party, old

   This is used by one man to another in the O.Henry short story The Day we Celebrate. It is not in regular use, but is justified in that ‘party’, in many contexts, can refer to an individual person. In colloquial speech a reference to a ‘coquettish little party’ would be understood as referring to a girl, and a query such as: ‘Who was the party who was here just now?’ would refer to a man. ‘Old party’ as a vocative is therefore the equivalent of ‘old person’.