Trump : Are We Finally On "The Road to Understanding" ?

In a post written in early January, I mentioned that I would download and read the top ten best selling novels of 1917. As I write this, I am on #4 - The Road to Understanding by Eleanor H. Porter.

In Chapter IX - on page 149, the main character, Burke Denby thought this about his father, John Denby :

"What a trump dad had been to offer it! What a trump he had been in the way he offered it, too! What a trump he had been all through about it, for that matter. Not a word of reproach, not a hint of patronage. Not even a look that could be construed into that hated 'I told you so.' Just a straight-forward offer of this check for Helen, and the trip for himself, and actually in a casual, matter-of-fact tone of voice as if ten-thousand-dollar checks and Alaskan trips were everyday occurrences".

I won't go into the full details of the story, but at this point, the younger Denby is very happy about an offer made to him by his father, and to compliment his father, he refers to his father as a trump. In the above paragraph alone, he calls his father a trump three times. In later paragraphs, he again refers to his dad in that way.

After seeing that, I had to check the dictionary in my Kindle. According to Merriem Webster, one of the meanings for the word trump is "a dependable and exemplary person".

My, how things have changed since 1917, when being called a trump was considered a compliment.