"Claps" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... CLAPS HIS DISH, a clap, or clack, dish (dish with a movable lid) was carried by beggars and lepers to show that the vessel was empty, and to ...
— The Alchemist • Ben Jonson
... come but nie, Can not endure that weake and feeble shine, But straightway shut their dim and dazled eine. No maruell then, though in great extasie His spirits are, at glittring maiestie. She feares the worst, and to her Louer skips, Claps his plumpe cheeks, and beats his corall lips, And seeing him fall breathlesse to the earth, She seeks with kisses to inspire his breath. At last his eye-lids he vp heaues againe, And feeling her sweet kisses, gins to faine; Shuts his bright ...
— Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) • Dunstan Gale
... Phormio, shaking his fists under the helpless creature's nose. "Honest men have their day at last. There's a gay hour coming before Zeus claps the lid over you ...
— A Victor of Salamis • William Stearns Davis
... to his medicine sack and drew out two war-clubs of black stone. As he handled them they grew to an immense size. He opened the door, and as he did so, the brothers ran out the back way. They could hear the blows like claps of thunder as he hit the bear on the head. After that came two sharp cracks, and they knew the clubs were broken with the force of the blows. Then came his shrieks, as he met the fate of the first old man. ...
— Thirty Indian Legends • Margaret Bemister
... way of comforting my widowhood," said Bim. "He has made a wonderful beauty mask and often he claps it on me and whistles up a band of sighing lovers. As a work of the imagination I am ...
— A Man for the Ages - A Story of the Builders of Democracy • Irving Bacheller
... as you says that he claps on his sword, takes his pistols, and orders you all into the boat; and says he, 'If you dare to come back without Mr Leigh I'll string one of you up to ...
— In the King's Name - The Cruise of the "Kestrel" • George Manville Fenn
... The three claps were given at regular intervals amid the most profound silence; the wind itself seemed to pause and the rustle of the trees was hushed. The principals were calm, but the ...
— The Companions of Jehu • Alexandre Dumas, pere
... strange—had the appearance of being held there captive by a spell. The word ivory would ring in the air for a while—and on we went again into the silence, along empty reaches, round the still bends, between the high walls of our winding way, reverberating in hollow claps the ponderous beat of the stern-wheel. Trees, trees, millions of trees, massive, immense, running up high; and at their foot, hugging the bank against the stream, crept the little begrimed steamboat, like a sluggish beetle ...
— Heart of Darkness • Joseph Conrad
... the king Toward Calais: grant him there; there seen, Heave him away upon your winged thoughts Athwart the sea. Behold, the English beach Pales in the flood with men, with wives and boys, Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouthed sea, Which like a mighty whiffler 'fore the king Seems to prepare his way: so let him land, And solemnly see him set on to London. So swift a pace hath thought that even now You may imagine him upon Blackheath; Where that his lords ...
— Lyra Heroica - A Book of Verse for Boys • Various
... the flowery path, nor sees the snare Laid for his honour by the Egyptian fair. Here Love his triumph shows, and leads along The world's great owner in the captive throng; And o'er the master of unscepter'd kings Exulting soars, and claps his purple wings. See his adopted son! he knew her guile, And nobly scorn'd the siren of the Nile; Yet fell by Roman charms and from her spouse The pregnant consort bore, regardless of her vows There, cruel Nero feels his iron ...
— The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch • Petrarch
... at the sport, Cries "Bravo!" and claps his hands, And calling in haste for his man, Jack Frost, He ...
— King Winter • Anonymous
... claps—nothing more nor less than thunder claps! And we'll see nothing worse on this coast," he added sententiously, as soon as he ...
— A Gunner Aboard the "Yankee" • Russell Doubleday
... Bucareli did, if the mission Indians could hold their own under free competition with the 'sagacity' of the surrounding Spanish settlers. Therefore he is the authority whom Liberals always quote against the system of the Jesuits. When he inveighs against their semi-communism, the modern Liberal claps his hands, and sees a kindred Daniel come to judgment, as he would do to-day if in Damaraland the Germans set up a Socialistic settlement amongst the negro tribes, and some Liberal economist denounced it with an oath. Azara quite forgets that, as ...
