steam-you

Updated: July 25, 2025

While I waited and looked on I presently recognized in this watchmaker an old acquaintance a steamboat engineer of other days, and not a good engineer, either. He examined all the parts carefully, just as the other watchmakers had done, and then delivered his verdict with the same confidence of manner. He said: "She makes too much steam-you want to hang the monkey-wrench on the safety-valve!"

Mark Twain - Mark Twain's Letters — Volume 6 (1907-1910)

While I waited and looked on I presently recognized in this watchmaker an old acquaintance a steamboat engineer of other days, and not a good engineer, either. He examined all the parts carefully, just as the other watchmakers had done, and then delivered his verdict with the same confidence of manner. He said: "She makes too much steam-you want to hang the monkey-wrench on the safety-valve!"

Mark Twain - Sketches New and Old, Part 1.