We soon ceased to comment on this or other matters which to them were such obvious commonplaces as to call forth embarrassing questions about our own conditions.
— from Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

After finishing his summons, the Judge called in Protazy and read in a loud voice his complaint against the Count, for wounding his honour and for insulting expressions, and against Gerwazy, for violence and blows; both of them he cited before the criminal court in the district town for threats—and to pay the costs of [pg 157] the lawsuit between them.
— from Pan Tadeusz Or, the Last Foray in Lithuania; a Story of Life Among Polish Gentlefolk in the Years 1811 and 1812 by Adam Mickiewicz

[They also cross these with the common cow, and the cattle from this cross are wonderful beasts, and better for work than other animals.]
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

M. Gillenormand took the ribbon, the case, and the coat, flung them all on the floor in the middle of the room, and said:— “Carry those duds away.” A full hour passed in the most profound silence.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

For example, many brains had been puzzled by the Fugato in 6/8 time which comes after the chorus, Froh wie seine Sonnen fliegen, in the movement of the finale marked alia marcia.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner

A cleansing medicine by a certain roughness or nitrous quality, carries away the compacted filth with it.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

The carbon arrests the coarser forms of matter; the asbestos the finer.
— from How it Works Dealing in simple language with steam, electricity, light, heat, sound, hydraulics, optics, etc., and with their applications to apparatus in common use by Archibald Williams

Now he was off, however, and it was back to pathos, with Carrie as the chief figure.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser

I endeavoured to convince the alcalde that I had come across the country for the purpose of making myself acquainted with the many remarkable objects which it contained, and of obtaining information respecting the character and condition of the inhabitants.
— from The Bible in Spain Or, the Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments of an Englishman, in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula by George Borrow

Certain abuses that called for correction there doubtless were in church music in this period.
— from Music in the History of the Western Church With an Introduction on Religious Music Among Primitive and Ancient Peoples by Edward Dickinson

If you had followed your own path quietly, you would have been a beneficiary of the Cathedral, and, who knows, you might have had a seat in the choir among the canons, for the honour and profit of the family!
— from The Shadow of the Cathedral by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez

He stood at loss, waiting, but curiously observed meanwhile the rich hangings and the deep chairs and the cupboards filled with porcelain ware.
— from The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes

The horn of the new-comers, and the reply to it from a neighbouring village, an accidental alarm, the chirping of crickets, and the cry from a sick child occasionally, however, broke the stillness.
— from Great African Travellers: From Mungo Park to Livingstone and Stanley by William Henry Giles Kingston

The ship had now caught the breeze, fortunately for Jack, or he would probably have been taken into Carthagena; and the corvette, finding herself cut off by both the Harpy and Jack’s vessel, as soon as the breeze came up to her, put her head the other way, and tried to escape by running westward along the coast close in shore.
— from Mr. Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat

A plain American Business Man with a York State Ancestry had a fat Chance against this Caledonian frame-up.
— from Ade's Fables by George Ade

General Washington was on [page 88] his way to West Point, coming across the country from Connecticut.
— from The Hudson Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention by Wallace Bruce

Maybe he is willing to see the Crawfords and that Conniston fellow succeed in their scheme?"
— from Under Handicap A Novel by Jackson Gregory