"Plumber" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... cider. 'Tis the matter of a debt, you see." He drew a scrap of dirty paper from his pocket. "Twelve-seventeen-six, for repairs done to Wroote Parsonage; new larder, fifteen; lead for window-casements, eight-six; new fireplace to parlour, one-four-six: ancettera. I'm a plumber by trade—plumber and glazier—and in business at Lincoln. William Wright's my name, and Right by nature." Here he grinned. "Your father would have everything of the best; Epworth tradesman not worth a damn, excuse me, and meaning no offence. So he said, or words to that effect. ...
— Hetty Wesley • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... reached that the less fit and less efficient, or the unfit and inefficient, compose the surplus labor army. Here are to be found the men who have tried and failed, the men who cannot hold jobs,—the plumber apprentice who could not become a journeyman, and the plumber journeyman too clumsy and dull to retain employment; switchmen who wreck trains; clerks who cannot balance books; blacksmiths who lame horses; lawyers ...
— War of the Classes • Jack London
... archetype of gentleman, visited Leonardo da Vinci's sick-bed; and that Henry VIII. had said to a pert lord who had snubbed Holbein, "I can make a lord any day, but I cannot make a Holbein!" how Mrs. Haughton still confounded all painters in the general image of the painter and the plumber who had cheated her so shamefully in the renewed window-sashes and redecorated walls, which Time and the four children of an Irish family had made necessary to the letting of the first floor. And these playful allusions to the maternal ideas ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... nothing left but the wash-boiler. Now, I had heard tales of amateur syrup-boilings, and I felt that the wash-boiler would not do. Besides, I meant to work outdoors—no kitchen stove for me! I must have a pan, a big, flat pan. I flew to the telephone, and called up the village plumber, three miles away. Could he build me a pan? Oh, say, two feet by three feet, and five inches high—yes, right away. Yes, Hiram would call for it ...
— More Jonathan Papers • Elisabeth Woodbridge
... no affection for the male, no pleasure in his society; she only tolerates him as a necessary evil, and, if he is killed, goes in quest of another in the most business-like manner, as you would go for the plumber or the glazier. In most cases the male is the ornamental partner in the firm, and contributes little of the working capital. There seems to be more equality of the sexes among the woodpeckers, wrens, and swallows; while the contrast ...
— Wake-Robin • John Burroughs
... hours are scourges. If you work by the hour, you gently sail on the stream of Time, which is always bearing you on to the haven of Pay, whether you make any effort or not. Working by the hour tends to make one moral. A plumber working by the job, trying to unscrew a rusty, refractory nut, in a cramped position, where the tongs continually slipped off, would swear; but I never heard one of them swear, or exhibit the least impatience at such a vexation, working by the hour. Nothing ...
— Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature • Various
... Charles Hardy and Mr. Philipson. The other alterations are at last fixed. Winnington is to be paymaster; Sandys, cofferer, on resigning the exchequer to Mr. Pelham; Sir John Rushout, treasurer of the navy; and Harry Fox, lord of the treasury. Mr. Compton,(876) and Gybbons remain at that board. Wat. Plumber, a known man, said, the other day, "Zounds! Mr. Pultney took those old dishclouts to wipe out the 'treasury, and now they are going to lace them and lay them up!" It is a most just idea: to be sure, Sandys and Rushout, and their ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole
... sat within the garden's island summer And heard far off the shunting of the trains, Noises of wheels, and speech of every comer Passing the entrance—heard the man of brains Talking of George's Budget, heard the plumber Planning new leaks ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, May 27, 1914 • Various
... with a broad main street shaded by great maples and elms. It had an apothecary, a blacksmith, a plumber, several shops of one sort and another, two churches, and many boarding-houses; but all its interests gathered about its seminary and its academy. These seats of learning were neither better nor worse than others of their kind, but differed ...
— Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... story of a political boss's beer-party to the bums of his ward; had it been an account of Mrs. Van Astorbilt's elopement with a plumber; had it been the life-story of a shooting show girl; had it been the description of the latest style in slit skirts; had it been a sarcastic message from some drunken, over-rated city official; had it been a sympathy-squad description of the hardships and soul-beauties of a millionaire ...
