Quick Excerpts, from a Library of 492 Titles

Generated 2022-07-28 13:26:20

Excerpt #1, from Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, by John Wesley Powell

…met here in 1804 by Lewis and Clarke. On the northeast Salish territory extended to about the fifty-third parallel. In the northwest it did not reach the Chilcat River. Within the territory thus indicated there is considerable diversity of customs and a greater diversity of language. The language is split into a great number of dialects, many of which are doubtless mutually unintelligible. The relationship of this family to the Wakashan is a very interesting problem. Evidences of radical affinity have been discovered by Boas and Gatschet, and the careful study of their nature and extent now being prosecuted by the former may result in the union of the two, though until recently they have been considered quite distinct. PRINCIPAL TRIBES. Atnah. Pentlatc. Skitsuish. Bellacoola. Pisquow. Skokomish. Chehalis. Puyallup. Skopamish. Clallam. Quaitso. Sktehlmish. Colville. Queniut. Smulkamish. Comux. Queptlmamish. Snohomish. Copalis. Sacumehu. Snoqualmi. Cowichin. Sahewamish. Soke….

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Excerpt #2, from The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance, by H. G. Wells

…the grass by the forge were three yellow and chocolate waggons and some picturesque strangers of both sexes putting up a cocoanut shy. The gentlemen wore blue jerseys, the ladies white aprons and quite fashionable hats with heavy plumes. Wodger, of the “Purple Fawn,” and Mr. Jaggers, the cobbler, who also sold old second-hand ordinary bicycles, were stretching a string of union-jacks and royal ensigns (which had originally celebrated the first Victorian Jubilee) across the road. And inside, in the artificial darkness of the parlour, into which only one thin jet of sunlight penetrated, the stranger, hungry we must suppose, and fearful, hidden in his uncomfortable hot wrappings, pored through his dark glasses upon his paper or chinked his dirty little bottles, and occasionally swore savagely at the boys, audible if invisible, outside the windows. In the corner by the fireplace lay the fragments of half a dozen smashed bottles, and a pungent twang of chlorine tainted the air. So much we know from what was heard at the time and from what was subsequently seen in the room. About noon he suddenly opened his parlour door and stood glaring fixedly at the three or four people in the bar. “Mrs. Hall,” he said. Somebody went sheepishly and called for Mrs. Hall. Mrs. Hall appeared after an interval, a little short of breath, but all…

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Excerpt #3, from Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens

…her way. Suddenly she arose; and hurrying on, in a direction quite opposite to that in which Sikes was awaiting her returned, quickened her pace, until it gradually resolved into a violent run. After completely exhausting herself, she stopped to take breath: and, as if suddenly recollecting herself, and deploring her inability to do something she was bent upon, wrung her hands, and burst into tears. It might be that her tears relieved her, or that she felt the full hopelessness of her condition; but she turned back; and hurrying with nearly as great rapidity in the contrary direction; partly to recover lost time, and partly to keep pace with the violent current of her own thoughts: soon reached the dwelling where she had left the housebreaker. If she betrayed any agitation, when she presented herself to Mr. Sikes, he did not observe it; for merely inquiring if she had brought the money, and receiving a reply in the affirmative, he uttered a growl of satisfaction, and replacing his head upon the pillow, resumed the slumbers which her arrival had interrupted. It was fortunate for her that the possession of money occasioned him so much employment next day in the way of eating and drinking; and withal had so beneficial an effect in smoothing down the asperities of his temper; that he had neither time nor inclination to be very critical…

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Excerpt #4, from The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing, by Joseph Triemens

…You cannot lawfully condone an offence by receiving back stolen property, The exemption of females from arrest applies only in civil, not in criminal matters. Every man is bound to obey the call of a sheriff for assistance in making an arrest. The rule “Every man’s house is his castle” does not hold good when a man is accused of crime. Embezzlement can be charged only against a clerk or servant, or the officer or agent of a corporation. Bigamy cannot be proven in law if one party to a marriage has been absent and not heard from for five years. Grand larceny is when the value of property stolen exceeds $25.00–When less than that, the offence is petit larceny. Arson to be in the first degree must have been committed at night and the buildings fired must have been inhabited. Drunkenness is not a legal excuse for crime, but delirium tremens is considered by the law as a species of insanity. In a case of assault it is only necessary to prove an “offer or attempt at assault.” Battery presumes physical violence….

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Excerpt #5, from Astounding Stories, May, 1931, by Various

…gently lowered to the ground again. While one tentacle still held him securely, another tore away his hood and tunic. Almost immediately the hood was replaced by one of the protective white globe devices. Dixon blinked for a moment in half-blinded bewilderment as he got his first glimpse of the Earth-camp of the Centaurians. * * * * * The place, located on the smooth rock floor of a large natural basin, seemed a veritable cauldron of seething colors which rippled and blended in a dazzling maze of unearthly splendor. But Dixon forgot everything else in that weird camp as his startled gaze fell upon the creature standing directly in front of him. He knew instinctively that the thing must be one of the Alpha Centaurians, for in its alien grotesqueness the figure was utterly dissimilar to anything ever seen upon Earth before. Life upon the shattered planet of that far distant sun had apparently sprung from sources both crustacean and reptilian. The Centaurian stood barely five feet in height. Its bulky, box-like body was completely covered with a chitinous armor that gleamed pale yellowish green. Two short powerful legs, scaled like those of a lizard, ended in feet…

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Excerpt #6, from The Busy Life of Eighty Five Years of Ezra Meeker, by Ezra Meeker

