One of these bankers, who was once known to the police as the keeper of one notorious stale-beer dive and the active backer of others, is to-day an extensive manufacturer of macaroni, the owner of several big tenements and other real estate; and the capital, it is said, has all come out of his old business.
— from How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York by Jacob A. (Jacob August) Riis

Doria, it says, held a council of his captains in the evening at which they all voted for attack, whilst the Venetians, with that overweening sense of superiority which at this time is reflected in their own annals as distinctly as in those of their enemies, kept scout-vessels out to watch that the Genoese fleet, which they looked on as already their own, did not steal away in the darkness.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

Some raind last night, Sent out 6 Hunters to day across the R. they Killed 5 Deer & Colter a Bear verry fat we continue to repare our ropes & make oars all day, heavy rain all the fore pt. of the day, the party Drying meat & greesing themselves, Several men with the Disentary, and two thirds of them with ulsers or Boils, Some with 8 or 10 of those Turners Mesquetors verry bad we finish our Cords & oars this evening Men in Spirits H2 anchor [Clark, June 18, 1804] June 18th Monday
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark

Initium sapientiæ . H2 anchor CHAPTER IV—THE BACK ROOM OF THE CAFÉ
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Natural selection, also, leads to divergence of character; for more living beings can be supported on the same area the more they diverge in structure, habits, and constitution, of which we see proof by looking at the inhabitants of any small spot or at naturalised productions.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin

The Duke did not stay long in his chamber; but to the King’s chamber, whither by and by the Russia Embassadors come; who, it seems, have a custom that they will not come to have any treaty with our or any King’s Commissioners, but they will themselves see at the time the face of the King himself, be it forty days one after another; and so they did to-day only go in and see the King; and so out again to the Council-chamber.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

When they had severally remained in this condition for some minutes, Miss Sally all at once gave a loud rap upon the desk with her clenched fist, and cried, ‘I’ve hit it!’—as indeed she had, and chipped a piece out of it too; but that was not her meaning.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

It was the inn that is in every provincial faubourg, with large stables and small bedrooms, where one sees in the middle of the court chickens pilfering the oats under the muddy gigs of the commercial travellers—a good old house, with worm-eaten balconies that creak in the wind on winter nights, always full of people, noise, and feeding, whose black tables are sticky with coffee and brandy, the thick windows made yellow by the flies, the damp napkins stained with cheap wine, and that always smells of the village, like ploughboys dressed in Sundayclothes, has a cafe on the street, and towards the countryside a kitchen-garden.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

" "In your little room, sir," replied Conseil, "and in your museum, sir; and I should have already classed all your fossils, sir.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne

"At first I stifled my conscience by representing to myself that being released from pressure which had worried me for years, I should have a clear head for business; and recover, by judicious speculation, the sums that I had appropriated—as I hoped—but for a time.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 01, April to September, 1865 A Monthly Eclectic Magazine by Various

I should not allow any strangers to enter the house, and I should have a couple of good dogs running loose about the premises.
— from The Uninhabited House by Riddell, J. H., Mrs.

I was in hopes I should have a chance to try it on a buffalo before this time.”
— from Carl the Trailer by Harry Castlemon

"I shall have a comedy for you, in a season or two at farthest, that I believe will be worth your acceptance.
— from The Verbalist A Manual Devoted to Brief Discussions of the Right and the Wrong Use of Words and to Some Other Matters of Interest to Those Who Would Speak and Write with Propriety. by Alfred Ayres

Marina told me when I saw her at Christmas—I asked her, and she said, of course, he didn't like it.
— from Warren Commission (08 of 26): Hearings Vol. VIII (of 15) by United States. Warren Commission

"Thanks, I won't trouble you; I still have a crust left."
— from Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, July 8, 1914 by Various

His manner toward her was gravely deferential and gentle, and that, on its side, had a charm for Esmeralda.
— from Just a Girl by Charles Garvice

Never, I say, had a country so many openings to happiness as this.
— from The Writings of Thomas Paine — Volume 1 (1774-1779): The American Crisis by Thomas Paine

Well, I made a small venture in the cargo, and thought, by so doing, that I should have a chance of realizing a sum of money that would put us both in a comfortable line of business.
— from Varney the Vampire; Or, the Feast of Blood by Thomas Preskett Prest

—After a few days of fighting, Cornwallis found himself in so hopeless a condition that he made an unsuccessful attempt to escape.
— from The Story of American History for Elementary Schools by Albert F. (Albert Franklin) Blaisdell