac

Painting the town red

Shot taken of the front of 'Morgan & Richardson Solicitors' of St Mary's Street in Cardigan after recent redecoration.

Where did the phrase 'painting the town red' come from?

Well there appears to be a number of stories relating to its beginning according to the good old internet sources! Who knows!

Here's a few -

This phrase was said to have originated in 1837, when the Marquis of Waterford and a group of friends painted several buildings red in a spate of merry-making.

There are plenty of suggestions about the phrase’s origins. Perhaps it’s from Dante’s epic poem The Inferno: "we are they who painted the world scarlet with sins."

Or it could be a reference to drinking alcohol – and how people’s faces redden when drunk. Many early mentions are from the Wild West when intoxicated cowboys fired their guns into the air allegedly threatening to ‘paint the town red’ – with blood – if anyone tried to stop them.

The expression 'paint the town red' is often said to have derived from a notorious nobleman's misbehaviour in the country town of Melton Mobray, England.

Or maybe the expression is American slang meaning to go on a reckless debauch, to be wildly extravagant. Originally, the metaphor applied to bonfires painting the sky or scenery red. An old Irish ballad contains the lines: The beacon hills were painted red/ With many a fire that night. The immediate source of the phrase may be traced to the times when a Mississippi steamboat captain would want to defeat his rival. `Paint her, boys!' he would command his men as they heaped fuel upon the fires at night, casting a red glare upon the surrounding scenery. The phrase was helped into popularity by the fact that `to paint' (ie to paint the nose red) was an old slang term for drinking. [Source: Handybook of Literary Curiosities, by William S Walsh (Lippincott 1892).]

Great shot!
August 19th, 2022  
@jacqbb Many thanks.
August 22nd, 2022  
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