"adjectiver than"

[John Doe]

The Sleeping Car Conductor, Volumes 10-11, 1927:

"A lake that is colder than a landlord's heart[, even] in the summer time."

The quotation marks are original. Apparently, this publication contains a
host of sayings, such as, "So does its [sic] old man." Quotes have been
added, in this case. I have no idea what governs the presence or the
absence of quotes in this periodical.

I'm familiar with only "... _tit_," from the late '40's-early '50's.

1935: Froze harder than a landlord's heart.

1987: ... stone crab - a crustacean whose shell Damon Runyon once
characterized as  “ harder than a landlord's heart" -

Apparently, nobody ever claimed that this was a Runyonism before 1987.

-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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