— A Vanished Arcadia, • R. B. Cunninghame Graham
... Hymir's Caldron, that the Gods may brew beer. Hymir the huge Giant enters, his grey beard all full of hoar-frost; splits pillars with the very glance of his eye; Thor, after much rough tumult, snatches the Pot, claps it on his head; the 'handles of it reach down to his heels.' The Norse Skald has a kind of loving sport with Thor. This is the Hymir whose cattle, the critics have discovered, are Icebergs. Huge untutored Brobdignag genius,—needing only to be tamed-down; into Shakspeares, Dantes, ...
— Sartor Resartus, and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History • Thomas Carlyle
... the few comments made by the members were nearly all indicative of scepticism of my statements and unbelief in my bona fides. A scientific audience is usually rather cold and unenthusiastic; but, in the present case, except for one or two isolated hand-claps, the vote of thanks was allowed to pass sub silentio. Sir Lockesley, of course, could not help this, and I saw that he was much annoyed ...
— To Mars via The Moon - An Astronomical Story • Mark Wicks
... poet's inspiration upon his ordinary modes of thought is compared to "fearful claps of thunder," by Keats [Footnote: See Sleep and Poetry.] and others. [Footnote: See The Master, A. E. Cheney.] Or, more often, his moment of sudden insight seems a lightning flash upon the dark ways in which he is ordinarily groping. Keats says that his early ...
— The Poet's Poet • Elizabeth Atkins
... Finney, in order to thank you for having spoken her name. No one else has spoken it in my hearing since they knew of my last parting with her, and I—I am fool enough half the days to wish the clouds in their thunder-claps would ...
— The Mormon Prophet • Lily Dougall
... Ariosto,[709] filled with the new wine of his imagination, writes me an ode or a brisk romance, full of daring thought and action. He smites and arouses me with his shrill tones, breaks up my whole chain of habits, and I open my eye on my own possibilities. He claps wings to the sides of all the solid old lumber of the world, and I am capable once more of choosing a straight path in theory ...
— Essays • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... Mr. Ray, and in a very few minutes the lunch things were packed up and they were in the boat. At first the sails filled and the boat moved swiftly on. But suddenly the sky grew dark. Great claps of thunder were heard. Lightning played all around the boat. The wind blew fiercely. The waves dashed so high that the boat was almost upset. Paul felt very small and almost afraid, but not quite. His big, brave daddy was there. "Sit still, hold tight," Daddy called. His voice sounded far ...
— Five Little Friends • Sherred Willcox Adams
... the thunder. Frequently heavy black clouds, charged with electricity, gathered over this elevated point, looking like other mountains trying to overturn it; then a storm began, the thunder roared tremendously, the rain fell in torrents; every minute frightful claps were heard, and the total darkness was scarcely broken by the lightning that flashed in long streams of fire, dashing from the top and sides of the mountain enormous blocks of rock, that were hurled into the lake with a fearful crash. It was an admirable exemplification ...
— Adventures in the Philippine Islands • Paul P. de La Gironiere
... the sheik claps his hands and the guide appears. He enters into a brief conversation with Ben Taleb in the ...
— Miss Caprice • St. George Rathborne
... day after a long drought, when the young rice sprouts, just transplanted were turning yellow at the tips, the clouds began to gather and roll, and soon a smart shower fell, the lightning glittered, and the hills echoed with claps of thunder. But Bimbo, hoe in hand, was so glad to see the rain fall, and the pattering drops felt so cool and refreshing, that he worked on, strengthening the terrace to resist the little flood about ...
— Japanese Fairy World - Stories from the Wonder-Lore of Japan • William Elliot Griffis
... Billy sees Withholder kneelin' thar with his head down, he gives a kind o' joyous leap and claps his hoofs together, ez much ez to say, 'I'm on in this scene,' drops his own head, and jest lights ...
— Mr. Jack Hamlin's Mediation and Other Stories • Bret Harte
... when we raise, I thank'd her for her courtesie; But aye she blush'd and aye she sigh'd, And said, "Alas, ye've ruin'd me." I claps'd her waist, and kiss'd her syne, While the tear stood twinkling in her e'e; I said, my lassie, dinna cry. For ye aye shall make the bed to ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns
... life till this minute. Young man, I'll tell you this, though. Every woman with any brains knows what a man is the minute she claps eyes on him; only if he's good-looking, or awful wicked, or makes love to her, or forty thousand other things, she'll deny to herself that she knows any bad ...
