Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:31

Excerpt #1, from The Boy Inventors’ Radio Telephone, by Richard Bonner

…"Wa’al, Smith was a curious feller, frum all accounts, and it was not till ‘49 when ther big gold rush came that he thought much more about those three buttes with the gold lying round loose as dirt on ’em. Then he got ther gold fever. He went to ’Frisco and gets up an expedition to find them three buttes. "They got down inter ther desert country all right and locates Smith Mountain. But the dern Indians they had with ’em as guides cleaned out the camp one fine night, and they had a hard time getting back to civilization alive. Well, that’s where Peg-leg Smith goes out of the story." “Wasn’t he ever heard of again?” asked Jack. “No, siree, not hide nor hair on him. Nobody never knows what became of him arter they got back to San Bernardino. Some says that he went back alone lookin’ fer the three buttes and was lost in the desert and that his bones is out thar some’eres to-day, an’ others says that he got so plum disgusted he went back home to St. Louis. But nobody rightly knows.”The next heard of ther three buttes was many years later when an Indian, who worked on Governor Downey’s ranch, not far from Smith Mountain, developed a habit of goin’ away fer a few days and then comin’ back with bits of black rock chock full of gold which he traded…

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Excerpt #2, from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, by Charlotte Brontë

…attempts to seek him. Worn out with this torture of thought, I rose to my knees. Night was come, and her planets were risen: a safe, still night: too serene for the companionship of fear. We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works are on the grandest scale spread before us; and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence. I had risen to my knees to pray for Mr. Rochester. Looking up, I, with tear-dimmed eyes, saw the mighty Milky-way. Remembering what it was—what countless systems there swept space like a soft trace of light—I felt the might and strength of God. Sure was I of His efficiency to save what He had made: convinced I grew that neither earth should perish, nor one of the souls it treasured. I turned my prayer to thanksgiving: the Source of Life was also the Saviour of spirits. Mr. Rochester was safe: he was God’s, and by God would he be guarded. I again nestled to the breast of the hill; and ere long in sleep forgot sorrow. But next day, Want came to me pale and bare. Long after the little birds had left their nests; long after bees had come in the sweet prime of day to gather the heath honey before the dew was dried—when the long morning shadows were curtailed, and the sun filled earth and sky—I got…

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Excerpt #3, from A Border Ruffian, by Thomas A. Janvier

…sudden memory of a past experience flashed into her mind–“one does sometimes meet such dreadfully horrid people!” They were sitting, as they talked, in a narrow space between a table and the wall, made narrower by the presence of an unused chair. Just as this memory was aroused, some one tried to push by them, and Livingstone, rising, lifted the obstructing chair away. To find a clear space in which to put it down, he lifted it across the table; and for a moment he stood erect, holding the chair out before him at arm’s-length. When he seated himself and turned again to speak to Grace, he was startled to find that her face and shoulders, and even her arms–her arms and shoulders were delectable–were crimson; and in her eyes he found at last the look of recognition that he had hoped for earlier in the evening, but that now he had ceased to expect. Recognition of this emphatic sort he certainly had not expected at all. “You–you see,” she said, “I al–always have thought that you were a robber and a murderer, and shocking things like that. And I didn’t really see you that day, except as you walked away, holding up that horrid little man, kicking–just as you held up the chair. Can you ever, ever forgive me for thinking such wicked things about you, and for being so ungrateful as not to know you at the very first?” And Livingstone, then and later, succeeded in convincing her that he…

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Excerpt #4, from The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, by Selma Lagerlöf

…Karr looked at Grayskin and measured him with his eyes. It was apparent that the elk was not yet full grown. He did not have the broad antlers, high hump, and long mane of the mature elk; but he certainly had strength enough to fight for his freedom. “One can see that he has been in captivity all his life,” thought Karr, but said nothing. Karr left and did not return to the grove till long past midnight. By that time he knew Grayskin would be awake and eating his breakfast. “Of course you are doing right, Grayskin, in letting them take you away,” remarked Karr, who appeared now to be calm and satisfied. “You will be a prisoner in a large park and will have no responsibilities. It seems a pity that you must leave here without having seen the forest. You know your ancestors have a saying that ‘the elk are one with the forest.’ But you haven’t even been in a forest!” Grayskin glanced up from the clover which he stood munching. “Indeed, I should love to see the forest, but how am I to get over the fence?” he said with his usual apathy. “Oh, that is difficult for one who has such short legs!” said Karr. The elk glanced slyly at the dog, who jumped the fence many times a day–little as he was. He walked over to the fence, and with one spring he was on the other…

