Classics Books

Since the Koenig Wilhelm, of the Dutch East India Service, left Batavia, the sky had been torpidly blue, that suffocating indigo which seems so neighborly that the traveller fancies were he a trifle taller he could touch it with the ferule of his stick. When night came, the stars would issue from their ambush and stab it through and through, but the glittering cicatrices which they made left it bluer... more...

PREFACE. APPEARING before the Public as a translator of the Oracles of God, it would ill become me to deprecate the severity of criticism, when I most cordially desire the intelligent and learned of my brethren to point out my mistakes for correction, and, in love and in the spirit of meekness, to smite me friendly. Should, however, the shafts of malignity, and the weapons not of our warfare, be... more...

A TRAVELER FROM ALTRURIA I I confess that with all my curiosity to meet an Altrurian, I was in no hospitable mood toward the traveler when he finally presented himself, pursuant to the letter of advice sent me by the friend who introduced him. It would be easy enough to take care of him in the hotel; I had merely to engage a room for him, and have the clerk tell him his money was not good if he tried... more...

I HOW I FOUND MY TITLE It is surely a rare experience for an unclassified man, past middle age, to hear himself accurately and aptly described for the first time in his life by a perfect stranger! This thing happened to me at Bristol, some time ago, in the way I am about to relate. I slept at a Commercial Hotel, and early next morning was joined in the big empty coffee-room, smelling of stale tobacco,... more...

A Treatise Of Daunses, wherin it is shewed, that they are as it were accessories and dependants (or thynges annexed) to whoredome: where also by the way is touched and proued, that Playes are ioyned and knit togeather in a rancke or rowe with them. I. Thessal. 5. Let eurie one possesse his vessel in holines and honor. Anno 1581. A Treatise of Daunses, in which is shewed, that daunses bee intisementes... more...

Definition of Etching.—To be able to get an impression on paper from a metal plate in a copper-plate printing-press, it is necessary to sink the lines of the design below the surface of the plate, so that each line is represented by a furrow. The plate is then inked all over, care being taken to fill each furrow, and finally the ink is cautiously wiped away from the surface, while the furrows are... more...

TREATISE ON GRAIN STACKING. PLACING FOUNDATION. If convenient, make a foundation of rails, by placing three rails about four and one-half feet apart and parallel, and then add half or two thirds the length of a rail to each, and cover by laying rails crossways, and finish by laying a large rail or post in the center lengthways. This will form a foundation large enough for ten or twelve large loads. If... more...

CHAPTER I. SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND. When I was a "boy on a farm," one of my school teachers had a small machine, which was sometimes used to print the names of students in their books. Somehow I came to want a "printing press," and after a while I purchased an outfit for fifteen cents, but it was a poor thing and failed to satisfy me. Accordingly, I disposed of it and spent a larger sum... more...

CHAPTER I. The Grand Trunk Railway—Sarnia—"Confusion worse confounded"—A ChurlishHostess—Fellow-Passengers on the Manitoba—"Off atlast!"—Musical Honours—Sunrise on Lake Huron—A Scramble forBreakfast—An Impromptu Dance—The General Foe. After a long day's journey on the Grand Trunk Railway, without even the eccentricities of fellow-passengers in our Pullman car to... more...

CHAPTER I. ON THE OCEAN. "Have you decided to go?" inquired my friend. Before us on the table lay an illustrated booklet containing the prospectus of a cruise to the Mediterranean. Its contents had been under consideration for some days. "Yes," I answered, "I will write to-day to secure state room accommodations for our party. Nevertheless I am not quite sure that it is wise to take... more...