— Traffic in Souls - A Novel of Crime and Its Cure • Eustace Hale Ball
... seem impossible for a plumber to murder anyone she panted now from a sense of reassurance and security. She could see too that he was a decent looking young fellow in overalls, ...
— The Dust Flower • Basil King
... the world. Not, let it be noted, because of the existence of their work. Leonardo da Vinci must have worked pretty hard; on the other hand, many a government office clerk, village constable or elusive plumber may do (to all human appearance) no work at all, and yet show no signs of the Aristotelian universalism. What makes it difficult for the average man to be a universalist is that the average man has to be a specialist; he has not only to learn one trade, but to learn it so well ...
— What's Wrong With The World • G.K. Chesterton
... half an hour more they arrived at the house of John Radford, plumber and glazier, who ...
— Some Private Views • James Payn
... got my plans made to put in a bath-room," said Sylvia. "I've got the carpenters engaged, and the plumber. They are going ...
— The Shoulders of Atlas - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... say that many—not on the pay of a dough-boy, put in a plumber from up-state in New York. For his part, he did not bother to grunt—he would make drinking motions or eating motions, and they would bring him things till they found what he wanted. One time he had met a girl that he thought was all right, and he wanted to treat her ...
— Jimmie Higgins • Upton Sinclair
... he did not find that he got to know them. The idea that they would come to him proved to be a mistaken one. He did indeed visit a few tame pets whom his rector desired him to look after. There was an old man and his wife who lived next door but one to Ernest himself; then there was a plumber of the name of Chesterfield; an aged lady of the name of Gover, blind and bed-ridden, who munched and munched her feeble old toothless jaws as Ernest spoke or read to her, but who could do little more; a Mr Brookes, a rag and bottle merchant in Birdsey's Rents in the last stage of dropsy, and ...
— The Way of All Flesh • Samuel Butler
... to say: "If the plumbing went bad in your home, doctor, you would call a plumber, for he would be the one competent to fix it." Rush shook his head slowly. "But what happens when there ...
— Now We Are Three • Joe L. Hensley
... diversions do our men beguile the interminable hours. After all it is the small things that men resent in life, not the big ones. I once asked a French soldier over a game of cards—in civil life he was a plumber, whom we shall meet again[7]—whether he could get any sleep in the trenches amid the infernal din of the guns. "Oh, I slept pretty well on the whole," he explained nonchalantly, "mais mon voisin, celui-la"—he pointed reproachfully to a comrade ...
— Leaves from a Field Note-Book • J. H. Morgan
... per cent on the actual cost of same, which is to be determined by the amount of Mason, Carpenter, Roofer, Plumber, Stone-cutting, Heating, Ventilating, Iron-workers, Mantel and Elevator Contracts, including all extras and deductions. In connection with Heating, Ventilating and Elevator, we will either select the apparatus and approve the specifications as submitted by the dealers, or prepare ...
— The American Architect and Building News, Vol. 27, No. 733, January 11, 1890 • Various
... Changes of certain kinds, though they may have no little bearing upon our comfort, do not threaten the existence of either state or church. Could someone devise a scheme by which the periodical visits of the plumber could be avoided, we should all welcome it, and have no fear of ...
— A Handbook of Ethical Theory • George Stuart Fullerton
... the ventilation was bad, and he could not get the windows open, he would break them out. If you questioned his balance-sheet he would the next day flash up an expense-account that looked like a plumber's bill and give you fifty cents as your share of the spoils. At hotels he always got a room with two beds, if possible. I was his prisoner—he was despotically kind—he regulated my hours of sleep, my meals, my exercise. ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators • Elbert Hubbard
... Peagrum, that's my name, fust shop round the corner as you go into Silver Street, plumber and sanitry hengineer, gas-fittin' and hartistic decorating, bell-'anging in all its branches. I received instructions from Mr. Jones that I was to look into a little matter o' leakage in the back-kitchen ...
— The Talking Horse - And Other Tales • F. Anstey
... New York City, February 26, 1832, and was educated at the school of St. James' Church. He adopted the business of a plumber, which he conducted in the City of New York. He served as a City Councilman for several years, and was subsequently elected a member of the Board of Aldermen, of which he was made President. In 1864 he was elected a member of the Thirty-Ninth ...
