Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:25:50

Excerpt #1, from The Sky Detectives; Or, How Jack Ralston Got His Man, by Ambrose Newcomb

…telling us to get busy and pick up a strong clue that, if followed up, would take us straight to that hideout Slim’s got across in Mexico.” “Guess I see what you mean now, brother,” ventured Perk, his face lighting up with extreme joy; for he felt they were already on the track, and that from that hour there must be rapid action continuously. “If so be that ’ere critter that slams out these bills on greenhorns and come-ons is gettin’ anxious to see what sorter prize he’s drawn in the lottery, why, he might jest come along any ol’ time now, since the storm’s over an’ there’s nawthin’ to hold him up. Got any idea he’s nigh due here, partner?” “Shouldn’t be a bit surprised if he walked in on us any time,” ventured Jack; and then, seeing the puzzled look on his chum’s rugged face he went on to add: “I didn’t mention the fact but while we were making our way over from the ship I felt certain I glimpsed several far-off lights, as if they might be in windows of cabins or houses of some sort. Then, too, I surely did hear a big dog barking, and something like a rooster crowing.” “Well, I’ll be jiggered if you ain’t got sharper ears than I c’n boast, Jack, ol’ hoss, which ain’t no lie either.” “Don’t you believe it, Perk; it just happened that you were so wrapped up in thinking of that coffee treat you didn’t pay as much attention to…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #2, from Sailors Narratives of Voyages Along the New England Coast, 1524

…fifteene cods, some the greatest that I have seene, and so we rode all night. The sixteenth, in the morning, it cleered up, and we had sight of five islands ♦Eastern Maine♦ lying north, and north and by west from us, two leagues. Then wee made ready to set sayle, but the myst came so thicke that we durst not enter in among them. The seventeenth, was all mystie, so that we could not get into the harbour. At ten of the clocke two boats came off to us, with sixe of the savages of the countrey, seeming glad of our comming. We gave them trifles, and they eate and dranke with us; and told us that there were gold, silver and copper mynes hard by us; and that the French-men doe trade with them; which is very likely, for one of them spake some words of French. So wee rode still all day and all night, the weather continuing mystie. The eighteenth, faire weather, wee went into a very good harbour, and rode hard by the shoare in foure fathoms water. The river runneth up a great way, ♦Penobscot♦ but there is but two fathoms hard by us. We went on shoare and cut us a fore mast; then at noone we came aboord againe, and found the height of the place to bee in 44 degrees, 1 minute, and the sunne to fall at a south south-west sunne. We mended our sayles, and fell to make our fore-mast. The harbour…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #3, from The Odyssey, by Homer

…the armour that is in the house and hide it in the strong store room. Make some excuse when the suitors ask you why you are removing it; say that you have taken it to be out of the way of the smoke, inasmuch as it is no longer what it was when Ulysses went away, but has become soiled and begrimed with soot. Add to this more particularly that you are afraid Jove may set them on to quarrel over their wine, and that they may do each other some harm which may disgrace both banquet and wooing, for the sight of arms sometimes tempts people to use them. But leave a sword and a spear apiece for yourself and me, and a couple of oxhide shields so that we can snatch them up at any moment; Jove and Minerva will then soon quiet these people. There is also another matter; if you are indeed my son and my blood runs in your veins, let no one know that Ulysses is within the house—neither Laertes, nor yet the swineherd, nor any of the servants, nor even Penelope herself. Let you and me exploit the women alone, and let us also make trial of some other of the men servants, to see who is on our side and whose hand is against us.” “Father,” replied Telemachus, “you will come to know me by and by, and when you do you will find that I can keep your counsel. I do not think, however, the plan you propose will turn out well for either of us. Think it over. It will take us a long time to go the round of the farms…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #4, from Roughing It in the Bush, by Susanna Moodie

…Indian. Indian must learn your words to swear and take God’s name in vain.” Oh, what a reproof to Christian men! I felt abashed, and degraded in the eyes of this poor savage–who, ignorant as he was in many respects, yet possessed that first great attribute of the soul, a deep reverence for the Supreme Being. How inferior were thousands of my countrymen to him in this important point. The affection of Indian parents to their children, and the deference which they pay to the aged, is another beautiful and touching trait in their character. One extremely cold, wintry day, as I was huddled with my little ones over the stove, the door softly unclosed, and the moccasined foot of an Indian crossed the floor. I raised my head, for I was too much accustomed to their sudden appearance at any hour to feel alarmed, and perceived a tall woman standing silently and respectfully before me, wrapped in a large blanket. The moment she caught my eye she dropped the folds of her covering from around her, and laid at my feet the attenuated figure of a boy, about twelve years of age, who was in the last stage of consumption. “Papouse die,” she said, mournfully clasping her hands against her breast, and looking down upon the suffering lad with the most…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #5, from Investigation of Communist activities in Seattle, Wash., area. Hearings, Part 3

…labor’s rights, and so on. I wrote the letter at that time. Mr. SCHERER. Was what you said in 1937 true about the Daily Worker? Mr. O’CONNELL. That was written in 1937. Mr. SCHERER. 1937. It surely has changed since I became acquainted with it. I have just been reading the account of some of the hearings we had in Newark a couple of weeks ago. Mr. O’CONNELL. A lot of things have changed since 1937. Mr. SCHERER. I said if what you stated in 1937 was true about it, the paper surely has changed since my acquaintance with it. Mr. O’CONNELL. You will remember that was the period in which the CIO was beginning to organize and there was considerable, we had the little steel strike, we had Memorial Day massacre at Republic Steel near Chicago; there were many things happening in the labor situation at that time, and in my opinion the Daily Worker covered them better and did a better job than any other paper I knew of. Mr. TAVENNER. You knew of course that the Daily Worker was the official organ of the Communist Party, and that it was required to be read by all Communist Party members in order to ascertain the directives that were being issued by the Communist Party. Mr. O’CONNELL. I knew that it was the organ of the Communist…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #6, from An Introduction to the History of Science, by Walter Libby

…(great-grandfather of the scientist Wollaston) so roused Franklin’s opposition that he wrote a reply, which he printed in pamphlet form before leaving London in 1726, and the composition of which he afterwards regretted. He returned to Philadelphia in the employ of a Quaker merchant, on whose death he resumed work as printer under his former employer. He was given control of the office, undertook to make his own type, contrived a copper-plate press, the first in America, and printed paper money for New Jersey. The substance of some lectures in defense of Christianity, in courses endowed by the will of Robert Boyle, made Franklin a Deist. At the same time his views on moral questions were clarified, and he came to recognize that truth, sincerity, and integrity were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life. What he had attained by his own independent thought rendered him ultimately more careful rather than more reckless. He now set value on his own character, and resolved to preserve it. In 1727, still only twenty-one, he drew together a number of young men in a sort of club, called the “Junto,” for mutual benefit in business and for the discussion of morals, politics, and natural philosophy. They professed tolerance, benevolence, love of truth. They discussed the effect on business of the issue of paper money, various natural…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #7, from The Story of King Arthur and his Knights, by Howard Pyle

…Accalon of Gaul and I am knight in good worship of King Arthur’s Court.” But when King Arthur heard this he made great outcry and he said, “How is this? Know you who I am?” And Sir Accalon said, “Nay, I know you not.” Then King Arthur said, “I am King Arthur who am thy master.” And upon this he took off his helmet and Sir Accalon knew him. And when Sir Accalon beheld King Arthur he swooned away and lay like one dead upon the ground, and King Arthur said, “Take him hence.” Then when those who were there were aware who King Arthur was, they burst over the barriers and ran toward him with great outcry of pity. And King Arthur would have left this place but upon that he also swooned away because of the great issue of blood that had come from him, wherefore all those who were round about took great sorrow, thinking that he was dying, wherefore they bewailed themselves without stint. Then came Vivien out into that field and she said, “Let me have him, for I believe that I shall be able to cure his hurts.” So she commanded that two litters should be brought and she placed King Arthur in one of the litters and she placed Sir Accalon in the other, and she bore them both away to a priory of nuns that was at no great distance from that place. [Sidenote: Vivien healeth King Arthur.] So when Vivien had come there she searched the wounds of King Arthur and bathed them with a very precious balsam, so that they immediately began…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #8, from In the Sargasso Sea, by Thomas A. Janvier

…that it’s dancin’ a jig every time she pitches, and everything at rags an’ tatters of loose ends." “But the doctor?” I asked. “He says himself, sir, that he’s not dangerous, and I s’pose he ought to know. Th’ captain an’ th’ purser together, he orderin’ ‘em, have set his leg for him; and his head, he says, ’ll take care of itself, bein’ both thick an’ hard. But he’s worryin’ painful because he can’t look after you, sir, an’ th’ four or five others that got hurt in th’ storm. And I can tell you, sir,” the man went on, “that all th’ ship’s company, an’ th’ passengers on top of ‘em, are sick with sorrow that this has happened to him; for there’s not a soul ever comes near th’ doctor but loves him for his goodness, and we’d all be glad to break our own legs this minute if by that we could be mendin’ his!” The steward spoke very feelingly and earnestly, and with what he said I was in thorough sympathy; for the doctor’s care of me and his friendliness had won my heart to him, just as it had won to him the hearts of all on board. But there was comfort in knowing that he had got off with only a broken leg and a broken head from a peril that so easily might have been the death of him, and of that consolation I made the most–while the steward, who was a handy fellow and pretty well trained as a surgeon’s assistant, freshly bandaged my head for me…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #9, from A Short History of the World, by H. G. Wells

