"Topper" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... hear it," said Scrooge's nephew, "because I haven't any great faith in these young housekeepers. What do you say, Topper?" ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 6 • Charles H. Sylvester
... hills. Back and forth along the long brick platform he strode in the bright autumn sun. It was no sloven's gait. An observer would have said that somewhere, sometime, in his career of maybe thirty years, he had faced a hardboiled old topper who insisted with piratical invectives that "heads up, shoulders back, stomachs in" was the proper posture for humans who were eating government ...
— David Lannarck, Midget - An Adventure Story • George S. Harney
... well enough," Somerfield admitted, "but the mare is a topper, and no mistake. He had nothing to do but to sit tight and let her ...
— The Illustrious Prince • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... go up, I wear them," said Dick composedly. "Why not? It's a roomy suit, and I hate a great topper on my head; I've had enough of that here on Sundays. But it's slow up at your office. The chaps there aren't half up to any larks. I made a first-rate booby-trap, though, one day for an old yellow buffer who came in to see you. He ...
— Vice Versa - or A Lesson to Fathers • F. Anstey
... ipsi praestent. In support of his opinion he quotes, with other passages, Plaut. Asinar. i. 3, 31: Vult placere sese amicae, i.e. vult ut ipse amicae placeat; and Coelius Antipater apud Festum in "Topper," Ita uti sese quisque vobis studeat aemulari, i.e. studeat ut ipse aemuletur. This explanation is approved by Bernouf. Cortius might have added Cat. 7: sese quisque hostem ferire —properabat. "Student," ...
— Conspiracy of Catiline and The Jurgurthine War • Sallust
... signal was made for the grand fleet to anchor, All in the Downs that night for to meet; So cast off your shank-painter, let go your cat's-topper, Hawl up your clew-garnets, let ...
— Dawn • H. Rider Haggard
... model peculiarly not her own. She looked ridiculously ungraceful alongside the smart, chic American women, and yet not one of them but would have given her boots to be able to array herself as one of these. There was no denying the fact that Mrs. Odell-Carney was a "regular tip-topper," as Mr. Rodney was only too eager to say. She had the air of a born leader; that is to say, she could be gracious when occasion demanded, ...
— The Husbands of Edith • George Barr McCutcheon
... Constricted brows, and strain, and stress! And still, despite humanity's groan, The torturing, "tall-hat" holds its own! What proof more sure and melancholy Of the dire depths of mortal folly? Mad was the hatter who invented The demon "topper," and demented The race that, spite of pain and jeers, Has borne it—for ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99., September 20, 1890 • Various
... get your teeth into. However, his next offering, A Snake Pit Full of Love, was by far the topper. It ...
— Droozle • Frank Banta
... to the multitude that the lives of those patriots and benefactors of their species should, through modesty, have been unrevealed to such as pant to copy them. Here and there the lineaments of a tip-topper were discernible beneath the disguise of custom; but what fair existences were screened! I may tell you at once, sir, that the State was so much struck at the time of the Great Skirmish by this doctrine of ...
— Another Sheaf • John Galsworthy
... quiet answer the Colonel was beset again by all his fears. He put his white 'topper' ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... Fokker on my tail, I don't want any mysteries to handle. No, Red, for the time being I guess I'm satisfied. Besides, they might chuck me in the infantry, and I have a horror of having things drop on me from overhead. Let's to bed, old topper, so we can hop off early in the morning. The sooner we start the sooner we get to 'Gay Paree'. Besides, early to bed and early to rise makes a man ready to challenge the skies. How's ...
— Aces Up • Covington Clarke
... not a banker or a high official swell, I never felt a pressing need for dressing extra well; And yet there were occasions, in days not long remote, When I assumed the stately garb of topper and frock-coat. ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Aug 8, 1917 • Various
... week," said he; "a fine turn out—such a field! I got an infernal topper tho'—smashed my best tile; tell you how it was. There was a high paling—put Spitfire to it, and she took it in fine style; but, as luck would have it, the gnarled arm of an old tree came whop against my head, and bonneted me completely! ...
— The Sketches of Seymour (Illustrated), Complete • Robert Seymour
... old bird," said he, "you're going the wrong way about it. I know another case just the same. Chap out Wimbledon way. His people kept a girl—topper she was, too—dark. He was always messing round just like you are, and she was stand-offish as a nun. One night he came home early, a bit screwed—people out—girl in. Met her in the drawing-room. Almost been afraid to speak ...