— The Puritans • Arlo Bates
... below drowned his words; they came pouring in at the open window like the pealing tones of an organ, like the roar of the sea, like claps ...
— The Youth of the Great Elector • L. Muhlbach
... take pictures, Mamma? I mean, what does the man do, when he goes behind that queer machine thing and sticks his head under the cloth, and then after a while claps in something that looks like my tracing-slate and then pops it out again? What makes ...
— Dreamland • Julie M. Lippmann
... her crest. Turn'd to her foe, she stiffens every scale, And shoots her forky tongue, and whisks her threatening tail. Against the victor all defence is weak. Th' imperial bird still plies her with his beak: He tears her bowels, and her breast he gores, Then claps ...
— Life of Cicero - Volume One • Anthony Trollope
... listen to every word. The lecture is short, sharp, apposite, a model of all a lecture should be, stripped to the bare bones of fundamental truth, pared clean of every redundant word. As the clock strikes three he claps his hands to rid them of chalk, pauses for a moment to answer pertinent questions, and vanishes into ...
— An Ocean Tramp • William McFee
... sliding foot, Or at some fruit-tree's mossy root, Casting the body's vest aside, My soul into the boughs does glide: There, like a bird, it sits and sings, Then whets and claps its silver wings; And, till prepared for longer flight, Waves in its plumes the various ...
— Say and Seal, Volume I • Susan Warner
... half of my studio and left them to pay for his rent, which they didn't do, not by a long chalk, and—Oh, here's another hat—and, oh, such a lovely old cloak! Yes, take 'em all, missy—I'm glad to get rid of 'em—before Nat claps them on Jane and goes in for Puritan maidens and Lady Gay Spankers. Oh, I know you, Nat! I wouldn't trust you out of my sight! Take 'em along, I say." He stopped and ...
— Felix O'Day • F. Hopkinson Smith
... in the dining-room, and have lovely food, only Grandpa does not like it, but we have him a pie now for breakfast,—his own pie that he can eat from all the time and he feels better. Aunt Gertrude is happy seeing him eat it for breakfast and claps her hands when he does it, only ...
— Turn About Eleanor • Ethel M. Kelley
... in the article. This is surely a mere assumption of superiority from his Lordship's rank, and is the sort of quizzing he might use to a person who came to hire himself as a valet to him at Long's—the waiters might laugh, the public will not. In like manner, in the controversy about Pope, he claps Mr. Bowles on the back with a coarse facetious familiarity, as if he were his chaplain whom he had invited to dine with him, or was about to present to a benefice. The reverend divine might submit to the obligation, but he has no occasion to subscribe to the jest. If it is a jest that Mr. ...
— Hazlitt on English Literature - An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature • Jacob Zeitlin
... That will please her ever so much," cried Jasper. "Don't you know how she claps her hands when ...
— Five Little Peppers at School • Margaret Sidney
... she said to Father Pat Geoghegan, "poor thing, she's rallying a bit. The docthor says maybe she'll not go this time; but he's much in dread of a re-claps—" ...
— The Kellys and the O'Kellys • Anthony Trollope
... that class closed, no boy was more forcedly loud and lively than I: no boy shut his books with greater claps; no boy banged his desk more carelessly. Nor would I listen to sympathising friends, but laughed out in Fillet's hearing: "You don't think I care, ...
— Tell England - A Study in a Generation • Ernest Raymond
... that by the Empress's command no present Harm is to be done us; but that we are to be removed to the Town Gaol till the Caesar's pleasure respecting us shall be known. Her Majesty, however, forgot to enjoin that we were not to be fettered; so the Captain of the Guard he claps on us the heaviest Irons that ever Mutineers howled in; and we, being flung into a kind of Brewer's Dray, and accompanied by a Strong Guard of Horse and Foot, were conveyed to Vienna, and locked up ...
— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 2 of 3 • George Augustus Sala
... batsmen force the pace, From me she quickly takes her cue; Perceives the fun of stolen run, The overthrow that makes it two. And as the ball bombards the fence, Or rattles on the Scorers' hut, She claps with me the Drive immense, And ...
