Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:50

Excerpt #1, from Everybody’s Book of Luck, by Anonymous

…“He loves me”; at the second, “He loves me not.” These sentences are repeated alternately until the flower is deprived of all its petals. Whichever sentence was uttered last describes “his” affections. THE IVY.– Ivy, ivy, I thee pluck, And in my bosom, I thee put. The first young man who speaks to me My own true lover he shall be. [Illustration: No. 22.] THE HAWTHORN OR MAY.–Once upon a time, every porch was decorated with a branch of May to avert the evil eye and prevent witchcraft, but the idea has been departed from, and now it is regarded as a harbinger of ill-luck, and is rarely brought inside a house. THE MISTLETOE.–From very ancient times, this plant has been regarded with curious veneration. Probably it gained special fame, in the first instance, owing to the peculiar manner in which it grew. The Druids looked upon it as a plant possessing marvelous properties, and they esteemed nothing in the world more sacred than it. They gathered it when the moon was just six days old because the moon was then thought to be at its greatest power. This done, they sacrificed two young bullocks which were milk-white. After that, the mistletoe was cut into…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #2, from The Chemistry of Plant Life, by Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher

…free NH_{2} groups and free COOH groups). Bodies of this kind are known as “amphoteric electrolytes,” since they yield both positive and negative ions, if dissociated. The proteins readily form salts, which are generally insoluble in water, with strong acids. For this reason, they are generally precipitated out of solution by the addition of the common mineral acids. They are also precipitated by many of the “alkaloidal reagents,” to which reference has been made in the preceding chapter, namely, phosphotungstic, phosphomolybdic, tannic, picric, ferrocyanic, and trichloracetic acids, the double iodide of potassium, mercuric iodide, etc. The precipitates produced by strong mineral acids are often soluble in excess of the acid, with the formation of certain so-called “derived proteins,” which are probably products of the partial hydrolysis of the protein. The proteins are also precipitated out of solution by the addition of small amounts of salts of various heavy metals, such as the chlorides, sulfates, and acetates of iron, copper, mercury, lead, etc. This precipitation is different than that caused by the saturation of the solution with the salts of the alkali metals, as in this case the metal unites with the protein to form definite, insoluble salts, which cannot be redissolved except by treatment with some reagent which removes the metal from its combination with the protein (hydrogen sulfide is commonly used for this purpose). (2) Color reactions.–Certain specific groups which are present in most…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #3, from Mr. Munchausen , by John Kendrick Bangs

…bear-shooer performs?" “What useful what?” asked Beelzy. “Function–duty–what does the duty of a bear-shooer consist in?” explained Mr. Munchausen. “Is he a blacksmith who shoes bears instead of horses?” “He’s a bear-chaser,” explained Beelzy, “and I’m it,” he added. “That, Ma’am, is the function of a bear-shooer in the menagerie of a hotel.” Sapphira having expressed herself as satisfied, Beelzebub continued. “You see this here house is shut up all winter, and when everybody’s gone and left it empty the bears come down out of the mountains and use it instead of a cave. It’s more cosier and less windier than their dens. So when the last guest has gone, and all the doors are locked, and the band gone into winter quarters, down come the bears and take possession. They generally climb through some open window somewhere. They divide up all the best rooms accordin’ to their position in bear society and settle down to a regular hotel life among themselves.” “But what do they feed upon?” asked Sapphira. “Oh they’ll eat anything when they’re hungry,” said Beelzy. "Sofa cushions, parlor rugs, hotel registers–anything they can fasten their teeth to. Last year they came in through the cupola, burrowin’ down through the snow to get at it, and there they stayed enjoyin’ life out…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #4, from Ocean Steam Navigation and the Ocean Post, by Thomas Rainey

…must go by the Cunard line to England, and thence by English steamers to the British Channel, the Baltic, the White Sea, the Mediterranean, Egypt, Constantinople, or the Black Sea. Those to places along the coast of Africa and to the Cape of Good Hope are dependent on the same English packet transit. For our communication with China, India, Australia, the East-Indies generally, and the Islands of the Pacific, we are entirely and slavishly dependent, as usual, on Great Britain. Instead of sending our letters and passengers direct from Panamá or San Francisco to Honolulu, Hong Kong, Shanghae, Macáo, Calcutta, Ceylón, Bombáy, Madrás, Sydney, Melbourne, Batavia, the Mauritius, and the Gulf of Mozambique, by a short trunk line of our own steamers, and from its terminus only, by the British lines, they now go first to England, as a slavish matter of course, then across the Continent or through the Mediterranean to Egypt, thence by land to the Red Sea, and thence to China and the East-Indies; or from England by her steam lines around the Cape of Good Hope to Australia and the East-Indies; or by slow and uncertain sailing packets direct from our own country, either around Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. It is evident to every reflecting man who has given the subject any attention, that all of these lines of communication would be very desirable, and very highly profitable to our people at large; and that the latter and that…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #5, from Argot and Slang, by Albert Barrère