— Once Aboard The Lugger • Arthur Stuart-Menteth Hutchinson
... their thoughts so strongly to the meeting that issue was joined, the result being a general scuffle, wherein a black board was split, three panes of the school windows were broken, an inkbottle was spilled over a town-councillor's shirt front, a churchwarden was dealt such a topper with the map of Palestine that his head went right through Samaria, and many black eyes and bleeding noses were given, one of which, to everybody's horror, was the venerable incumbent's, owing to the zeal of an emancipated chimney-sweep, who took the side ...
— Jude the Obscure • Thomas Hardy
... smart engagement with artillery and muskets ensued, when he drew off; but it cost us dear, for General Giles A. Smith was severely wounded, and had to go to the rear; and the command of the brigade devolved on Colonel Topper (One Hundred and Sixteenth Illinois), who managed it with skill during the rest of the operations. At the moment of my crossing the bridge, General Howard appeared, having come with three regiments from Chattanooga, along the east bank of the Tennessee, ...
— The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, Complete • William T. Sherman
... "Next spring I go out by rail with a three topper. I'm going to do the real bareback act, too. No more broad pads and wagon shows for Katie. Hey, Jim, ...
— Horses Nine - Stories of Harness and Saddle • Sewell Ford
... will tell you why not Uncle Tom. You remember me losing all that money at baccarat at Cannes? Well, very shortly I shall have to sidle up to Tom and break the news to him. If, right after that, I ask him to put on lavender gloves and a topper and distribute the prizes at Market Snodsbury Grammar School, there will be a divorce in the family. He would pin a note to the pincushion and be off like a rabbit. No, my lad, you're for it, so you may as well ...
— Right Ho, Jeeves • P. G. Wodehouse
... "Down, Topper, down! down, Lively, lass; come into heel, Swaney," cried Donald McAllister, as he approached his tenants. "Good-mornin', miss; mornin', gentlemen. The Ben has on its nightcap, but I'm thinkin' it'll soon take ...
— Freaks on the Fells - Three Months' Rustication • R.M. Ballantyne
... of the hat specially designed for M. CLEMENCEAU, has decided that the bowler, the topper, the Homburg, the straw, the cloth cap and all other styles at present more or less in vogue leave much to be desired, and has therefore inaugurated a search for ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, September 22, 1920 • Various
... sometimes takes the lead in the matter of costume cannot be disputed—possibly the day will arrive when the emancipation of man from the thrall of the "topper," the frock-coat and stiff collar is brought about through the energies of the theatre—though it will require a London actor of the Le Bargy type to achieve such a triumph, and he is not yet in sight, and may not appear until after the motorist has accomplished the miracle. ...
— Our Stage and Its Critics • "E.F.S." of "The Westminster Gazette"
... "He's a topper, is Jack! He's promised to take me for a day sometime to Hartleburn, when the races are on. Now don't you go blabbing, or I'll ...
— The Luckiest Girl in the School • Angela Brazil
... a-goin' to do it no good," gloomily replied Billy. "'Twould jest make it yeller 'n what 'tis now. Won't I be a pretty sight when I puts on long pants with these here yaller curls stuck on topper my head? I'd 'nuther sight ruther ...
— Miss Minerva and William Green Hill • Frances Boyd Calhoun
... a hundredweight of gold. He was worth looking at, so we put more wood on the fire, and made a good blaze. Yes, he was a lucky digger, and he was enjoying his luck. He was blazing drunk, was in evening dress, wore a black bell-topper, and kid gloves. The gloves had saved his hands from being burned when he thrust them into the fire. There could be no doubt that he was enjoying himself. He came suddenly out of the black night, and staggered away into it again with ...
— The Book of the Bush • George Dunderdale
... servant woke her master up in a fright and said, "Master of all masters, get out of your barnacle and put on your squibs and crackers. For white-faced simminy has got a spark of hot cockalorum on its tail, and unless you get some pondalorum high topper mountain will be ...
— English Fairy Tales • Flora Annie Steel
... type to men like Jimmy, for instance, savages who always seemed on the point of speaking and never opened their mouths; with them, she thought, a wife would be bored to death. Besides, Jimmy, pooh, a common workman, a josser! While Trampy was an artiste, a bill-topper and rich, no doubt. You had only to listen to Trampy to see that he was very well off! Chocolates, sweets, jewelry, ostrich-feathers, patent-leather boots, everything! He would have loaded her with presents, if she had let him, but she had never accepted anything except a ...
— The Bill-Toppers • Andre Castaigne
... quite as bad as that. Dick and Humphrey are nice enough as brothers, and I believe they're proud of me too, in a way. They always danced with me themselves, and they always noticed what I was wearing, and said I looked a topper. I know I looked all right, but directly I opened my mouth I gave myself away, just like a ...