— History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States • Wiliam H. Barnes
... caught him smugglin' home a few measly vegetables from her big garden, and after tongue lashin' him lively she fires him on the spot—him a poor Dago with a big fam'ly. Then there'd been tales told by the butcher, the plumber, and half a dozen others, all goin' to show she was a ...
— Shorty McCabe on the Job • Sewell Ford
... had proceeded, as usual, to-day under the direction of Mr. Dove, assisted in the plumber-work by Mr. John Gibson, and in the brazier-work by Mr. Joseph Fraser; while Mr. James Slight, with the joiners, were fitting up the storm-shuttters of the windows. In these several departments the artificers were at work till seven o'clock p.m., and it being then dark, Mr. Dove ...
— Records of a Family of Engineers • Robert Louis Stevenson
... Salemina the biggest bath. We bought housekeeping stores, distributing our patronage equally between the two grocers; we purchased aprons and dusters from the rival drapers, engaged bread and rolls from the baker, milk and cream from the plumber, who keeps three cows, interviewed the flesher about chops; in fact, no young couple facing love in a cottage ever had a busier or happier time than we; and at sundown, when Francesca arrived, we were in the pink of order, standing under our own lintel, ready to welcome ...
— Penelope's Progress - Being Such Extracts from the Commonplace Book of Penelope Hamilton As Relate to Her Experiences in Scotland • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
... are large and in few hands, this training has never flourished, as it has greatly in France, where nearly every adult male may own land and a large proportion will come to do so. So of processes. As a student in Germany I took a few lessons each of a bookbinder, a glassblower, a shoemaker, a plumber, and a blacksmith, and here I have learned in a crude way the technique of the gold-beater and old-fashioned broom-maker, etc., none of which come amiss in the laboratory; and I am proud that I can still mow and keep my scythe sharp, chop, plow, ...
— Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene • G. Stanley Hall
... you, sir; the plumber has been here, because the tap of your cistern came off in my hand. It wasn't my fault; there had been a ...
— The Ink-Stain, Complete • Rene Bazin
... Mrs. Carew and her big son beside them. All about, in the darkness, were other groups: mothers and fathers and alert, chattering children. Alice Carter, the big mill-girl, radiant now, and with a hoarse, inarticulate, adoring young plumber in tow, went by them, and stooped to whisper something to Mrs. Burgoyne. "I wish you WOULD come, Alice!" the lady answered eagerly, as they ...
— The Rich Mrs. Burgoyne • Kathleen Norris
... the discovery that if one lighted a match and stepped within the blackness, the match was immediately extinguished, but that upon emerging into daylight the flame came up again. Some one happened along with a plumber's gasoline torch. Immediately this was lighted and the experiment repeated. The bearer of the torch, astonished at the instant extinguishment of the flame, felt with his hand to see what could be the matter. Instantly ...
— The Sign at Six • Stewart Edward White
... Farmer's soft drawl spinning out the theme: "And a resident plumber. Yes, Mrs. Olivier, ...
— Mary Olivier: A Life • May Sinclair
... how we call some persons by their profession or calling, and others not. We say "Doctor," but we do not address our gum-architect as "Dentist." We say "Carpenter," but we do not address a plumber as "Plumber." (Incidentally, all plumbers might be called Warner). We say "Gardener" and "Coachman," but we do not address an advocate as "Barrister." If we had a definite rule everything would be simple, but as we have not it is necessary to find several more names. I am not ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, May 28, 1919. • Various
... Porter, Arthur, brickmaker. Powell, Doctor I. W. Richardson, George, proprietor of first brick hotel. Roper, S., Kamloops. Styles, S. T., plasterer. Shotbolt, Thomas, druggist. Stockham, F., baker. Sparrow, J. M., post office. Stewart, John, plumber. Sylvester, Frank. Turner, John H. (Todd & Turner), Victoria Produce Market. Vowell, Arthur, Indian superintendent. White, Edward (late Brown & White). Wilson, Alexander, messenger, Bank British North America. Wilson, William, draper. Wilson, Thomas Sidney, cabinetmaker. Wriglesworth, Joseph, ...