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Excerpt #5, from The Great Boer War, by Arthur Conan Doyle

…fluttered with joy. Men, women, and children, rich and poor, clubman and cabman, joined in the universal delight. The thought of our garrison, of their privations, of our impotence to relieve them, of the impending humiliation to them and to us, had lain dark for many months across our spirits. It had weighed upon us, until the subject, though ever present in our thoughts, was too painful for general talk. And now, in an instant, the shadow was lifted. The outburst of rejoicing was not a triumph over the gallant Boers. But it was our own escape from humiliation, the knowledge that the blood of our sons had not been shed in vain, above all the conviction that the darkest hour had now passed and that the light of peace was dimly breaking far away–that was why London rang with joy bells that March morning, and why those bells echoed back from every town and hamlet, in tropical sun and in Arctic snow, over which the flag of Britain waved. CHAPTER 18. THE SIEGE AND RELIEF OF KIMBERLEY. It has already been narrated how, upon the arrival of the army corps from England, the greater part was drafted to Natal, while some went to the western side, and started under Lord Methuen upon the perilous enterprise of the relief of Kimberley. It has also been shown how, after three expensive victories, Lord Methuen’s force met with a paralysing reverse, and was compelled to remain inactive within twenty miles of the…

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Excerpt #6, from Direct Conversion of Energy, by William R. Corliss

…of the flow of charged particles as current. The nuclear battery shown in Figure 13 performs this trick. A central rod is coated with an electron-emitting radioisotope (a beta-emitter; say, strontium-90). The high-velocity electrons emitted by the radioisotope cross the gap between the cylinders and are collected by a simple metallic sleeve and sent to the load. Simple, but why don’t space charge effects prevent the electrons from crossing the gap as they do in the thermionic converter? The answer lies in the fact that the nuclear electrons have a million times more kinetic energy than those boiled off the thermionic converter’s emitter surface. Consequently, they are too powerful to be stopped by any space charge in the narrow gap. Nuclear batteries are simple and rugged. They generate only microamperes of current at 10,000 to 100,000 volts. [Illustration: Figure 13 A NUCLEAR BATTERY The nuclear battery depends upon the emission of charged particles from a surface coated with a radioisotope. The particles are collected on another surface.] ENERGY OUT INSULATOR LAYER OF BETA-EMITTING RADIOISOTOPE VACUUM…

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Excerpt #7, from An Account of Egypt, by Herodotus

…of our own on this matter also, that Egypt is all that land which is inhabited by Egyptians, just as Kilikia is that which is inhabited by Kilikians and Assyria that which is inhabited by Assyrians, and we know of no boundary properly speaking between Asia and Libya except the borders of Egypt. If however we shall adopt the opinion which is commonly held by the Hellenes, we shall suppose that the whole of Egypt, beginning from the Cataract and the city of Elephantine, is divided into two parts and that it thus partakes of both the names, since one side will thus belong to Libya and the other to Asia; for the Nile from the Cataract onwards flows to the sea cutting Egypt through in the midst; and as far as the city of Kercasoros the Nile flows in one single stream, but from this city onwards it is parted into three ways; and one, which is called the Pelusian mouth, turns towards the East; the second of the ways goes towards the West, and this is called the Canobic mouth; but that one of the ways which is straight runs thus,–when the river in its course downwards comes to the point of the Delta, then it cuts the Delta through the midst and so issues out to the sea. In this we have a portion of the water of the river which is not the smallest nor the least famous, and it is called the Sebennytic mouth. There are also two other mouths which part off from the Sebennytic and go to the sea, and these are called, one the Saitic, the other the Mendesian…

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Excerpt #8, from History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year

…rapidity and vigour of the troops, their spirit should be excited by continual enterprize, and nourished by commendation and rewards. Now Macdonald, if we may believe Vacani, an eye-witness, did neither gain the confidence of his soldiers, nor cherish their ardour; and while he exacted a more rigid discipline, than the composition of his troops and the nature of the war would bear, he let pass many important opportunities of crushing his enemies in the field. His intent was to reduce the ferocious and insubordinate disposition of his men, but the peculiar state of feeling with respect to the war on both sides, did not permit this, and hence his marches appeared rather as processions and ceremonies than warlike operations. He won no town, struck no important blow in the field, gave no turn to the public feeling, and lost a most important fortress, which, with infinite pains and trouble, he could scarcely regain. The plans of all the French generals had been different. St. Cyr used to remain quiet, until the Spaniards gathered in such numbers that he could crush them in general battles; but then he lost all the fruit of his success by his inactivity afterwards. Augereau neither fought battles nor made excursions with skill, nor fulfilled the political hopes which he had excited. Macdonald was in constant movement, but he avoided battles; although in every previous important attack the…

