Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:41

Excerpt #1, from Champions of the Fleet, by Edward Fraser

…did not, stood on and tacked and came close under her stern, and ¼ before 3 we began to engage her: ¼ before 4 she struck. “At that time the Vice-Admiral with the Jersey, Guernsey, and St. Albans stood in to westward of us after another ship on shore and fired some guns, when she struck; after which they set her on fire and stood in towards the Cape where another French ship was at anchor which they brought off. On our beginning to fire, the America fired some guns on the Ocean: she instantly hauled down her colours. “We sent a boat on board and took possession of our prize, which proved to be the Téméraire, 74 guns, 716 men. At ¼ to 5 we cut her cables and carried her down to the Admiral. “In the evening the Intrepid and America set fire to the Ocean.” Boscawen, with his work accomplished and the Toulon fleet accounted for, sailed away for England, carrying the Téméraire and the Modeste with him under British colours, to add both ships, in their original French names, to the British Navy. His battle in Lagos Bay under the shadow of the cliffs of Cape St. Vincent, if perhaps few people nowadays remember it, perhaps have ever heard of it, yet, in the words of Captain Mahan, “saved England from invasion,” and the Téméraire’s name should always stand for us as a memento of that fact. At the time the event made a widespread impression throughout Europe….

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Excerpt #2, from Robot nemesis, by E. E. Smith

…immune, and I don’t think they can, as I have so adjusted the screen that it is now absorbing, instead of radiating. “Tell the captain to put the ship into heaviest possible battle order, everything full on, as soon as the men can handle themselves. Then I want to make a few suggestions.” “What happened, anyway?” the Communications Officer, semi-conscious now, was demanding. “Something hit me and tore my brain all apart–I couldn’t think, couldn’t do a thing. My mind was all chewed up by curly pinwheels….” Throughout the vast battleship of space men raved briefly in delirium; but, the cause removed, recovery was rapid and complete. Martin explained matters to the captain, that worthy issued orders, and soon the flagship had in readiness all her weapons, both of defense and of offense. “Doctor Stone, who knows more about the automatons than does any other human being, will tell us what to do next,” the Flight Director said. “The first thing to do is to locate them,” Stone, now temporary commander, stated crisply. “They have taken over at least one of our vessels, probably one close to us, so as to be near the center of the formation. Radio room, put out tracers on wave point oh oh two seven one….” He went on to give exact and highly technical instructions as to the tuning of the detectors….

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Excerpt #3, from Europe and elsewhere, by Mark Twain

…couple of questions: 1. Did Dr. Ament collect the assessed damages and thirteen times over? The answer is: He did not. He collected only a third over. 2. Did he apply the third to the “propagation of the Gospel?” The answer is this correction: He applied it to “church expenses.” Part or all of the outlay, it appears, goes to “supporting widows and orphans.” It may be that church expenses and supporting widows and orphans are not part of the machinery for propagating the Gospel. I supposed they were, but it isn’t any matter; I prefer this phrasing; it is not so blunt as the other. In the opinion of the two clergymen and of the Board, these two points are the only important ones in the whole C. E. dispatch. I accept that. Therefore let us throw out the rest of the dispatch as being no longer a part of Dr. Ament’s case. EXHIBIT H The two clergymen and the Board are quite content with Dr. Ament’s answers upon the two points. Upon the first point of the two, my own viewpoint may be indicated by a question: _Did Dr. Ament collect from B (whether by compulsion or simple demand) even so much as a penny in payment for murders or depredations, without…

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Excerpt #4, from Across Asia on a Bicycle, by Thomas Gaskell Allen and William Lewis Sachtleben

…Our morning ablutions were usually made à la Turk: by having water poured upon the hands from a spouted vessel. Cleanliness is, with the Turk, perhaps, more than ourselves, the next thing to godliness. But his ideas are based upon a very different theory. Although he uses no soap for washing either his person or his clothes, yet he considers himself much cleaner than the giaour, for the reason that he uses running water exclusively, never allowing the same particles to touch him the second time. A Turk believes that all water is purified after running six feet. As a test of his faith we have often seen him lading up drinking-water from a stream where the women were washing clothes just a few yards above. [Illustration: SCENE AT A GREEK INN.] As all cooking and eating had stopped at the sound of the morning cannon, we found great difficulty in gathering together even a cold breakfast of ekmek, yaourt, and raisins. Ekmek is a cooked bran-flour paste, which has the thinness, consistency, and almost the taste of blotting-paper. This is the Turkish peasant’s staff of life. He carries it with him everywhere; so did we. As it was made in huge circular sheets, we would often punch a hole in the middle, and slip it up over our arms. This we found the handiest and most serviceable mode of transportation, being handy to eat without removing our hands from the handle-bars, and also answering the purpose of sails in case of a favoring wind. Yaourt, another…

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Excerpt #5, from Clairvoyance and Occult Powers, by William Walker Atkinson

…chapter–there will be found a close agreement in principle and practice. And, now let us pass on to a consideration of the various forms and phases of the clairvoyant phenomena itself. The subject is fascinating, and I am sure that you will enjoy this little excursion into the strange realm of thought regarding the astral phenomena of clairvoyance. But, be sure to master each lesson before proceeding to the rest, as otherwise you will have to turn back the leaves of the course in order to pick up some point of teaching that you have neglected. LESSON IX. SIMPLE CLAIRVOYANCE. In a previous chapter we have seen that there are three well-defined classes of clairvoyance, namely, (1) Simple clairvoyance; (2) Clairvoyance in space; and (3) Clairvoyance in Time. I shall now consider these in sequence, beginning with the first, Simple Clairvoyance. In simple clairvoyance the clairvoyant person merely senses the auric emanations of other persons, such as the auric vibrations, colors, etc., currents of thought vibrations, etc., but does not see events or scenes removed in space or time from the observer. There are other phenomena peculiar to this class of clairvoyance which I shall note as we progress with this chapter. An authority on the subject of astral phenomena has written interestingly,…

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Excerpt #6, from History for ready reference, Volume 3 (of 6), Greece to Nibelungen, by J. N. Larned

…Medain, “the twin city,” combined in one, under this Arabic name, the two contiguous Persian capitals, Seleucia and Ctesiphon. The name Medain signifies “cities,” and “it is said to have comprised a cluster of seven towns, but it is ordinarily taken to designate the twin cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon.” Sir W. Muir, Annals of the Early Caliphate, chapters 10 and 17. {2120} ———-MEDIA: Start——– MEDIA AND THE MEDES. The country of the Medes, in its original extent, coincided very nearly with the northwestern part of modern Persia, between Farsistan and the Elburz mountains. "The boundaries of Media are given somewhat differently by different writers, and no doubt they actually varied at different periods; but the variations were not great, and the natural limits, on three sides at any rate, may be laid down with tolerable precision. Towards the north the boundary was at first the mountain chain closing in on that side the Urumiyeh basin, after which it seems…

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Excerpt #7, from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy, by Bernard Shaw

…TANNER. Are you sure of that? You stopped my telling you about my adventures; but how do you know that you stopped the adventures? ANN. Do you mean to say that you went on in the same way with other girls? TANNER. No. I had enough of that sort of romantic tomfoolery with Rachel. ANN. [unconvinced] Then why did you break off our confidences and become quite strange to me? TANNER. [enigmatically] It happened just then that I got something that I wanted to keep all to myself instead of sharing it with you. ANN. I am sure I shouldn’t have asked for any of it if you had grudged it. TANNER. It wasn’t a box of sweets, Ann. It was something you’d never have let me call my own. ANN. [incredulously] What? TANNER. My soul. ANN. Oh, do be sensible, Jack. You know you’re talking nonsense. TANNER. The most solemn earnest, Ann. You didn’t notice at that time that you were getting a soul too. But you were. It was not for nothing that you suddenly found you had a moral duty to chastise and reform Rachel. Up to that time you had traded pretty extensively in being a…

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Excerpt #8, from Gulliver’s Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, by Jonathan Swift

…down every precipice, and bouncing his head against every post; and in the streets, of justling others, or being justled himself into the kennel. It was necessary to give the reader this information, without which he would be at the same loss with me to understand the proceedings of these people, as they conducted me up the stairs to the top of the island, and from thence to the royal palace. While we were ascending, they forgot several times what they were about, and left me to myself, till their memories were again roused by their flappers; for they appeared altogether unmoved by the sight of my foreign habit and countenance, and by the shouts of the vulgar, whose thoughts and minds were more disengaged. At last we entered the palace, and proceeded into the chamber of presence, where I saw the king seated on his throne, attended on each side by persons of prime quality. Before the throne, was a large table filled with globes and spheres, and mathematical instruments of all kinds. His majesty took not the least notice of us, although our entrance was not without sufficient noise, by the concourse of all persons belonging to the court. But he was then deep in a problem; and we attended at least an hour, before he could solve it. There stood by him, on each side, a young page with flaps in their hands, and when…

