Non-Classifiable Books

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY—THE COST AND ADVANTAGES OF ACETYLENE LIGHTING Acetylene is a gas [Footnote: For this reason the expression, "acetylene gas," which is frequently met with, would be objectionable on the ground of tautology, even if it were not grammatically and technically incorrect. "Acetylene-gas" is perhaps somewhat more permissible, but it is equally redundant and... more...

A PURITAN BOYHOOD: WANSTEAD CHURCH AND CHIGWELL SCHOOL The mother of William Penn came from Rotterdam, in Holland. She was the daughter of John Jasper, a merchant of that city. The lively Mr. Pepys, who met her in 1664, when William was twenty years of age, describes her as a "fat, short, old Dutchwoman," and says that she was "mighty homely." He records a tattling neighbor's... more...

PREFACE Whatever the effect of "Ship-Bored" upon others, its publication has exerted a very definite effect upon me, or rather upon the character of my daily mail. Instead of letters the postman now leaves little packages containing pills which, according to the senders, will prevent the casting of bread upon the waters. It is astonishing to learn how many sea-sick remedies there are. Looking... more...

PREFACE A book should be judged somewhat in view of what it attempts. One of the chief objects of this little volume is to lure men and women back to their original calling, that of gardening. I am decidedly under the impression that Eve helped Adam, especially as the sun declined. I am sure that they had small fruits for breakfast, dinner and supper, and would not be at all surprised if they ate some... more...

THE ETHICS OF THE DRINK QUESTION. All the statistics and formal statements published about drink are no doubt impressive enough to those who have the eye for that kind of thing; but, to most of us, the word "million" means nothing at all, and thus when we look at figures, and find that a terrific number of gallons are swallowed, and that an equally terrific amount in millions sterling is spent,... more...

CHAPTER 1. It is worse than useless to deplore the irremediable; yet no man, probably, has failed to mourn the fate of mighty poets, whose dawning gave the promise of a glorious day, but who passed from earth while yet the light that shone in them was crescent. That the world should know Marlowe and Giorgione, Raphael and Mozart, only by the products of their early manhood, is indeed a cause for... more...

CHAPTER I.—EXILES, OLD AND NEW. “O what have we ta’en?” said the fisher-prince,   “What have we ta’en this morning’s tide? Get thee down to the wave, my carl,   And row me the net to the meadow’s-side.” In he waded, the fisher-carl,   And “Here,” quoth he, “is a wondrous thing! A cradle, prince, and a fair man-child,   Goodly to see as the son of a king!” The... more...

CHAPTER I OTAHEITE The gentle island, and the genial soil,The friendly hearts, the feasts without a toil,The courteous manners but from nature caught,The wealth unhoarded, and the love unbougnt, The bread-tree, which, without the ploughshare, yieldsThe unreap'd harvest of unfurrow'd fields,And bakes its unadulterated loavesWithout a furnace in unpurchased groves,And flings off famine from its... more...

The First Home in the Metropolis. We had never lived in New York. This fact will develop anyway, as I proceed, but somehow it seems fairer to everybody to state it in the first sentence and have it over with. Still, we had heard of flats in a vague way, and as we drew near the Metropolis the Little Woman bought papers of the train boy and began to read advertisements under the head of "Flats and... more...

INTRODUCTION The object of this book will be throughout its entirety to teach in a practical manner the art of Fly Tying in all its branches. The principles used herein, and the methods of construction employed, are those used by the professional fly-tier who practices fly-making for the sake of art, and tries to achieve with each finished fly, a masterpiece. None of the short-cuts employed by those... more...