— More Cricket Songs • Norman Gale
... being attended by one servant well mounted, he will have two; and, not being able to purchase or maintain a second horse of value, one of his servants at least is mounted on a hired rascallion. He is not contented to go plain and neat in his clothes; he therefore claps on some tawdry ornament, and what he adds to the fineness of his vestment he detracts from the fineness of his linen. Without descending into more minute particulars, I believe I may assert it as an axiom of indubitable truth, that whoever shows you he ...
— From This World to the Next • Henry Fielding
... Indian encampment. A shower threatened us, but we resolved to try if we could not visit it before it came on. We crossed a wide field on foot, and found them amid the trees on a shelving bank; just as we reached them the rain began to fall in torrents, with frequent thunder claps, and we had to take refuge in their lodges. These were very small, being for temporary use, and we crowded the occupants much, among whom were several sick, on the damp ground, or with only a ragged ...
— Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 • S.M. Fuller
... storm of thunder, lightning, and rain overtook us. The claps of thunder followed the flashes without interval, and the lightning seemed to strike into the water close to our boat, while the wind carried the spray into the air like smoke. Providentially we had doubled the northern point before the worst ...
— Journal of a Voyage from Okkak, on the Coast of Labrador, to Ungava Bay, Westward of Cape Chudleigh • Benjamin Kohlmeister and George Kmoch
... [Sits down and claps his flat hands over his knees.] For goodness' sake! Don't carry on so! D'you think I'll be goin' about everywhere an' tellin' what I know an' rakin' you over the coals? How does it concern me, I'd like to know, what your goin's ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume II • Gerhart Hauptmann
... threatening dark clouds, which threw their deep shadows over the room, and at intervals a blinding flash of lightning illuminated with dazzling ray the bowed figures of father and daughter; while loud claps of thunder called to them, as if to rouse them from the ...
— Sister Carmen • M. Corvus
... where the wind's some one With a vagabond foot that follows! And a cheer-up hand that he claps upon Your arm with the hearty words, "Come on! We'll soon be out of the hollows, My heart! We'll soon be out of ...
— Poems • Madison Cawein
... calmly on from the parchment. "It is stated by many witnesses that for long that part of Paris, called Nanley by some, has been troubled by works of the devil. Ever and anon great claps of thunder have been heard issuing from an open field there without visible cause. They were evidently caused by a sorcerer of power since even exorcists could not ...
— The Man Who Saw the Future • Edmond Hamilton
... the pain so loud that all the cavern broke into claps like thunder. They fled, and dispersed into corners. He plucked the burning stake from his eye, and hurled the wood madly about the cave. Then he cried out with a mighty voice for his brethren the Cyclops, that dwelt hard by in caverns upon hills; they, hearing the terrible ...
— THE ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES • CHARLES LAMB
... however, several thunder-claps announced a change in the state of the atmosphere. Soon the clouds broke. The chain of the Brevent and the Aiguilles-Rouges betrayed itself. The wind, turning to the north-west, brought into view above the Col de Balme, which shuts in the valley of Chamonix ...
— A Winter Amid the Ice - and Other Thrilling Stories • Jules Verne
... forlorn foster-child! Behold here a force which I will make dig and plant and build for me"? Not so, but,—"Here is a recruit ready-made to my hand, a piece of destroying energy lying unprofitably idle." So she claps an ugly grey suit on him, puts a musket in his grasp, and sends him off, with Gubernatorial and other godspeeds, to do duty ...
— The Biglow Papers • James Russell Lowell
... such questions as where was England; how far was it; what was its population; its capital city; its form of government; and so forth. They sang a song too, about a farmer sowing his seed: with corresponding action at such parts as ''tis thus he sows,' 'he turns him round,' 'he claps his hands;' which gave it greater interest for them, and accustomed them to act together, in an orderly manner. They appeared exceedingly well-taught, and not better taught than fed; for a more chubby-looking full-waistcoated set of boys, ...
— American Notes for General Circulation • Charles Dickens
... of man are past interpretation. Here is an individual who lures a girl from an oriental harem, attires her in disgusting garments, smuggles her on board a steamer, where he claps her, so to speak, under hatches, and has little if anything to do with her, sets her penniless and ticketless in a London train, and then goes off and blows his brains out. Where ...
