ext_90711 ([identity profile] tdanaher.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] purejuice 2010-01-27 09:05 pm (UTC)

You're too smart is also not a locution, I should think, being used even in America in 1914 -- but enough.

I can find it in the Titusville, Pennsylvania Morning Herald of January 6, 1885.

A young man, who, with a few of his friends, were having a bit of quiet fun and had evidently enjoyed themselves, said: "I'll bet cigars for the crowd that I'll stop the car without ringing the bell, speaking to the driver or conductor or asking anyone to stop it."
"Oh. you'll go outside and slap hold of the brake. You're too smart, you are," remarked one of his companions, smilingly. "You'll cut yourself if you don't mind".
"No, siree, I'll do no such thing. I'll neither touch the brake nor ask anyone to touch it for me. And I won't ask anybody to stop the car."
The bet was taken.

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