We made his mail-sack bed as comfortable as possible, and constructed a pillow for him with our coats.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

He loved his golden-eared Guernseys and his black Berkshires and his White Wyandottes—not because of their choiceness but because they were cows and pigs and chickens; and he kept a pair of pussy cats, half a dozen dogs, and as many horses, because man primitively had made friends of the dumb brutes upon whom the ease and safety of his life depended.
— from The Gay Cockade by Temple Bailey

I shut them with great care, and then drew the curtains, enormous velvet curtains, and placed a chair in front of them, so as to have nothing to fear from outside.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant

The Arcadian may stand as a type of the pure Grecian landsman, with his rustic and illiterate habits—his diet of sweet chestnuts, barley cakes, and pork (as contrasted with the fish which formed the chief seasoning for the bread of an Athenian)—his superior courage and endurance—his reverence for Lacedaemonian headship as an old and customary influence—his sterility of intellect and imagination as well as his slackness in enterprise—his unchangeable rudeness of relations with the gods, which led him to scourge and prick Pan if he came back empty-handed from the chase; while the inhabitant of Phokaea or Miletus exemplifies the Grecian mariner, eager in search of gain—active, skilful, and daring at sea, but inferior in steadfast bravery on land—more excitable in imagination as well as more mutable in character—full of pomp and expense in religious manifestations toward the Ephesian Artemis or the Apollo of Branchidae: with a mind more open to the varieties of Grecian energy and to the refining influences of Grecian civilization.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

And further (as we have shown at large elsewhere), many writers in prose and verse, though their natural powers were not high, were perhaps even low, and though the terms they employed were usually common and popular and conveying no 77 impression of refinement, by the mere harmony of their composition have attained dignity and elevation, and avoided the appearance of meanness.
— from On the Sublime by active 1st century Longinus

And at the feast of the Lupercalia 90 , when the consul Antony placed a crown upon his head in the rostra several times, he as often put it away, and sent it to the Capitol for Jupiter, the Best and the Greatest.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius

Upon the moss he laid them down, And watched beside the bed; Death gently came and placed a crown Upon each reverend head.
— from Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan by Toru Dutt

The missionaries here seem much divided, some of them blaming the missionaries over there, saying they will bring Christianity into disrepute everywhere in Japan, and some saying that it proves Christian teaching amounts to something and that it will have a good effect in improving conditions, leading to foreign criticism and publicity, and causing the Japanese to modify their colonial policy, which seems to be under military rather than civil control.
— from Letters from China and Japan by Harriet Alice Chipman Dewey

There is a certain artificial polish, a commonplace vivacity, acquired by perpetually mingling in the beau monde, which, in the commerce of the world, supplies the place of natural suavity and good-humour; but it is purchased at the expense of all original and sterling traits of character.
— from Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources Including Phrases, Mottoes, Maxims, Proverbs, Definitions, Aphorisms, and Sayings of Wise Men, in Their Bearing on Life, Literature, Speculation, Science, Art, Religion, and Morals, Especially in the Modern Aspects of Them by Wood, James, Rev.

Now, most, certainly a nation or sect professing a religion so easily changed, and possessing a character so fickle, or so irrepressible as to yield on every slight occasion, and embrace every opportunity to imbibe new religious ideas and doctrines, would easily, if not naturally, slide into the adoption of the religious system then promulgated in Alexandria under the name of Budhism, and afterward remodeled or transformed, and called Christianity. 17.
— from The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors; Or, Christianity Before Christ by Kersey Graves

A specimen placed at each corner of a house was considered a protection against calamity, and rough pieces placed at the 4 angles of a garden, orchard or corn field were said not only to protect the products from storms and 372 lightning, but also to carry the symbolic influence of rich returns for the farmer.
— from The Magic and Science of Jewels and Stones by Isidore Kozminsky

I have thought of this several times to-day, and would like to ask how you ever induced men to traverse those cliffs and peaks and cañon walls, where a mountain goat can hardly secure a footing?”
— from Nine Thousand Miles on a Pullman Train An Account of a Tour of Railroad Conductors from Philadelphia to the Pacific Coast and Return by Milton M. Shaw

Consul also pushed a chair toward me, but I sat not thereon, but threw myself upon my knees in a corner.
— from Sidonia, the Sorceress : the Supposed Destroyer of the Whole Reigning Ducal House of Pomerania — Volume 2 by Wilhelm Meinhold

Toward noon I learned that this was the herva matte , known to us as “Paraguayan tea,” and the most important product of the states of Santa Catharina and Paraná, as cattle are of Rio Grande do Sul and coffee of São Paulo.
— from Working North from Patagonia Being the Narrative of a Journey, Earned on the Way, Through Southern and Eastern South America by Harry Alverson Franck

Altiera carried a pistol, and could use it remarkably well, and two armed guards were posted outside the veranda.
— from The Coast of Adventure by Harold Bindloss

These two slaves hired a "mean white man" to personate a gentleman; bought him a suit of good clothes, a portmanteau, a carriage and horses, and proper costume for themselves.
— from Retrospect of Western Travel, Volume 1 (of 2) by Harriet Martineau

They are the mode under which creatures are possible and conceivable.
— from Amiel's Journal: The Journal Intime of Henri-Frédéric Amiel by Henri Frédéric Amiel

They constituted forms of enjoyment which cannot exist in cities or older communities; and possessed a charm, in the memory of all who ever participated in them, greater, far greater, than society in any later stage can possess.
— from Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II With an Account of Salem Village and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects by Charles Wentworth Upham

The same honorable gentleman was also pleased to speak of "a paltry trade in potash and codfish," and to refer to me as the Representative of men who raised "beef and pork, and butter and cheese, and potatoes and cabbages."
— from Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 4 (of 16) by United States. Congress

But, being something of a stoic, he kept his feelings in check, and played a card that could hardly fail.
— from Cynthia's Chauffeur by Louis Tracy