Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:40

Excerpt #1, from Modern Essays, by Harry Morgan Ayres et al.

…question. In “Sixes and Sevens,” a young man sinking under accidental morphia, is kept awake and alive by shouts, kicks, and blows. O. Henry’s public seems imaged in that young man. But I draw a sharp distinction between the tone of the style and its pattern. The tone is brazen, or, better perhaps, brassy; its self-advertisement is incorrigible; it reeks with that air of performance which is opposed to real efficiency. But the pattern is another matter. The South rounds its periods like its vowels; O. Henry has read, not widely, but wisely, in his boyhood. His sentences are built–a rare thing in the best writers of to-day. In conciseness, that Spartan virtue, he was strong, though it must be confessed that the tale-teller was now and then hustled from the rostrum by his rival and enemy, the talker. He can introduce a felicity with a noiselessness that numbers him for a flying second among the sovereigns of English. “In one of the second-floor front windows Mrs. McCaskey awaited her husband. Supper was cooling on the table. Its heat went into Mrs. McCaskey.” I regret the tomfoolery; I wince at the slang. Yet even for these levities with which his pages are so liberally besprinkled or bedaubed, some half-apology may be circumspectly urged. In nonsense his ease is consummate. A horseman who should dismount to pick up a bauble would be childish; O. Henry picks it up without dismounting. Slang, again, is…

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Excerpt #2, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

…Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose— What made you so awfully clever?” “I have answered three questions, and that is enough,” Said his father; “don’t give yourself airs! Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff? Be off, or I’ll kick you down stairs!” “That is not said right,” said the Caterpillar. “Not quite right, I’m afraid,” said Alice, timidly; “some of the words have got altered.” “It is wrong from beginning to end,” said the Caterpillar decidedly, and there was silence for some minutes. The Caterpillar was the first to speak. “What size do you want to be?” it asked. “Oh, I’m not particular as to size,” Alice hastily replied; “only one doesn’t like changing so often, you know.” “I don’t know,” said the Caterpillar. Alice said nothing: she had never been so much contradicted in her life before, and she felt that she was losing her temper. “Are you content now?” said the Caterpillar. “Well, I should like to be a little larger, sir, if you wouldn’t mind,” said Alice: “three inches is such a wretched height to be.”…

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Excerpt #3, from Ox Team Days on the Oregon Trail, by Howard R. Driggs and Ezra Meeker

…June 14. Passed seven new-made graves. June 16. Passed eleven new graves. June 17. Passed six new graves. June 18. We have passed twenty-one new graves today. June 19. Passed thirteen graves today. June 20. Passed ten graves. June 21. No report. June 22. Passed seven graves. If we should go by the camping grounds, we should see five times as many graves as we do. This report of Mrs. Adams’s, coupled with the facts that a parallel column from which we have no report was traveling up the south side of the river, and that the outbreak of cholera had taken place originally in this column coming from the southeast, fully confirms the estimate of five thousand deaths on the Plains in 1852. It is probably under rather than over the actual number. To the emigrants the fact that all the graves were new-made brought an added touch of sadness. The graves of previous years had disappeared, leveled by the storms of wind or rain, by the hoofs of the stock, or possibly by ravages of the hungry wolf. Many believed that the Indians had robbed the graves for the clothing on the bodies. Whatever the cause, all, or nearly all, graves of previous years were lost, and we…

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Excerpt #4, from The 1992 CIA World Factbook, by United States. Central Intelligence Agency

…Leaders: Chief of State: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952) Head of Government: Governor A. N. HOOLE Political parties and leaders: Saint Helena Labor Party, leader NA; Saint Helena Progressive Party, leader NA; note - both political parties inactive since 1976 Suffrage: NA Elections: Legislative Council: last held October 1984 (next to be held NA); results - percent of vote by party NA; seats - (15 total, 12 elected) number of seats by party NA Member of: ICFTU Diplomatic representation: none (dependent territory of the UK) Flag: blue with the flag of the UK in the upper hoist-side quadrant and the Saint Helenian shield centered on the outer half of the flag; the shield features…

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Excerpt #5, from Rilla of Ingleside, by L. M. Montgomery