…joined to accomplish anything by force outside the pale of the law, but when that sheriff put in an appearance, and we realized what it meant, there wasn’t a man in our party that did not run for his gun to the nearby camp, and it is needless to add that we did not need to use them. As if by magic a hundred guns were in sight. The sheriff withdrew, and the crossing went peaceably on till all our wagons were safely landed. But we had another danger to face; we learned that there would be an attempt made to take the boat from us, not as against us, but as against the owner, and but for the adroit management of McAuley and my brother Oliver (who had joined us) we would have been unable to fulfill our engagements with the owner. CHAPTER VI. OUT ON THE PLAINS. When we stepped foot upon the right bank of the Missouri River we were outside the pale of civil law. We were within the Indian country where no organized civil government existed. Some people and some writers have assumed that each man was “a law unto himself” and free to do his own will, dependent, of course, upon his physical ability to enforce it. Nothing could be further from the facts than this assumption, as evil-doers soon found out to their discomfort. No general organization for law and order was effected, but the American instinct for fair…

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Excerpt #7, from Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich, by Stephen Leacock

…over everybody. Some people sought it at the seaside, where nature had thrown out her broad plank walks and her long piers and her vaudeville shows. Others sought it in the heart of the country, where nature had spread her oiled motor roads and her wayside inns. Others, like the Newberrys, preferred to “rough it” in country residences of their own. Some of the people, as already said, went for business reasons, to avoid the suspicion of having to work all the year round. Others went to Europe to avoid the reproach of living always in America. Others, perhaps most people, went for medical reasons, being sent away by their doctors. Not that they were ill; but the doctors of Plutoria Avenue, such as Doctor Slyder, always preferred to send all their patients out of town during the summer months. No well-to-do doctor cares to be bothered with them. And of course patients, even when they are anxious to go anywhere on their own account, much prefer to be sent there by their doctor. “My dear madam,” Dr. Slyder would say to a lady who, as he knew, was most anxious to go to Virginia, “there’s really nothing I can do for you.” Here he spoke the truth. “It’s not a case of treatment. It’s simply a matter of dropping everything and going away. Now why don’t you go for a month or two to some quiet place, where you will simply do nothing?” (She never, as he knew, did anything, anyway.) "What do…

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Excerpt #8, 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 #9, from Comic History of the United States, by Bill Nye

…Thus opened the Revolutionary War,–a contest which but for the earnestness and irritability of the Americans would have been extremely brief. It showed the relative difference between the fighting qualities of soldiers who fight for two pounds ten shillings per month and those who fight because they have lost their temper. The regulars destroyed the stores, but on the way home they found every rock-pile hid an old-fashioned gun and minute-man. This shows that there must have been an enormous number of minute-men then. All the English who got back to Boston were those who went out to reinforce the original command. The news went over the country like wildfire. These are the words of the historian. Really, that is a poor comparison, for wildfire doesn’t jump rivers and bays, or get up and eat breakfast by candle-light in order to be on the road and spread the news. General Putnam left a pair of tired steers standing in the furrow, and rode one hundred miles without feed or water to Boston. Twenty thousand men were soon at work building intrenchments around Boston, so that the English troops could not get out to the suburbs where many of them resided. [Illustration: GENERAL PUTNAM LEAVING A PAIR OF TIRED STEERS.] I will now speak of the battle of Bunker Hill….

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Excerpt #10, from Japanese Literature, by Epiphanius Wilson

…Tô-no-Chiûjiô. “I have only just now discovered,” continued he, “how difficult it is to meet with a fair creature, of whom one can say, ‘This is, indeed, the one; here is, at last, perfection.’ There are, indeed, many who fascinate; many who are ready with their pens, and who, when occasion may require, are quick at repartee. But how often such girls as these are conceited about their own accomplishments, and endeavor unduly to disparage those of others! There are again some who are special pets of their parents, and most jealously watched over at home. Often, no doubt, they are pretty, often graceful; and frequently they will apply themselves with effect to music and to poetry, in which they may even attain to special excellence. But then, their friends will keep their drawbacks in the dark, and eulogize their merits to the utmost. If we were to give full credence to this exaggerated praise, we could not but fail in every single instance to be more or less disappointed.” So saying Tô-no-Chiûjiô paused, and appeared as if he were ashamed of having such an experience, when Genji smilingly remarked, “Can any one of them, however, exist without at least one good point?” “Nay, were there any so little favored as that, no one would ever be misled at all!” replied Tô-no-Chiûjiô, and he continued, "In my opinion, the most and the least favored are in the same proportion. I…

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Excerpt #11, from A Border Ruffian, by Thomas A. Janvier

…everything that the present occasion required. He seemed to have been sent from heaven direct. In twenty minutes Mr. Smith was asking for him at his hotel. “Mr. Livingstone? Mr. Livingstone is out.” “Did he leave any word as to when he would come in?” “Yes, sir. He said that a gentleman might call, and to say that he certainly would be back at six, and would not go out again to-night.” Mr. Smith looked at his watch–it was 5:30. Had there been any uncertainty as to Livingstone’s return, he would have waited. But it was clear that he was coming back to dine at his hotel, and to spend the evening there. A note, therefore, could be trusted to do the business, and by writing, instead of waiting, Mr. Smith would save half an hour; moreover, if he waited, he would not have time to make the mayonnaise. Probably it is only in Philadelphia that it ever occurs nowadays to the master of a feast to dress the salad; which, doubtless, is the reason why a better salad is served at certain dinner-tables in Philadelphia than at any other dinner-tables in the whole world. The thought of the mayonnaise settled the matter. Mr. Smith hastily wrote an account of the trying situation, and concluded his note with a solemn demand upon “dear old Van” to fill the vacant place, “in the holy name of the class of ’68, and for love of your old classmate, R. Smith.”…

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Excerpt #12, from The Voyage of the “Deutschland”, by Paul König

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