Finally he got upon the subject of trans- continental travel, and presently said: “I can tell you a very laughable thing indeed, if you would like to listen to it.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain

The first of these, by calculation, brings down the chain to a period six centuries subsequent to Vikramaditya ( A.D. 650), so that these books may have been remodelled or commented on about this period: their fabrication cannot be supposed.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 or the Central and Western Rajput States of India by James Tod

As there is some difficulty in the formation of a character of this nature, so there is some hazard which attends the progress of its success upon the stage: for many come to a play so overcharged with criticism, that they very often let fly their censure, when through their rashness they have mistaken their aim.
— from The Way of the World by William Congreve

Many and many a time, in fancy, I have lain in the marble bath, and breathed the slumbrous fragrance of Eastern spices that filled the air; then passed through a weird and complicated system of pulling and hauling, and drenching and scrubbing, by a gang of naked savages who loomed vast and vaguely through the steaming mists, like demons; then rested for a while on a divan fit for a king; then passed through another complex ordeal, and one more fearful than the first; and, finally, swathed in soft fabrics, been conveyed to a princely saloon and laid on a bed of eider down, where eunuchs, gorgeous of costume, fanned me while I drowsed and dreamed, or contentedly gazed at the rich hangings of the apartment, the soft carpets, the sumptuous furniture, the pictures, and drank delicious coffee, smoked the soothing narghili, and dropped, at the last, into tranquil repose, lulled by sensuous odors from unseen censers, by the gentle influence of the narghili’s Persian tobacco, and by the music of fountains that counterfeited the pattering of summer rain.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

In this time of practical charity, they are poor substitutes for those hospitals and orphan asylums which were practically unknown in Japan until the advent of Christianity.
— from The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji by William Elliot Griffis

A deep river’s gorge is called ‘the Blind Man’s Pass,’ because a peculiar bit of rock, looked at from a certain angle, assumes the outline of the human form, and there comes to be connected therewith a pleasing story which reaches its climax in the petrifaction of the hero.
— from Myths and Legends of China by E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers) Werner

She regarded him with much surprise, with some slight sense of annoyance; she had bent far in tendering her influence at the French court to a private soldier, and his rejection of it seemed as ungracious as it was inexplicable.
— from Under Two Flags by Ouida

It was directly contrary to the rules of the camp that a prisoner should be absent from his own house after dark.
— from The Road to En-Dor Being an Account of How Two Prisoners of War at Yozgad in Turkey Won Their Way to Freedom by E. H. (Elias Henry) Jones

"The Church, then, at present," said Willis, "is a kingdom tending to dissolution?"
— from Loss and Gain: The Story of a Convert by John Henry Newman

Mrs. Scott, wife of the present rector of Christ Church, teaches a parochial school, patronized by all, irrespective of creeds or forms of worship, being always open to inspection for the friends of education.
— from Petals Plucked from Sunny Climes by A. M. (Abbie M.) Brooks

So also did Jones on the west of the [Pg 513] mountain, and Martin on the other side of the Holston; but the latter encountered a brigade at May’s Ford, which delayed him and gave time for the enemy to change to a position some four miles to his rear.
— from From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America by James Longstreet

John B. Waldo, while enjoying a summer recreation trip along the summit ridge, came to a point some seven or eight miles south of the point to which the survey had been made and over which a trail had been opened, which he felt confident was lower than it.
— from The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. IV March, 1903-December, 1903 by Oregon Historical Society

The service occasionally suffered from this change; for a regiment was transferred at once from a native who had risen to command by experience and good conduct, to a person sent out from England who had to learn his duties as a leader of native troops after he went out.
— from The History of the Indian Revolt and of the Expeditions to Persia, China and Japan, 1856-7-8 by George Dodd

Disciples of Christ that are poor, should beware of judging the disciples who are rich.
— from The Parables of Our Lord by William Arnot

For myself, I confess to a peculiar sensitiveness in the matter of voices,—an unfortunate peculiarity for one condemned to spend her life in a sea-board town of the United States.
— from Flint: His Faults, His Friendships and His Fortunes by Maud Wilder Goodwin

The Austrians had always governed them with a singular mildness and respect for their customs; and had thus gained the affection of their Tyrolese subjects, who could not therefore understand how an allegiance resembling that of children to a parent, should have been transferred, without their consent, to a stranger sovereign, with whom they had no tie of mutual feeling.
— from Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume III. by Walter Scott