subs. phr. (common).—The aristocracy, landed gentry, world of fashion: also UPPER TEN THOUSAND, UPPER-TENDOM, and UPPER-CRUST. [Usually referred to N. P. Willis, and originally applied to the wealthy classes of New York as approximating that member.]
c. 1835. N. P. WILLIS, Ephemera. At present there is no distinction among the UPPER TEN THOUSAND of the city.
1843–4. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Attaché, xxiv. I want you to see Peel, Stanley, Graham, Shiel, Russell, Macaulay, Old Joe, and so on. These men are all UPPER CRUST here.
1848. J. R. LOWELL, A Fable for Critics.
| Caring naught for what vengeance the mob has in store, | |
| Let that mob be the UPPER TEN THOUSAND or lower. |
1855. Q. K. PHILANDER DOESTICKS, Doesticks—What He Says, 131. But I did go to a ball for the benefit of the poor—a two-dollar commingling of ‘UPPER-TENDOM’ with ‘lower-twentydom’—an avalanche of exclusiveness, in a torrent of mobocracy.
c. 1871. W. A. BUTLER, Nothing to Wear.
| Researches in some of the ‘UPPER-TEN’ districts | |
| Reveal the most painful and startling statistics. |
1868. The Athenæum, 28 Nov., 719. To provide for the well-being of the children of affluent parents, some of our social reformers urge that the mothers of the UPPER TEN THOUSAND, should put their nurseries under the control of a superior class of nurses.
1874. BEETON, The Siliad, viii.
| Yet much remains that stigmatize we must, | |
| And in our Siliad THE UPPER CRUST | |
| Will find some words to ponder carefully. |
1884. Harper’s Magazine, lxxviii. 568. The favorite promenade of the UPPER TEN.
1885. DAVITT, Leaves from a Prison Diary, I. x. Most of them [pseudo-aristocratic impostors] had succeeded in obtaining admission to the stocking-knitting party, which, in consequence, became known among the rest of the prisoners as ‘the UPPER-TEN PUSH.’