— Some Reminiscences of old Victoria • Edgar Fawcett
... said they couldn't be done with the house in time. One is obliged to go by what these sort of people say and do. We're to have a month's honeymoon,—only just a month, because Mr Lowlad won't make himself as agreeable as he ought to do about the services; and Newface, the plumber and glazier, says he can't have the house done as Kattie would like to live in it before the end of August. Where do you think we're going to, Miss ...
— An Old Man's Love • Anthony Trollope
... cupboards underneath to serve as a storage place for pots and kettles and all kinds of rubbish, dust, and germs. It should be supported on legs, and the space below should be open for inspection at all times. The pipes and fixtures should be selected and placed by a competent plumber. ...
— Science in the Kitchen. • Mrs. E. E. Kellogg
... can it be finished,' the plumber demanded scornfully, 'before hot and cold are put in?' and he put in hot and cold. Then an army of gardeners arrived with fairy carts and spades and seeds and bulbs and forcing-houses, and soon they had a flower-garden to the right of the verandah, and ...
— Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens • J. M. Barrie
... lead roofs are being repaired at the Admiralty, and the plumbers are walking about where they like. Now I needn't tell you I've had a man or two fishing about among the doorkeepers and so on at the Admiralty, and one of them found a plumber he knew slightly, working on the roof. That plumber happens to be no fool—a bit smarter than the detective-constable, it seems to me, in fact. Anyhow, he seems to have got more out of my man than my man got out of him; and soon after I reached the Yard he turned ...
— The Red Triangle - Being Some Further Chronicles of Martin Hewitt, Investigator • Arthur Morrison
... be worse. They're still in Texas. [To himself.] Wish I knew how to do something else, being a plumber or a walking ...
— The Easiest Way - Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911 • Eugene Walter
... answer) Are you a plumber? (No answer) Are you the water department? (One loud, hollow bang) What do you want? (No answer) I believe you're a ghost. Are you? (No answer) Well, then, stop banging. (She reaches out and turns on the warm tap. No water ...
— Tales of the Jazz Age • F. Scott Fitzgerald
... inquiries, I have thought it desirable, in the present little treatise, to give an account of the catastrophe, that accidents of a similar nature may be avoided through this calamity allotted to us. On the day above mentioned, which was very destructive to us, a vile plumber, with his two workmen, burnt our church whilst soldering up two holes in the old lead with fresh pewter. For some days he had already, with a wicked disposition, commenced, and placed his iron crucibles, along with charcoal and fire, on rubbish, ...
— Yorkshire Painted And Described • Gordon Home
... up, with a whistle. "Eh?" said he. "Love in a cottage?—is it thus the poet turns his lay? That's damn' nonsense! I tell you, even in a cottage the plumber's bill has to be paid, and the grocer's little account settled every month. Yes, by gad, and even if you elect to live on bread and cheese and kisses, you'll find Camembert a bit more to your taste ...
— The Eagle's Shadow • James Branch Cabell
... acids, after this. I have gone to great expense to have the house remodeled this summer, and the bathrooms have all been tiled and fitted up afresh, from beginning to end. I know that, in the past, you have used acid, gritty soaps on the basins and tubs, Martha, and my plumber tells me you mustn't do it. He says it's ruinous. He recommends kerosene oil for the bath-tubs and marble slabs. He says it will take any stain out, and is much safer than the soaps. So please use kerosene ...
— Martha By-the-Day • Julie M. Lippmann
... at the glove counter at Mason's years ago; she was then Maggie McKay, and a vain, pretentious thing. She married a plumber with a romantic name, and her rise has been rapid. Now, if you and I could only ...
— The Pleasant Street Partnership - A Neighborhood Story • Mary F. Leonard
... I remember, I was in a neighbour's office, when the local plumber presented himself with a bill about a yard long. This neighbour was one of those very busy men. He was connected with what seemed to me an unlimited number of enterprises. He merely glanced at this tiresome bill, turned ...
— Random Reminiscences of Men and Events • John D. Rockefeller |