…disorganized–the roads were completely choked up, the trains blockaded, and the telephone wires put entirely out of commission. “And then Jims took ill.”He had a little cold when father and mother went away, and he kept getting worse for a couple of days, but it didn’t occur to me that there was danger of anything serious. I never even took his temperature, and I can’t forgive myself, because it was sheer carelessness. The truth is I had slumped just then. Mother was away, so I let myself go. All at once I was tired of keeping up and pretending to be brave and cheerful, and I just gave up for a few days and spent most of the time lying on my face on my bed, crying. I neglected Jims–that is the hateful truth–I was cowardly and false to what I promised Walter–and if Jims had died I could never have forgiven myself. "Then, the third night after father and mother went away, Jims suddenly got worse–oh, so much worse–all at once. Susan and I were all alone. Gertrude had been at Lowbridge when the storm began and had never got back. At first we were not much alarmed. Jims has had several bouts of croup and Susan and Morgan and I have always brought him through without much trouble. But it wasn’t very long before we were dreadfully alarmed….

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Excerpt #6, from The American Diary of a Japanese Girl, by Yoné Noguchi

…“Go, Mr. Poet! Why don’t you mind your own business? You are butler to-day.” I spoke in rough sweetness, and drove him away. He began to place a linen cloth on the table, while I dipped up all the pepper. He picked up one dozen pebbles to weight the tablecloth. The first thing he put on the table was his claret bottle. How could he lose it from sight! When he said that everything was in place, he had forgotten the knives and forks. Dear old poet! We sat at the table under the wild rose bushes. Mr. Heine read aloud the following menu: “PERFUME OF OMAR’S ROSE WATER OF JORDAN RIVER MOTHER LOVE BROTH MEAT OF WISDOM POTATOES OF SIMPLICITY PASSION CARROT ONION OF WIT DREAM COFFEE. DESSERT TYPICAL TOKIO SMILE OF MISS MORNING GLORY.” My grandmamma was our guest. “Mother, you talk too much always. Remember, this is a sacred service….

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Excerpt #7, from Nonsense Novels, by Stephen Leacock

…the Husky, Edward the Earwig, Rollo the Rumbottle, and many others. In the meantime the Lady Isolde stood upon the battlements and mourned for the absent Guido. The love of Guido and Isolde was of that pure and almost divine type, found only in the middle ages. They had never seen one another. Guido had never seen Isolde, Isolde had never seen Guido. They had never heard one another speak. They had never been together. They did not know one another. Yet they loved. Their love had sprung into being suddenly and romantically, with all the mystic charm which is love’s greatest happiness. Years before, Guido had seen the name of Isolde the Slender painted on a fence. He had turned pale, fallen into a swoon and started at once for Jerusalem. On the very same day Isolde in passing through the streets of Ghent had seen the coat of arms of Guido hanging on a clothes line. She had fallen back into the arms of her tire-women more dead than alive. Since that day they had loved. Isolde would wander forth from the castle at earliest morn, with the…

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Excerpt #8, from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete, by Michel de Montaigne

…in his house, and in his ordinary actions, for which we are accountable to none, and where there is no study nor artifice. And therefore Bias, setting forth the excellent state of a private family, says: “of which a the master is the same within, by his own virtue and temper, that he is abroad, for fear of the laws and report of men.” And it was a worthy saying of Julius Drusus, to the masons who offered him, for three thousand crowns, to put his house in such a posture that his neighbours should no longer have the same inspection into it as before; “I will give you,” said he, “six thousand to make it so that everybody may see into every room.” ‘Tis honourably recorded of Agesilaus, that he used in his journeys always to take up his lodgings in temples, to the end that the people and the gods themselves might pry into his most private actions. Such a one has been a miracle to the world, in whom neither his wife nor servant has ever seen anything so much as remarkable; few men have been admired by their own domestics; no one was ever a prophet, not merely in his own house, but in his own country, says the experience of histories: –[No man is a hero to his valet-de-chambre, said Marshal Catinat]–‘tis the same in things of nought, and in this low example the image of a greater is to be seen. In my country of Gascony, they look upon it as a drollery to see me in print; the further off I am read from my own home, the better I am esteemed. I purchase printers in Guienne; elsewhere they…

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Excerpt #9, from A Parody Outline of History, by Donald Ogden Stewart