…à règles, a dirty, slatternly woman. Resserrer son —-, to die. (Thieves’) Avoir son —- lavé, to be caught, apprehended, or “smugged.” LINGÉ, adj. (popular), être —-, to have plenty of fine linen. LINGRE, or LINGUE, m. (thieves’), knife, or “chive.” From Langres, a manufacturing town. The synonyms are “linve, trente-deux, vingt-deux, chourin or surin, scion, coupe-sifflet, pliant.” Jouer du —-, to stab, “to stick, or to chive.” LINGRER, or LINGUER (thieves’), to stab, “to stick, or to chive.” LINGRIOT, m. (thieves’), penknife. LINGUARDE, f. (popular), woman with a soft tongue. LINGUE, m. (thieves’), knife, or “chive.” LINSPRÉ, m. (thieves’), prince. See LIMONADE. LINVÉ, m. (popular), loussem, twenty sous. The words “vingt sous” distorted. Un —-, a franc: “un lenquetré” being one franc and fifty centimes, or thirty sous, and “un larantqué,” two francs, or forty sous. These expressions are respectively the words un, trente, quarante, disguised. LION, m. (familiar), dandy of 1840. Fosse aux lions, box at the opera occupied by men of fashion. For synonymous terms see GOMMEUX. LIONNERIE, f. (familiar), fashionable world….

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #6, from The Invasion of 1910, with a full account of the siege of London, by Le Queux

…chief-of-the-staff received mortal injuries. Not a man in the tower escaped untouched. The brains of both fleets were paralysed, and the Vanguard steered wildly. The German destroyers saw their opportunity, and rushed in. Four boats came straight at the huge hull of the British flagship from ahead, and before she could be got under control, a torpedo fired from one of them hit her right forward, breaching two compartments and admitting a great quantity of water. Her bows sank in the sea somewhat, but she clung to her place in the line for some minutes, then dropped out, and, in manifest difficulty, headed for the shore, which was close at hand to the south. Another division of four destroyers charged on her, but her great turrets were still intact, and received them with a murderous fire of 12-in. shrapnel. Two of the six guns made hits and wrecked two boats past recognition; the other four missed the swiftly moving targets, and two boats survived the first discharge and closed, one to port, and one to starboard. Her smaller guns were out of action, or unable to stop the boats with their fire. Both boats discharged two torpedoes; three torpedoes missed, but the fourth struck the flagship under the fore-turret. She took in so much water that she grounded, east of Dunbar, and lay there submerged up to the level of her main deck, and unable to use her big guns lest the concussion should shake her in this position to pieces. The Germans…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #7, from Symbolic Logic, by Lewis Carroll

…No. 3. So we add this fact to the Conclusion, which now stands as ¶ e’a_{0} + a_{1}, i.e. ¶ a_{1}e’{0}; i.e. “All a are e.” If the Reader has faithfully obeyed the above directions, his written solution will now stand as follows:– 1 2 3 4 k{1}l’{0} + dh’{0} + a_{1}c_{0} + b_{1}e’{0} + 5 6 7 k’h{0} + b’l_{0} + d’{1}c’{0} 1 5 2 6 4 7 3 kl’ + k’h + dh’ + b’l + be’ + d’c’ + ac – = - -= - = = = - = ¶ e’a_{0} + a_{1} i.e. ¶ a_{1}e’{0}; i.e. “All a are e.” pg093 The Reader should now take a second piece of paper, and copy the Data only, and try to work out the solution for himself, beginning with some other Premiss. If he fails to bring out the Conclusion a{1}e’_{0}, I would advise him to take a third piece of paper, and begin again!] I will now work out, in its briefest form, a Sorites of 5 Premisses, to…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #8, from Planet of Sand, by Murray Leinster

…his mercy. So Stan brooded, hating Rob Torren with a desperate intensity surpassing even the hatred he’d felt on the Stallifer. A large part of his hatred was due to helplessness. There was no way to fight back. But he tried desperately to think of one. On the fourth day he said abruptly, “Let’s take a trip, Esther.” She looked at him in mute inquiry. “For power,” he said “and maybe something more. We might be able to find out something. If there are inhabitants on this planet, for instance. There can’t be, but there’s that beast–”Maybe it’s somehow connected with whatever or whoever built that grid–that checkerboard arrangement I told you about. Something or somebody built that, but I can’t believe anything can live in those sandstorms." They’d followed the huge trail that had been visible on their first landing in the polar regions. The great, two-yard-across pads of the monster had made a clear trail for ten miles from the point of their discovery. At the end of the trail there was a great gap in a cliff of frozen sand. The Thing seemed to have devoured tons of ice-impacted stuff. Then it had gone back into the swirling sandy wastes. It carried away with it cubic yards–perhaps twenty or thirty tons–of…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #9, from The Fifth Ace, by Isabel Ostrander

…in your good faith or with any desire to deal with you except in retribution?" “Nevertheless, she is the principal I intend to interview. You give me no credentials as her authorized agent, and whether she cares to deal with me or not is a matter I mean to put to the test. It lies between her and me, and I fancy I shall have no difficulty in opening her eyes to much that will be to her advantage, to which she has been kept heretofore in the dark.” “Would you, if you could? I doubt it. However, by all means make your proposition to her when you have found her, Mr. Wiley. That’s the first thing, isn’t it? You can’t hazard your bet until you have picked your number, can you?” Whimsically, she imitated the croupier’s sing-song whine “Make your play, gentlemen! The wheel is about to spin!” “You vixen!” he muttered wrathfully. Then he controlled himself with an almost visible effort and half turned in his saddle. "Will you permit me to give you a bit of purely disinterested advice? Don’t go in for the financial game on your own; you are bound to lose. In your proper sphere you are invincible, but it is a social one. When you pit yourself against men in a contest for financial supremacy your chief weapon, that of sex, is turned against you. Make no mistake! I shall…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #10, from Ghosts I Have Met and Some Others, by John Kendrick Bangs

…“Yes,” he answered; “and I’ve come to tell you I’m mighty sorry about those ruined MSS. of yours. It is too bad that your whole day’s work had to go for nothing.” [Illustration: “HE WAS AMPLY PROTECTED”] “I think so myself,” I retorted, coldly. “It’s rather late in the day for you to be sorry, though. If you’ll show your sincerity by going away and never crossing my path again, I may believe in you.” “Ah!” he said, “I’ve shown it in another way. Indeed I have. You know I have some conscience, though, to tell the truth, I haven’t made much use of it. This time, however, as I considered the situation, a little voice rose up within me and said: ‘It’s all right, old chap, to be rough on this person; make him mad and shove him every which way; but don’t destroy his work. His work is what he lives by–’” “Yes,” I interrupted, “and after what I told you on the steamer about what I would do to you when we got on even terms, you are not anxious to have me die. I know just how you feel. No thing likes to contemplate that paralysis that will surely fall upon you when my ghost begins to get in its fine work. I’m putting it in training now.” “You poor droll mortal!” laughed the cockney. "You poor droll…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #11, from Twenty Four Unusual Stories for Boys and Girls, by Anna Cogswell Tyler

…upon just such another, his great red robe fluttering out in the moonlight like huge red wings. “Great herring and little fishes!” roared the fisherman; “it is a billy-goat!” Instantly goats, old man, and all were gone like a flash. Down fell the fisherman through the empty sky, whirling over and over and around and around like a frog. He held tightly to his net, but away flew his fur cap, the golden money falling in a shower like sparks of yellow light. Down he fell and down he fell, until his head spun like a top. By good-luck his house was just below, with its thatch of soft rushes. Into the very middle of it he tumbled, and right through the thatch–bump!–into the room below. The good wife was in bed, snoring away for dear life; but such a noise as the fisherman made coming into the house was enough to wake the dead. Up she jumped, and there she sat, staring and winking with sleep, and with her brains as addled as a duck’s egg in a thunderstorm. “There!” said the fisherman, as he gathered himself up and rubbed his shoulder, “that is what comes of following a woman’s advice!” [Illustration: THE WINDS, THE BIRDS, AND THE TELEGRAPH WIRES] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 3: Reprinted by special permission from Twilight Land, by…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #12, from Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

…sharply into the palm. “Ten o’clock!” he cried. “Six hours. We’ll do them yet,” and he sprang to his feet. Even as he did so, he reeled, put his hand to his throat, stood swaying for a moment, and then, with a peculiar sound, fell from his whole height face foremost to the floor. I ran to him at once, calling to my mother. But haste was all in vain. The captain had been struck dead by thundering apoplexy. It is a curious thing to understand, for I had certainly never liked the man, though of late I had begun to pity him, but as soon as I saw that he was dead, I burst into a flood of tears. It was the second death I had known, and the sorrow of the first was still fresh in my heart. 4 The Sea-chest I LOST no time, of course, in telling my mother all that I knew, and perhaps should have told her long before, and we saw ourselves at once in a difficult and dangerous position. Some of the man’s money–if he had any–was certainly due to us, but it was not likely that our captain’s shipmates, above all the two specimens seen by me, Black Dog and the blind beggar, would be inclined to give up their booty in payment of the dead man’s debts. The captain’s order to mount at…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

A production of Friendlyskies.net