— The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne • William J. Locke
... listened amused at door; claps hands.) Very good! It is you yourself should be going to the dance house to-night in place of myself. It is long since I heard you rise ...
— Three Wonder Plays • Lady I. A. Gregory
... the bravest boat-header out of all Nantucket and the Vineyard; he joined the meeting, and never came to good. He got so frightened about his plaguy soul, that he shrinked and sheered away from whales, for fear of after-claps, in case he got stove and ...
— Moby Dick; or The Whale • Herman Melville
... is ever so glad That we planted it there to grow, And knows us and loves us and understands, For it claps them just like two little hands, Whenever the ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter
... don't care! He's coming home! Jack! Jack! (She dances and claps her hands.) Oh, I'm so happy! So happy! (The light begins to rise on the Real-play-enough to reveal Bill getting up from the cot. He looks about guiltily, climbs up to a shelf after a bowl. There is a crash. Instantly the ...
— The Pot Boiler • Upton Sinclair
... counsellors, and both parties lean forward, looking earnestly at each other; the chief repeats a word, such as "Ambuiatu" (our Father, or master)—or "moio" (life), and all clap their hands. Another word is followed by two claps, a third by still more clapping, when each touches the ground with both hands placed together. Then all rise and lean forward with measured clap, and sit down again with clap, clap, clap, fainter, and still fainter, till the last dies away, or is brought to an end by a smart loud clap from ...
— A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries • David Livingstone
... swift-passing clouds were tinged at sunset with a deep copper colour; but the moon not being near the full, it excited little apprehension at the Refuge. The wind was fresh, and kept increasing until eleven o'clock, at which time it blew very hard; the rain fell in torrents, accompanied with loud claps of thunder and lightning, which at every instant imparted to one of the darkest nights the brightness of day. The course of the wind was from south-west to south, south-east, east, and north-east, where it blew hardest between one and three in the morning, giving me an apprehension that the house, ...
— A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2 • Matthew Flinders
... less than we anticipate when the Captain exclaims: "In all the dangers I have been, such horrors I never knew. I am quite unmanned:" and when the Hermit says, that he had "beheld the ocean in wildest rage, yet ne'er before saw a storm so dreadful, such horrid flashes of lightning, and such claps of thunder, were never in my remembrance." And Don John's burst of startling impiety is equally intelligible in its motive, ...
— Biographia Literaria • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... Listen. Before nine o'clock that night I had the thing all plotted out and half a dozen people gettin' busy. Course, it's mostly Vee's program. She claps her hands when she hears ...
— Wilt Thou Torchy • Sewell Ford
... and claps her hands with joy). Well, I never expected this! Mother Matryna, God has sent the right guest at the ...
— Redemption and Two Other Plays • Leo Tolstoy et al
... some lightning and several claps of thunder and heavy rain. Though it was but two o'clock in the afternoon, the air was so dusky that the men had to feel for the ropes; and when the first of the tempest stormed down upon us the appearance of the sea was uncommonly terrible, ...
— The Frozen Pirate • W. Clark Russell
... such service. A little cask of suspicious appearance was smuggled into the cabin from the wagon, and heightens the hilarity a little, I fear. No churlishness could resist Evans's unutterable jollity or the contagion of his hearty laugh. He claps people on the back, shouts at them, will do anything for them, and makes a perpetual breeze. "My kingdom for a horse!" He has not got one for me, and a shadow crossed his face when I spoke of the subject. Eventually he asked for a private conference, when he told ...
— A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains • Isabella L. Bird
... horse taken care of; and, knowing the cut of the fellow's jib, what does I do, but whips the body-clothes off Naboclish, and claps them upon a garrone that the priest ...
— The Absentee • Maria Edgeworth
... in my turn with an attempt to assume the stereotyped smile, in which I signally failed, as I was so agitated. The audience at first remained silent, then their faces gradually unwrinkled, and soon, one or two claps having been ventured, they were carried away and peace was made. I was well rewarded, however, for this terrible ordeal, as my "second-sight" never gained ...
— The Lock and Key Library/Real Life #2 • Julian Hawthorne
... out, yes. And then done it. You should see her dance—ah! You should see her dance round the bear, when I bring him in! Ah, a beautiful thing, you know. She claps her hand—" And Ciccio stood still in the street, with his hat cocked a little on one side, rather common-looking, and he smiled along his fine nose at Alvina, and he clapped his hands lightly, and he tilted his eyebrows and his eyelids as if facially he were imitating a dance, and ...
