Colonel Calhoun, a grandson of the statesman, went to Boston and formed a syndicate which purchased a large tract of land on the river, in Chicot County, Arkansas—some ten thousand acres—for cotton-growing.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

It seems quite possible that people with unusually keen eyesight may occasionally catch a glimpse of this strange Other-World about us.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

But as the curtain rises on this awful tragedy, we catch a glimpse of the society at the capital under this Administration, which we cannot contemplate without alarm for the fate of the Republic.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Charles Dudley Warner

The prudence of the greatest poet answers at last the craving and glut of the soul, puts off nothing, permits no let-up for its own case or any case, has no particular sabbath or judgment day, divides not the living from the dead, or the righteous from the unrighteous, is satisfied with the present, matches every thought or act by its correlative, and knows no possible forgiveness or deputed atonement.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

When any dreadful murder, colliery explosion, or frightful railway accident has happened in a country district, three or four chaunters are generally on the spot in a day or two after the occurrence, vending and bawling “ A True and Faithful Account ,” &c., which “true and faithful account” was concocted purely in the imaginations of the successors of Catnach and Tommy Pitts, 58 behind the counters of their printing shops in Seven Dials.
— from A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James. by John Camden Hotten

It was a chronicle of the comings and goings of the savants
— from All About Coffee by William H. (William Harrison) Ukers

My name, the name of Bonaparte, will be inscribed on two pages of the history of France: on the first there will be crime and glory, on the second probity and honor.
— from The History of a Crime The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Victor Hugo

But, as I propose to devote a letter entirely to the pleasure of retracing to you all the particulars of my acquaintance with this ever, to me, memorable friend, I shall, in this, transiently touch on no more than may serve, as mortar, to cement, or form the connection of my history, and to obviate your surprise that one of my blood and relish of life, should count a gallant of three score such a catch.
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) by John Cleland

The mistresses of these three great poets were coquettes, faithless and venal women; in their company the poets only sought physical pleasure, and never, I should think, caught a glimpse of the sublime sentiments [2] which, thirteen centuries later, stirred the heart of the gentle Héloïse.
— from On Love by Stendhal

The doomed sufferer submitted to his fate, resumed his former loathsome affection for the bosom fiend, and spent whole miserable days before a looking-glass, with his mouth wide open, watching, in hope and horror, to catch a glimpse of the snake's head far down within his throat.
— from Mosses from an Old Manse, and Other Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The first, and as we think the most simple method, is, to collect in one body an infinite number of resembling organic bodies, and so to compose its substance, that there is not a part of it which does not contain a germ of the same species, and which consequently of itself might become a whole, resembling that of which it constitutes a part.
— from Buffon's Natural History, Volume 02 (of 10) Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Mineral, &c. &c by Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de

Using his scarf, he washed the blood from the wound, and found it to be merely a cut, a groove, on the surface.
— from The Rainbow Trail by Zane Grey

It was just as the sun peeped above the distant horizon on the morning of January 25th that we first caught a glimpse of the shores of Elephant Island, lying just off the coast of Ceylon, and at ten o'clock the shores of the island of Ceylon itself were full in sight.
— from A Ball Player's Career Being the Personal Experiences and Reminiscensces of Adrian C. Anson by Adrian Constantine Anson

Long ringlets flowed loosely over his shoulders, trimmed and highly perfumed; his beard likewise was curling and giving out the scents of Araby.
— from Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer by G. Moxley (Gilbert Moxley) Sorrel

The voice was familiar and Tom leaned forward until he caught a glimpse of the speaker’s face.
— from Catcher Craig by Christy Mathewson

They reached the second floor and ran around the octagonal railing, through which Sally caught a glimpse of the statue of Elijah Wilson, far below, and on to the third floor.
— from The Hospital Murders by Means Davis

Thea Leigh, watching unobtrusively, had caught a glimpse of the strange dual influence at work in him.
— from Far to Seek A Romance of England and India by Maud Diver

His keen eye caught a glimpse of the saddle as Swift Arrow sped past!
— from The Brand: A Tale of the Flathead Reservation by Therese Broderick

For only at intervals could a glimpse of the sky be seen, while as they penetrated farther, the walls, which almost exactly matched in curve, angle and depression, came nearer together, and the place darkened.
— from The Crystal Hunters: A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps by George Manville Fenn

He had suffered somewhat from the change of diet; and now that his third B was thus suddenly, unexpectedly, and hopelessly wrenched from him, he sat himself down on the beach beside Cuffy, and gazed out to sea in absolute despair.
— from Jarwin and Cuffy by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne