Leaving Limasaua the fleet sailed for Cebu, passing several large islands, among them Bohol, and reaching Cebu harbor on Sunday, the 7th of April.
— from A History of the Philippines by David P. Barrows

In the case of a theatre on fire, or in a runaway carriage, he (or she) who has the presence of mind to sit still, has the best chance of saving his (or her) life.
— from Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 683 January 27, 1877 by Various

As he spoke Martin pointed to one of the solitary and rudely constructed huts or sheds which the natives of the banks of the Amazon sometimes erect during the dry season, and forsake when the river overflows its banks.
— from Martin Rattler by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

The east window of St. Catherine's chapel is composed of fragments fitted together at random; in the upper lights of the south window are rather coarse heads of St. Aldhelm, St. Erkenwald, and other saints: two of them should be noticed for the early form of papal tiara.
— from Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Wells A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See by Percy Dearmer

The letter in question was written in a remarkably cramped hand, on several very dirty sheets of blue ruled foolscap, folded with much care and crookedness, and fastened with a red wafer which bore the distinct impression of an extremely hard knuckle.
— from Over the Rocky Mountains: Wandering Will in the Land of the Redskin by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

If I recollect correctly, his exact words were, 'Young Farrell possesses great sartorial possibilities now in a state of gradual but progressive development, his innate refinement of taste being at the present time slightly obscured and handicapped by a provincial anarchism of selection due to youth's inevitable cheerfulness in the choice of color, and rather crude harmonizing of shade.'
— from Tom Moore: An Unhistorical Romance Founded on Certain Happenings in the Life of Ireland's Greatest Poet by Theodore Burt Sayre

But it seemed quite unromantic and uninspiring to a girl who had just paid her first brief visit to the old world, an interval, moreover, that had been without a responsibility, cut her off so completely from her general life that when variously addressed "Mademoiselle," "Signorina," "Señorita," she ceased almost at once to feel either surprised or flattered.
— from The Sisters-In-Law: A Novel of Our Time by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

Steve leaped back with clenched hands and flashing eyes, but Harry stepped between, while Tom and Roy caught hold of Steve.
— from Left End Edwards by Ralph Henry Barbour