Several of these heavy fines were paid before the captains' organization grew strong enough to exercise full authority over its membership; but that all ceased, presently.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

Several hundred, perhaps several thousand, victims were annually slaughtered in the great cities of the empire; and the month of December, more peculiarly devoted to the combats of gladiators, still exhibited to the eyes of the Roman people a grateful spectacle of blood and cruelty.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) by Edward Gibbon

Continuous operation gives steady employment to skilled and experienced men and a rapid replacement of stocks that makes Westwood a dependable source of supply for the trade.
— from The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan As Told in the Camps of the White Pine Lumbermen for Generations During Which Time the Loggers Have Pioneered the Way Through the North Woods from Maine to California; Collected from Various Sources and Embellished for Publication by William B. Laughead

He loathed it so that it seemed to him he would almost rather go to prison, with a chance of getting something else to eat, than to remain any longer on a fish diet.
— from Rick Dale, A Story of the Northwest Coast by Kirk Munroe

Yes, there might be, if he could only get strong enough to stand it.
— from Dawn by Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter