A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY OF EDWIN JAMES BRADY - Mallacoota ...

Using the pseudonyms of “The Owl”, “Nedi Wooli” and “The Local Joker”, he
contributed to The Grip columns called “Griplets”, “Mustard and Cress”, “Mixed
Pickles”. “The Editors Easy Chair”, and on his return to Sydney from Grafton,
“Sydney Day by Day”. 1
As well as keeping these columns going (and each day required ten or a dosen items,
some of several paragraphs) Brady usually wrote one or more leading articles,
especially in The Grip, for in some measure he saw this journal as providing guidance
to the community in which it appeared. All these contributions show a man with a
lively interest in a multitude of subjects, along with the sympathy for the common
man that one learns to expect form his work, whether in prose or verse.
Brady’s policy, in short , was at it appeared in a statement in The Arrow published
when taking office:
The Arrow will be found replete with interesting reading matter to suit all
classes of the community. It will deal fairly, yet trenchantly with all matters
pertaining to sport, politics and the drama, and will also have something to
say on the topics of the day … Politically The Arrow will adopt an
independent attitude, straight talk and home truths being conspicuous by their
frequent appearance in its columns. 2
And in a subsequent statement the following week, there appeared a further addendum
to this flag-flying:
Its promoters intend it to be humorous without being indecent, fearless, but
not venomous; always reliable in the amtter of sport and a freelance on all
questions affecting the public interest.
In the next five years or so Brady put this policy into operation. A wide range of
topical events came in for discussion, harangue and sarcasm, although political events
did not occupy the place of importance here that they did in The Australian Workman
or were to do in The Worker and The Labor Call. Current issues which affected the
quality of the life of the common man were of special importance, as a study of
Brady’s writings in these periodicals shows.
Some of these issues were relevant only to Brady’s own time and place. He agitated
endlessly for the construction of the Grafton to Casino railway, for modern sanitation
for Grafton, for expanded port facilities, for improved roads and for better facilities
and amenities to cate for a growing tourist industry. Others were of wider
contemporary importance. There was a tendency of the authorities to overload the
ferries which plied Sydney Harbour. Not content with writing an editorial against the
dangers of this practice, Brady composed and published an hypothetical news item
about the sinking of a ferry with the loss of over three hundred men, women and
children. 3 There were times when Brady was not content with half measures!
1
Evidence is mainly internal, but Brady makes occasional references of his pseudonyms in letters
(mainly to his family and Mendelsohn).
2
The Bird-O’-Freedom, 22.2.1896, and 29.2.1896, p.5. in both cases. The paper became The Arrow
the next week.
3
The Arrow, 4.4.1896
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