Billy Taylor, of the St. Louis Club, has written to Mike Mansell, the contract-breaker, as follows: "Dear Mike, you're a blamed fool to have gone and broke with Lucas, but now that you've done it, Mickey, my boy, I'll give you a pointer: Keep as far away from this town as possible, for if you ever step into it Lucas will have you sent to the pen as sure as my name's Billy Taylor."
-Cleveland Herald, March 17, 1884
Putting aside Taylor's message to Mansell, I want to talk about Bollicky Bill Taylor's nickname. According to my best researching efforts, bollicky is slang for naked. Now I guess bollicky could come from bullock or bollocks but, really, that wouldn't be much of an improvement. Regardless, do I really want to know how Billy Taylor got his nickname? I'm a bit torn.
2 comments:
Bollicking is an English term for 'ass chewing'.
Maybe he was outspoken and gave people a piece of his mind when he wanted.
Excellent. I hadn't come across that particular definition, although I must say I really didn't dig that deep into it. It's a much better explanation of his nickname than what I had come up with and, given his letter to Mansell, it seems to fit him.
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