Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[imchongjun]

Hello, teachers
I am wondering what "I did for him" mean in the next passage.
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DEAR LADY OF THE GRAPEFRUIT: You are very kind. Also, you are wise. Wise, because into my clumsy little Personal you read nothing that was not there. You knew it immediately for what it was--the timid tentative clutch of a shy man at the skirts of Romance in passing. Believe me, old Conservatism was with me when I wrote that message. He was fighting hard. He followed me, struggling, shrieking, protesting, to the post box itself. But I whipped him. Glory be! I did for him.
(The writer of the letter previously sent to the lady of the grapefruit a very bold message to the effect that he is in love with her)
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I understand that "him" refers to old Conservatism, but the sentence doesn't make sense to me. What does it mean?

[ESL-ish]

I'm not sure, but I'd guess he means that he overcame his enemy.
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[CP]

I think "I did for him" means "I defeated him soundly" or something like that. Usually we hear it as, "I'm done for," meaning, "I'm defeated." It's an old fashioned expression, so I'm guessing the passage is from an old text.

Besides "do for," there is also "do in," as in "I did him in" or "I'm all done in," meaning defeated or exhausted.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[pugachevV]

He's describing the inner struggle he had to overcome his old fashioned conservative personality, which made it so difficult for him to write a letter to the lady, to whom, presumably he had not been properly introduced.
Seems weird nowadays, but that is the way it used to be.
It's from The Agony Column, by Earl Derr Biggers, who wrote the Charlie Chan books, and it was written in 1916, when people were much more stuffy.