If his business succeeds, it “takes;” if neglected, it becomes “shaky,” and “goes to pot;” if he is deceived by a debtor (a by no means unusual circumstance), he is “let in,” or, as it is sometimes varied, “taken in.”
— from The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Andecdotal by John Camden Hotten

The most notorious offender, General Wei of Ping-Yang notoriety, who had less than half the troops he drew pay for, and these mostly untrained coollies, hustled into the ranks to take the place of unpaid deserters, and in whose program fighting had no place, had paid certain influential persons liberally for his command.
— from The War in the East: Japan, China, and Corea by Trumbull White

Be this as it may, he most unwisely cast himself into the arms of the party to whom monarchy and religion were alike hateful.
— from Pius IX. And His Time by Æneas MacDonell Dawson

For is it not insufferable that, if a poor man under common human infirmity shall have committed some crime and have paid its penalty, but afterwards reforming or out-growing his own follies, seeks to gain an honest livelihood for his children in a place which the knowledge of his past transgression has not reached, then all at once he is to be ruined by some creature purely malignant who discovers and publishes the secret tale?
— from The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 by Thomas De Quincey

There was a good deal of misery, underneath, coming home in that steerage.
— from Over the Sliprails by Henry Lawson

Now what makes us cowmen hot is, after we’ve give ’em that country and welcome, the sheepmen’re all the time tryin’ to sneak in on our upper range.
— from Hidden Water by Dane Coolidge

So big Govinda promptly snatched two intruders out of his pen, like puppies, by the scruff of their necks, one in each hand; and Shiv-deo, choosing out the nearest low-caste man unerringly, caught him in his arms like a baby, and literally tossed him on to the heads of the crowd, with a shout which, even in that uproar, could be heard of some in that nearest crush.
— from The Hosts of the Lord by Flora Annie Webster Steel

My uncle came home in great wrath; he believed no more in the chill than [pg 756] he had believed in the drive, and he was for writing there and then to Isabel, telling her so, and demanding an interview without more ado, using firm language and hinting at sterner measures if she refused.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 20, October 1874‐March 1875 by Various

My upholsterer could have installed me in his own quarter of Paris, and perhaps could have obtained some patients for me among his customers, who are rich and fashionable.
— from Conscience — Complete by Hector Malot

“I should not have ventured to present myself to you, Miss Barfleur,” he said, “after my unpardonable conduct, had I not been strongly urged to do so by Sir Bridgnorth Charlton, who told me you were good enough to still take an interest in me.
— from Chetwynd Calverley New Edition, 1877 by William Harrison Ainsworth