— The Lost Girl • D. H. Lawrence
... for eternal worlds I steer, And seas are calm and skies are clear, And faith in lively exercise, And distant hills of Canaan rise, My soul for joy then claps her wings, And loud her lovely sonnet ...
— The Story of the Hymns and Tunes • Theron Brown and Hezekiah Butterworth
... peas, beans, and barley grows, 'Tis you nor I nor nobody knows How oats, peas, beans, and barley grows. Thus the farmer sows his seeds, Thus he stands and takes his ease, Stamps his foot and claps his hands And turns around to view his lands; A-waiting for a partner, A-waiting for a partner, So open the ring and take one in, And kiss her when you ...
— A Little Girl in Old New York • Amanda Millie Douglas
... vacant chair. The buskin'd heroes of the mimic stage No longer whine in love, and rant in rage; The monarch quits his throne, and condescends Humbly to court the favour of his friends; For pity's sake tells undeserved mishaps, And, their applause to gain, recounts his claps. Thus the victorious chiefs of ancient Rome, To win the mob, a suppliant's form assume; 10 In pompous strain fight o'er the extinguish'd war, And show where honour bled in every scar. But though bare merit might in Rome appear The strongest plea for favour, 'tis not here; We form our judgment in ...
— Poetical Works • Charles Churchill
... offered to accept it and he hadn't the courage to make the suggestion. The dingey floated off the sand again, headed for the Follow Me, and then the storm broke. It didn't descend all at once, however. At first there were muffled growls of thunder from Harry Corwin. Then came claps from Wink Wheeler. After that the elements raged about Perry's defenceless head, even "Brownie" supplying some fine ...
— The Adventure Club Afloat • Ralph Henry Barbour
... incidentally give the bunch that done us dirt the double cross. Get your think tank working and see what it will produce.' I couldn't see a way out, but when a squaw from the Tonawanda Reservation, who was selling trailing arbutus, came up to us and offered us a nosegay, Merritt gives a whoop and claps me on ...
— Side Show Studies • Francis Metcalfe
... over to Khorre and says something to him. Khorre nods his head negatively. The abbot, singing "Pope's a rogue," goes around the crowd, throws out brief remarks, and claps some people on the shoulder in a ...
— The Crushed Flower and Other Stories • Leonid Andreyev
... Pope has sent down to posterity in a single verse: "I should have thought Mr. Steele might have the example of his friend before his eyes, who had the reputation of being the author of The Dispensary, till, by two or three unlucky after-claps, he proved himself incapable of writing it."—WAGSTAFFE'S Misc. Works, ...
— Calamities and Quarrels of Authors • Isaac D'Israeli
... of women, employed in reaping the extensive corn-fields through which we passed were raising their hoes and voices to heaven, and, yelling furiously, cursed 'Morimo' (God), as the terrific thunder-claps succeeded each vivid flash of lightning. On inquiry I was informed by 'Old Booy' that they were indignant at the interruption of their labors, and that they therefore cursed and menaced the cause. Such blasphemy was awful, even among heathens, and I fully expected ...
— Primitive Love and Love-Stories • Henry Theophilus Finck
... during some long and anxious minutes, listening to the appalling thunder-claps, when Orpheus rushed into the banqueting-room, with the same frenzied and terror-stricken haste as before, among the revellers, crying: "It is the end-all is over! The world is falling asunder! Fire is come ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... particles having been washed away, the gravel is raked up to the end of the trough; the largest stones are thrown out, and afterwards the smaller ones, the whole is then examined with great care for diamonds. When a negro finds one, he claps his hands, stands in an erect posture, holding the diamond between his fore-finger and thumb; it is received by one of the overseers posted on lofty seats, at equal distances, along the line of the work. ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. XIX. No. 542, Saturday, April 14, 1832 • Various
... and in his Father's might, The Saviour comes! While as the Thousand Years Lead up their mystic dance, the Desert shouts! Old Ocean claps his hands! The mighty Dead Rise to new life, whoe'er from earliest time With conscious zeal had urged Love's wondrous ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 68, February 15, 1851 • Various
... Van Deusen," cried Mrs. Mason, and a vigorous round of hand-claps was her answer. Handkerchiefs were waved and there was excitement among the ...
