Your noble father lieth in no grave, I saw his dust strewn on the air, his ashes Whirled through the windy streets like common straws To plague a beggar’s eyesight, and his head, That gentle head, set on the prison spike,
— from The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde

418 "Our former labors in North Georgia had demonstrated the truth that no large army, carrying with it the necessary stores and baggage, can overtake and capture an inferior force of the enemy in his own country.
— from Life of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman. Late Retired General. U. S. A. by Willis Fletcher Johnson

—A longer list of subjects for friendly letters is not given because almost any of the subjects for other forms of composition can be treated in a letter.
— from Elementary Composition by George R. (George Rice) Carpenter

Let any man observe the equipages in this town; he shall find the greater number of those who make a figure, to be a species of men quite different from any that were ever known before the Revolution, consisting either of generals and colonels, or of such whose whole fortunes lie in funds and stocks: so that power, which according to the old maxim, was used to follow land, is now gone over to money; and the country gentleman is in the condition of a young heir, out of whose estate a scrivener receives half the rents for interest, and hath a mortgage on the whole, and is therefore always ready to feed his vices and extravagancies while there is any thing left.
— from The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 09 Contributions to The Tatler, The Examiner, The Spectator, and The Intelligencer by Jonathan Swift

My family live in New Guinea; we speak English when we get among English people, Spanish when we get among Spanish people, and French when we get among French people.
— from Birds Illustrated by Color Photography, Vol. 3, No. 1 [January, 1898] A Monthly Serial designed to Promote Knowledge of Bird-Life by Various

Such statements indicate that the Jireh Diabetic Food Company does not confine its mendacity to the mere advertising of its product, where the necessity for lying is naturally great.
— from The Propaganda for Reform in Proprietary Medicines, Vol. 1 of 2 by Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry (American Medical Association)

The British had three men killed; the French loss is not given, but is said to have been slight.
— from The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

The prospect of my future life is not gloomy : yet I should esteem myself a very happy man indeed, if every fortnight could be of as pure a white as the last which I have spent at Bath in the society of the most sincere as well as amiable of my friends.
— from Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753-1794) Volume 2 (of 2) by Edward Gibbon

During this interval of rest the damages which the campaign had effected in the armour and accoutrements of men and officers were repaired, the deep dents effected by sword, pike, and bullet were hammered out, the rust removed, and the stains of blood and bivouac obliterated; fresh doublets and jerkins were served out from the ample stores captured from the enemy, and the army looked as gay and brilliant as when it first landed in North Germany.
— from The Lion of the North: A Tale of the Times of Gustavus Adolphus by G. A. (George Alfred) Henty