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Excerpt #9, from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources

…With foamy waters on a muddy shore.= Dryden. =More potatoes and fewer potations.= Motto for Working-men. =More servants wait on man / Than he’ll take= 35 =notice of.= George Herbert. =More sinn’d against than sinning.= Lear, iii. 2. =More springs up in the garden than the gardener sows there.= Pr. =More suo=–After his usual manner; as is his wont. =More than all things, avoid fault-finding and a habit of criticism.= Prof. Blackie to young men. =More than kisses letters mingle souls.= Donne. 40 =More than we use is more than we want.= Pr. =More things are wrought by prayer / Than this world dreams of.= Tennyson. =More water glideth by the mill / Than wots the miller of.= Tit. Andron., ii. 1. =Mores amici noveris, non oderis=–Know well, but take no offence at the manners of a friend. Pr.…

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Excerpt #10, from The Talking Horse, and Other Tales, by F. Anstey

…she’s been away!’ Priscilla burst into tears as she hid her face upon her mother’s protecting shoulder. ‘It’s true!’ she sobbed, ‘I don’t deserve that you should be glad to see me–I’ve been hateful and horrid, I know–but, oh, if you’ll only forgive me and love me and put up with me a little, I’ll try not to preach and be a prig any more–I will truly!’ And at this her father called her to his side and embraced her with a fervour he had not shown for a very long time. * * * * * I should not like to go so far as to assert that no imitation diamond, ruby, pearl, or emerald ever proceeded from Priscilla’s lips again. Habits are not cured in a day, and fairies–however old they may be–are still fairies; so it did occasionally happen that a mock jewel made an unwelcome appearance after one of Priscilla’s more unguarded utterances. But she was always frightfully ashamed and abashed by such an accident, and buried the imitation stones immediately in a corner of the garden. And as time went on the jewels grew smaller and smaller, and frequently dissolved upon her tongue, leaving a faintly bitter taste, until at last they ceased altogether and Priscilla became as pleasant and unaffected a girl as she who may now be finishing this history. Aunt Margarine never sent back the contents of that bandbox; she kept…

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Excerpt #11, from Postal Riders and Raiders, by W. H. Gantz

…clerks and postmasters–postmasters, from Hiram Hairpin at Crackerville, Ga., all the way up–fourth, third, second class postmasters to the first-class postmasters in our larger cities–why, I ask, is Mr. Hitchcock working so strenuously to get the vast political machine of his department lined up against the protest of millions of our people, unless he is still after those pestiferous, independent magazines? Why, again, it may be asked, are he and his assistants coaching the 220,000 clerks of his department and the 60,000 postmasters, assistant postmasters, etc., on his “staff” to put up a promotion talk for a one-cent rate on first-class (letter or sealed) matter? It should be a one-cent rate. Nobody at all informed as to mail service rates and revenues will question that. But it is equally true that, up to a recent date, there have been, comparatively speaking (the comparison being with the millions protesting against an increase in the second-class rate) but few complaints and complainants against the present rate of two cents for carrying and handling a letter. Why, then, I ask, is Mr. Hitchcock so actively cranking up his departmental political machine to make neighborhood runs and do some hill climbing in advocacy of that one-cent rate for first-class matter? Yes, why? Is it a legitimate assumption to say that the present agitation for a…

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Excerpt #12, from Desert Dust, by Edwin L. Sabin

…scalding dust. It was a mixed train, of Gentile mules and the more numerous Mormon oxen; therefore not strictly a “bull” train, but by pace designated as such. And in the vernacular I was a “mule-whacker” or even “mule-skinner” rather than a “bull-whacker,” if there is any appreciable difference in rôle. There is none, I think, to the animals. Trudging manfully at the left fore wheel behind Mr. Jenks’ four span of mules, trailing my eighteen-foot tapering lash and occasionally well-nigh cutting off my own ear when I tried to throw it, I played the teamster–although sooth to say there was little of play in the job, on that road, at that time of the day. The sun was more vexatious, being an hour lower, when we bravely entered Benton’s boiling main street. We made brief halt for the finishing up of business; and cleaving a lane through the pedestrians and vehicles and animals there congregated, the challenges of the street gamblers having assailed us in vain, we proceeded–our Mormons gazing straight ahead, scornful of the devil’s enticements, our few Gentiles responding in kind to the quips and waves and salutations. Thus we eventually left Benton; in about an hour’s march or some three miles out we formed corral for camp on the farther side of the road from the railroad tracks which we had been skirting….

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