…Fourth Glacial Age, there lived a creature on earth so like a man that until a few years ago its remains were considered to be altogether human. We have skulls and bones of it and a great accumulation of the large implements it made and used. It made fires. It sheltered in caves from the cold. It probably dressed skins roughly and wore them. It was right-handed as men are. Yet now the ethnologists tell us these creatures were not true men. They were of a different species of the same genus. They had heavy protruding jaws and great brow ridges above the eyes and very low foreheads. Their thumbs were not opposable to the fingers as men’s are; their necks were so poised that they could not turn back their heads and look up to the sky. They probably slouched along, head down and forward. Their chinless jaw-bones resemble the Heidelberg jaw-bone and are markedly unlike human jaw-bones. And there were great differences from the human pattern in their teeth. Their cheek teeth were more complicated in structure than ours, more complicated and not less so; they had not the long fangs of our cheek teeth; and also these quasi-men had not the marked canines (dog teeth) of an ordinary human being. The capacity of their skulls was quite human, but the brain was bigger behind and lower in front than the human brain. Their intellectual faculties were differently arranged. They were not…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #10, from Radio Active Substances, by Marie Curie

…quantity of pure radium chloride, with which we provided him. According to M. Kaufmann’s experiments, certain β-rays of radium possess a velocity very near to that of light. These rapid rays seem to possess great penetrating capacity towards matter. Action of the Magnetic Field upon the α-Rays. In a recent work, Mr. Rutherford announced that, in a powerful electric or magnetic field, the α-rays of radium are slightly deflected, in the manner of particles positively electrified and possessing great velocity. Mr. Rutherford concludes from his experiments that the velocity of the α-rays is of the order of magnitude 2·5 × 10^9c.m./sec. and that the ratio e/m for these rays is of the order of magnitude 6 × 10^3, which is 10^4 times as great as for the deflected β-rays. We shall see later that these conclusions of Mr. Rutherford are in agreement with the properties already known of the α-radiation, and that they account, in part at least, for the law of absorption of this radiation. The experiments of Mr. Rutherford have been confirmed by M. Becquerel. M. Becquerel has further demonstrated that polonium rays behave in a magnetic field like the α-rays of radium, and that, for the same field, they seem to have the same curvature as the latter. It also appears from M. Becquerel’s experiments that the α-rays do not…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #11, from The Jest Book, by Mark Lemon

…A PHYSICIAN of an acrimonious disposition, and having a thorough hatred of lawyers, reproached a barrister with the use of phrases utterly unintelligible. “For example,” said he, “I never could understand what you lawyers mean by docking an entail.”–“That is very likely,” answered the lawyer, “but I will explain it to you: it is doing what you doctors never consent to,–suffering a recovery.” CCCXCVIII.–RECRUITING SERJEANT AND COUNTRYMAN. A RECRUITING serjeant addressing an honest country bumpkin with,–“Come, my lad, thou’lt fight for thy King, won’t thou?”–“Voight for my King,” answered Hodge, “why, has he fawn out wi’ ony body?” CCCXCIX.–AN ANECDOTE. E–D–N was asked by one of note, Why merit he did not promote; “For this good reason,” answered he, “’Cause merit ne’er promoted me.” CD.–DIDO. OF this tragedy, the production of Joseph Reed, author of the “Register Office,” Mr. Nicholls, in his “Literary Anecdotes,” gives some curious particulars. He also relates an anecdote of Johnson concerning it: "It happened that I was in Bolt Court on the day that Henderson, the justly celebrated actor, was first introduced to Dr. Johnson: and the…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

Excerpt #12, from The Fifth Ace, by Isabel Ostrander

…Mr. Wiley is a friend and I will see him—-" “Not here, you won’t!” growled Jim. “He’s gone.” The girl wheeled upon him, her face darkening. “Gone where?” she demanded. “What do you mean, Jim?” “How should I know where?” The hotel-keeper shrugged. “His hacienda is shut up tight, except for the caretaker. Reckon he’s gone home for good. It wasn’t none too healthy for him around here.” Billie rose and stumbled to the window. Across the plaza beyond the flower-market, the Blue Chip could be discerned in an unfamiliar aspect of transformation. Scaffolding had been erected against its walls and their cerulean expanse was being rapidly hidden beneath a coating of brick red. Her eyes blurred for a moment, then a swift hardness came into them and her small fists clenched at her sides. “We will not discuss the matter of your inheritance, further, for the moment.” The lawyer’s voice, smooth as oil, came from just behind her. “You will listen to reason, I know, when you have had time for consideration. Mr. Baggott, here, will agree with me that you must accept the conditions of your grandfather’s will—-” “Mr. Baggott will do nothing of the kind,” vociferated that gentleman, suddenly. "I’ve listened to all you had to say, and kept my mouth shet, but since you’re bringing me into this, you might as well know…

More: Read or Listen on IA →

A production of Friendlyskies.net