— The Squire's Daughter - Being the First Book in the Chronicles of the Clintons • Archibald Marshall
... early, sir. I say, Master Jack, this is a topper, isn't it?" said the man, taking off the helmet. "A'most do for an umbrella in a ...
— Jack at Sea - All Work and no Play made him a Dull Boy • George Manville Fenn
... dresses peculiarly and the gente flamenca, imitates him so far as its means allow. A famous matador is as well paid as in England a Cabinet Minister or a music-hall artiste. This is his costume: a broad-brimmed hat with a low crown, which is something like a topper absurdly flattened down, with brims preposterously broadened out. The front of his shirt is befrilled and embroidered, and his studs are the largest diamonds; not even financiers in England wear such important ...
— The Land of The Blessed Virgin; Sketches and Impressions in Andalusia • William Somerset Maugham
... another tip-topper. What do you think of this for a storm?—'The liquid acclivities were rising taller, and more threatening. With a scream of passion the tortured ship hurled itself at their deep-green crests. Cascades of rain, and hail, and snow, were dashing down upon her unprotected bulwarks. ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100., Jan. 24, 1891. • Various
... "A topper down on his luck a bit—see his clothes," said the foreman, and he took tithes from willing men who were eating from pails that were pinched between their knees; he carried the food to the ...
— The Landloper - The Romance Of A Man On Foot • Holman Day
... undesirable occurs in obedience to a general law which is not only desirable, but of infinite necessity and benefit. It is not desirable that Topper and Macaulay should be read by tens of thousands, and Wilkinson only by tens. It is not desirable that a narrow, selfish, envious Cecil, who could never forgive his noblest contemporaries for failing ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 55, May, 1862 • Various
... and if he ain't I'll do for 'im. See? An' now you and me'll have a word or two particler, and settle up about this 'ere job. I got the plan drawed out. It's a easy job as ever I see. Seems to me Tuesday's as good a day as any. Tip-topper—Sir Edward Talbot, that's 'im—'e's in furrin parts for 'is 'ealth, 'e is. Comes 'ome end o' next month. Little surprise for 'im, eh? You'll 'ave to train it. Abrams 'e'll be there Monday. And see 'ere . . ." He sank his ...
— Harding's luck • E. [Edith] Nesbit
... and pulled it out as though it had been soft iron. And the devil began yelling, but he could not move, and Billy kept drawing the nose out till it was long enough to reach over the window, when he put an old bell-topper on the end of it. And the devil yelled, and ...
— Welsh Fairy-Tales And Other Stories • Edited by P. H. Emerson
... thing about his coat, and it led to unpleasantness. The next day he found her picking chips in his brown derby, and when he expressed his disapproval she told him it was no fit hat for a young man like him—he should have a topper. Mr. Shaw decided that he would try ...
— The Black Creek Stopping-House • Nellie McClung
... attached to the 16th Scots, of whom also I see a lot. Padre Black was offered R.J. Campbell's Church after Campbell, but refused it. His brother, Hugh Black, is rather famous I think. Anyway, the Padre's a topper. He is like a ray of sunshine in the trenches. He come striding along, head up, not stooping as all those who don't live in the trenches (and some of those who do) do, with a cheery word for everyone, and a memory for anyone he knows. A curious thing is that, as you ...
— Letters from France • Isaac Alexander Mack
... through a break in the traffic, a scudding figure had sprung into sight—the figure of a man in a grey frock-coat and a shining "topper," a well-groomed, well-set-up man, with a small, turned-up moustache and hair of that peculiar purplish-red one sees only on the shell of a roasted chestnut. As he swung into sight, the distant whistle shrilled again; far off in the distance ...
— Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces • Thomas W. Hanshew
... (this happened nearly every Sunday) Ranny set himself to charm away that look from his mother's face. First of all he said she was a tip-topper, a howling swell, and asked her where she expected to go to in that hat, nippin' in and cuttin' all the girls out, and she a married woman and a mother; and whether it wouldn't be fairer all around, and much more proper, if she was to wear something in the nature ...
— The Combined Maze • May Sinclair
... will bring to light, likely enough, something that may once have been a court dress, a bridal costume, or a ball gown; a pair of small satin slippers, once white; a rusty crepe, a "topper of a manifestly early vintage, or what not, all may be found here. One might almost fancy that Pride, in some material personification, might indeed be found buried beneath the mass of dross, or having shuffled off its last vestiges of ...
— Dickens' London • Francis Miltoun
... of it! They'll give three hearty cheers and think you a topper. Besides, you've got to go to New York in any case. To take Percy to a vet., ...
— Indiscretions of Archie • P. G. Wodehouse |
