[TML] an interesting story somewhat related to this thing we do

[William Hopper]

Richard Aiken wrote:

>On 9/29/07, Tom Naro <tomnaro at yahoo.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>The phrase used by highwaymen was "stand and deliver your purse!" ...
>>    
>>
>
>I must admit that my google foo is not great, because I couldn't find
>reference to my version of what the phrase means.  ...
>
Your post piqued my interest, and I spent quite a bit of Google time myself.

It looks like the phrase was originally used by highwaymen, and is 
documented in 18th century writings.

More recently (all references I saw were 20th century), it has come to a 
much different meaning.  There are several military references where it 
is used to mean standing up against enemy fire and firing back, which is 
the meaning you remember.  In the lyrics of a civil rights song , it is 
standing up against racism.