The Peck's Bad Boy Megapack
George W. Peck
Contents
COPYRIGHT INFO
A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
The MEGAPACK™ Ebook Series
PECK’S BAD BOY AND HIS PA
THE GROCERY MAN AND PECK’S BAD BOY
PECK’S BAD BOY ABROAD
PECK’S BAD BOY WITH THE COWBOYS
PECK’S BAD BOY WITH THE CIRCUS
PECK’S UNCLE IKE AND THE RED HEADED BOY
PECK’S SUNSHINE
PECK’S COMPENDIUM OF FUN
HOW PRIVATE GEORGE W. PECK PUT DOWN THE REBELLION
COPYRIGHT INFO
The Peck’s Bad Boy MEGAPACK™ is copyright © 2015 by Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved.
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The MEGAPACK™ ebook series name is a trademark of Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved.
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A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
George Wilbur Peck (1840–1916) was an American writer and politician from Wisconsin. He served as the 17th Governor of Wisconsin and the 9th Mayor of Milwaukee.
Peck was born in 1840 in Henderson, New York, the oldest of three children. In 1843, the family moved to Cold Spring, Wisconsin. Peck attended public school until age 15, when he was apprenticed in the printing trade. He married Francena Rowley in 1860 and they had two sons. In 1863 he enlisted in the 10th Wisconsin Regiment as a private. He was wounded at the Battle of Bull Run, was taken prisoner and held at Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. After he was released in a prisoner exchange, he was appointed to West Point Military Academy by Abraham Lincoln.
After the Civil War ended, Peck became a newspaper publisher. His La Crosse, Wisconsin newspaper, The Sun, was founded in 1874. In 1878 Peck moved the newspaper to Milwaukee, renaming it Peck’s Sun. The weekly contained Peck’s humorous writings, including his famous “Peck’s Bad Boy” stories.
In the spring of 1890, Peck ran for mayor of Milwaukee. A Democrat, Peck was elected despite a Republican majority in the city. The state’s Democratic leaders took notice and made Peck the party’s nominee for the 1890 gubernatorial race. Peck won the election, beating the incumbent, and resigned as Milwaukee’s mayor on November 11, 1890. He was reelected as governor in 1892, but lost a third term in 1894.
Peck died in 1916 in Milwaukee at age 75 of Bright’s disease. After his death, his “Peck’s Bad Boy” writings became the basis for several films and a short-lived television show, including Peck’s Bad Boy and Peck’s Bad Girl.
A note to the culturally sensitive: these stories and vignettes are not politically correct. They contain language which some will find offensive and racist. They are artifacts of a different era with different standards and expectations, and must be read with that in mind.
—John Betancourt
Publisher, Wildside Press LLC
www.wildsidepress.com
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PECK’S BAD BOY AND HIS PA
CHAPTER I.
THE BOY WITH A LAME BACK—THE BOY COULDN’T SIT DOWN—A PRACTICAL JOKE ON THE OLD MAN—A LETTER FROM “DAISY”— GUARDING THE FOUR CORNERS—THE OLD MAN IS UNUSUALLY GENEROUS—MA ASKS AWKWARD QUESTIONS—THE BOY TALKED TO WITH A BED-SLAT—NO ENCOURAGEMENT FOR A BOY!
A young fellow who is pretty smart on general principles, and who is always in good humor, went into a store the other morning limping and seemed to be broke up generally. The proprietor asked him if he wouldn’t sit down, and he said he couldn’t very well, as his back was lame. He seemed discouraged, and the proprietor asked him what was the matter. “Well,” says he, as he put his hand on his pistol pocket and groaned, “There is no encouragement for a boy to have any fun nowadays. If a boy tries to play an innocent joke he gets kicked all over the house.” The store keeper asked him what had happened to disturb his hilarity. He said he had played a joke on his father and had been limping ever since.
“You see, I thought the old man was a little spry. You know he is no spring chicken yourself; and though his eyes are not what they used to be, yet he can see a pretty girl further than I can. The other day I wrote a note in a fine hand and addressed it to him, asking him to meet me on the corner of Wisconsin and Milwaukee streets, at 7:30 on Saturday evening, and signed the name of ‘Daisy’ to it. At supper time Pa he was all shaved up and had his hair plastered over the bald spot, and he got on some clean cuffs, and said he was going to the Consistory to initiate some candidates from the country, and he might not be in till late. He didn’t eat much supper, and hurried off with my umbrella. I winked at Ma but didn’t say anything. At 7:30 I went down town and he was standing there by the post-office corner, in a dark place. I went by him and said, “Hello, Pa, what are you doing there?” He said he was waiting for a man. I went down street and pretty soon I went up on the other corner by Chapman’s and he was standing there. You see, he didn’t know what corner “Daisy” was going to be on, and had to cover all four corners. I saluted him and asked him if he hadn’t found his man yet, and he said no, the man was a little late. It is a mean boy that won’t speak to his Pa when he sees him standing on a corner, I went up street and I saw Pa cross over by the drug store in a sort of a hurry, and I could see a girl going by with a water-proof on, but she skited right along and Pa looked kind of solemn, the way he does when I ask him for new clothes. I turned and came back and he was standing there in the doorway, and I said, “Pa you will catch cold if you stand around waiting for a man. You go down to the Consistory and let me lay for the man.” Pa said, “never you mind, you go about your business and I will attend to the man.”