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Excerpt #9, from The Old East Indiamen, by E. Keble Chatterton

…Indiaman’s crew into the navy in the manner that we saw in an earlier chapter. As the crew had no desire to come under impressment, they at once hid, with the result that the privateer’s men had no difficulty in coming on board the Lord Eldon. The captain was below at the time, and hearing a noise and clamour came on deck to see what it was all about: and then to his amazement found that his ship was in the hands of the enemy. However, he was not one easily to be daunted, even by such a surprise as this. His life was made up of things unexpected, and knowing that his men were well drilled he called to them to repel boarders. They at once responded to the command and came out from their hiding-places, and after a sharp fight drove the invaders overboard. One Frenchman had even got possession of the Lord Eldon’s wheel, but the East Indiaman’s captain killed him with his own hand, cutting off his head with one stroke of the sword. In a very short time the privateer, who was now more surprised than the crew of the merchant ship, hurriedly made sail and disappeared into the fog. The incident well shows the fighting efficiency of the commanders and men of the Company’s vessels at this period. During the early part of the eighteenth century about a dozen or fifteen of the Company’s ships would sail to the East Indies from London, but this average gradually rose till, about the year 1779,…

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Excerpt #10, from History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria in the Light of Recent

…platform of natural rock, about fifteen feet high. To north and south of this were open courts. The southern is bounded by the hill; the northern is now bounded by the Great Temple of Hat-shepsu, but, before this was built, there was evidently a very large open court here. The face of the rock platform is masked by a wall of large rectangular blocks of fine white limestone, some of which measure six feet by three feet six inches. They are beautifully squared and laid in bonded courses of alternate sizes, and the walls generally may be said to be among the finest yet found in Egypt. We have already remarked that the architects of the Middle Kingdom appear to have been specially fond of fine masonry in white stone. The contrast between these splendid XIth Dynasty walls, with their great base-stones of sandstone, and the bad rough masonry of the XVIIIth Dynasty temple close by, is striking. The XVIIIth Dynasty architects and masons had degenerated considerably from the standard of the Middle Kingdom. This rock platform was approached from the east in the centre by an inclined plane or ramp, of which part of the original pavement of wooden beams remains in situ. [Illustration: 324.jpg XIth DYNASTY WALL: DÊR EL-BAHARI.] Excavated by Mr. Hall, 1904, for the Egypt Exploration Fund. To right and left of this ramp are colonnades, each of twenty-two square…

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Excerpt #11, from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources

…pleasure a thousand pains. Fr. Pr. =Pour y parvenir=–To carry your point. M. =Povertà non ha parenti=–Poor people have no relations. It. Pr. =Poverty and hunger have many learned disciples.= Ger. Pr. =Poverty breeds strife.= Pr. 10 =Poverty breeds wealth, and wealth in its turn breeds poverty. The earth to form the mould is taken out of the ditch; and whatever may be the height of the one will be the depth of the other.= Hare. =Poverty consists in feeling poor.= Emerson. =Poverty demoralises.= Emerson. =Poverty ever comes at the call.= Goldsmith. =Poverty has no greater foe than bashfulness.= 15 Pr. =Poverty, incessant drudgery, and much worse evils, it has often been the lot of poets and wise men to strive with, and their glory to conquer.= Carlyle.…

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Excerpt #12, from The Radio Boys Rescue the Lost Alaska Expedition, by Gerald Breckenridge

…together the aerial series condenser, the blocking condenser, the grid condenser, the telegraph key, the chopper, the choke coil in the key circuit, the filament volt-meter, the protective condenser in the power circuit, the storage battery and the motor generator. Farnum and MacDonald asked questions, although Dick and Art were content to sit silent and watch, keen-eyed, as the construction work progressed. Several times, too, Dick arose and went to the water’s edge to keep watch against surprise. That any would be attempted for the time being, nobody believed, as they figured the enemy would consider them on guard. As they worked, Jack explained for the benefit of the others. His description of how the low voltage current from the storage battery flowed into one of the windings of the generator and drives it as a motor thus generating higher voltage in the other winding both puzzled and interested them. By the time, the set was ready for use, Farnum, who was something of a mechanic by inclination, had a fair understanding of the set, but MacDonald, though interested, was bewildered. “I’m fair beat,” he confessed. “Anyhow, just so you boys can make it work!” “Oh, we’ll make it work, all right,” Frank assured him. “Well, now, to try to call the Post. What’s its call, Mr. MacDonald?” “I happen to remember,” said MacDonald. “We were all so interested when…

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