…Brittish tirrany & give me liberty or give me death but if you was to ast me Ethen I would say give me back that house & barn what those lousie redcotes burnt & when this excitement is all over what I want to know is Ethen where do I get off at. Yrs Ed. Chapter Six THE WHISKY REBELLION. In the Bedtime Story Manner of Thornton W. Burgess “Just the DAY for a Whisky Rebellion,” said Aunt Polly and off she ran, lipperty-lipperty-lip, to get a few shooting rifles. “Oh goody goody,” cried little Emily. “Now we can all shoot at those horrid Revenue Officers,” for the collectors of internal revenue were far from popular with these kindly Pennsylvania folk and Aunt Polly Pinkwood had often promised the children that if they were good some day they would be allowed to take a shot at a Revenue Officer. Soon she returned, bearing in her arms a number of bright shiny new guns. The children crowded around in glee and soon all were supplied with weapons except little Frank who of course was too young to use a gun and was given a two-gallon jug of nice, old whisky to carry. Jed hitched up old Taylor, the faithful farm horse, and as quick as you could say Jack Robinson the little ones had piled into the old carryall. Round Mr. Sun was just peeping over the Purple Hills when the merry…

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Excerpt #10, from Old Greek Stories, by James Baldwin

…the crater of a burning mountain, to take a lump of clay which he gave him, and mold it into the form of a woman. Vulcan did as he was bidden; and when he had finished the image, he carried it up to Jupiter, who was sitting among the clouds with all the Mighty Folk around him. It was nothing but a mere lifeless body, but the great blacksmith had given it a form more perfect than that of any statue that has ever been made. “Come now!” said Jupiter, “let us all give some goodly gift to this woman;” and he began by giving her life. Then the others came in their turn, each with a gift for the marvelous creature. One gave her beauty; and another a pleasant voice; and another good manners; and another a kind heart; and another skill in many arts; and, lastly, some one gave her curiosity. Then they called her Pandora, which means the all-gifted, because she had received gifts from them all. Pandora was so beautiful and so wondrously gifted that no one could help loving her. When the Mighty Folk had admired her for a time, they gave her to Mercury, the light-footed; and he led her down the mountain side to the place where Prometheus and his brother were living and toiling for the good of mankind. He met Epimetheus first, and said to him: “Epimetheus, here is a beautiful woman, whom Jupiter has sent to you to be your wife.”…

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Excerpt #11, from Principles of Geology, by Sir Charles Lyell

…proposed for the origin of Monte Nuovo, Von Buch supposes that the present cone of Vesuvius was formed in the year 79, not by eruption, but by upheaval. It was not produced by the repeated superposition of scoriæ and lava cast out or flowing from a central source, but by the uplifting of strata previously horizontal. The entire cone rose at once, such as we now see it, from the interior and middle of Somma, and has since received no accession of height, but, on the contrary, has ever since been diminishing in elevation.[529] Although I consider this hypothesis of Von Buch to be quite untenable, I may mention some facts which may at first sight seem to favor it. These are recorded by M. Abich in his account of the Vesuvian eruptions of 1833 and 1834, a work illustrated by excellent engravings of the volcanic phenomena which he witnessed.[530] It appears that, in the year 1834, the great crater of Vesuvius had been filled up nearly to the top with lava, which had consolidated and formed a level and unbroken plain, except that a small cone thrown up by the ejection of scoriæ rose in the middle of it like an island in a lake. At length this plain of lava was broken by a fissure which passed from N. E. to S. W., and along this line a great number of minute cones emitting vapor were formed. The first act of formation of these minor cones is said to have consisted of a partial upheaval of beds of lava previously horizontal, and which had…

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Excerpt #12, from Clairvoyance and Occult Powers, by William Walker Atkinson

…successes on the first attempt, fifty-six on the second, nineteen on the third–MAKING TWO HUNDRED AND TWO, OUT OF A POSSIBLE THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-TWO!" Think of this, while the law of averages called for only seven and one-third successes at first trial, the children obtained one hundred and twenty-seven, which, given a second and third trial, they raised to two hundred and two! You see, this takes the matter entirely out of the possibility of coincidence or mathematical probability. But this was not all. Listen to the further report of the committee on this point: “The following was the result of one of the series. The thing selected was divulged to none of the family, and five cards running were named correctly on a first trial. The odds against this happening once in a series were considerably over a million to one. There were other similar batches, the two longest runs being eight consecutive guesses, once with cards, and once with names; where the adverse odds in the former case were over one hundred and forty-two millions to one; and in the other, something incalculably greater.” The opinion of eminent mathematicians who have examined the above results is that the hypothesis of mere coincidence is practically excluded in the scientific consideration of the matter. The committee calls special attention to the fact that in many of the most important tests none of the Creery family were cognizant of the object selected, and that, therefore, the hypothesis of fraud or collusion is…

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