— A Woman for Mayor - A Novel of To-day • Helen M. Winslow
... though he laughed again in his dare-devil fashion as he turned to the sailors and shouted out the order, and straightway the sailors so swarmed hither and thither upon the deck that they seemed five times as many as before, and then we heard the hatches flung back with claps ...
— The Heart's Highway - A Romance of Virginia in the Seventeeth Century • Mary E. Wilkins
... conductor claps his hands the music must stop, and the players must remain in the attitudes in which they were when he gave the signal. Any one who fails to stop humming, or who changes his ...
— Entertainments for Home, Church and School • Frederica Seeger
... falcon claps his wings, No whit for grief, but noble heart and high, With loud glad noise he stirs himself and springs, And takes his meat and toward his lure draws nigh; Such good I wish you! Yea, and heartily I am fired with hope of true love's meed to get; Know that ...
— Poems & Ballads (Second Series) - Swinburne's Poems Volume III • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... Burn's brave song, And deeds of Wallace and Paul Jones for Right, Thy mother knows thee in the dark of night, And claps thee heart-close. She cries out: "Be strong, Soul of my soul! though not a Boswell quite, Still, be whole man! ...
— Freedom, Truth and Beauty • Edward Doyle
... thing, it makes a pleasant change—cela leur distrait. For instance, there is the Princess de L——, there's her villa, close by, with green blinds. She makes little excuses to go over to Havre, just for this—to be carried in the arms like an infant. You should hear her, she shouts and claps her hands! All the beach assembles to see her land. When she is wet she cries for joy. It is so difficult to amuse one's self, it ...
— In and Out of Three Normady Inns • Anna Bowman Dodd
... hands together all of a sudden and gazes at her like a guy gettin' his first flash at his hour-old son. Then he looks after Adams, grins and claps ...
— Kid Scanlan • H. C. Witwer
... creature of this calibre you can wither, for it is not worth crushing, by withholding the sunshine of your countenance from it, or by leaving it to drivel on, until the utter contempt of the whole company claps to change the figure—a wet night—cap as an extinguisher on it, and its small stinking flame flickers and goes out of itself. Then there is your sentimental water—fly, who blaws in the lugs of the women, and clips the King's English, and your high—flying ...
— Tom Cringle's Log • Michael Scott
... in the room, but it did not flare up as lightning would have done, and there were no loud claps of thunder. ...
— Six Little Bunkers at Cousin Tom's • Laura Lee Hope
... going to marry a cousin. I thought he romanced when be said so, but I suppose they are the cousins. Well, pity to spoil two houses with them say I, but they are off. Both hug Melty, Mrs. Haughton waves hand in the direction of the dollar. By-by, step- momma. By the shade of Lincoln, how Melty claps her hands in glee on seeing her wages in gold; she hastily pockets; one or two pieces roll to the floor. Ellen, the cook, enters, lamp in hand, unsteady of gait; Melty stoops to conquer the gold, picks up a shower- stick to ...
— A Heart-Song of To-day • Annie Gregg Savigny
... then another—and all the people scream 'la bora, la bora!' and you are caught up in their whirl and landed in some interior, the man with the guitar on one side of you, and the boy with a cageful of little brown owls for sale, on the other—meanwhile, the thunder claps, claps, with such a persistence, and the rain, for a finale, falls in a mass, as if you had knocked out the whole bottom of a huge tank at once—then there is a second stop—out comes the sun—somebody clinks at his glass, all the world bursts ...
— The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 • Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett
... is waiting me With smiles and pigeon-pie; And little Zi-Zi claps her hands With laughter loud and high; And if there's cause to growl, I fail To ...
— Ballads of a Bohemian • Robert W. Service
... watcher left the couch Of him she watched, since in his fitful sleep His lips would stir to wayward themes, and close With bodeful catches. Once she moved away, Half-deafened by terrific claps, and stooped And looked without—to see a pillar dim Of gathered gusts and ...
— The Poems of Henry Kendall • Henry Kendall
... exhibits some of her best performances to a very full house, so will the behaviour of her spectators no less admit the above-mentioned comparison than that of her actors. In this vast theatre of time are seated the friend and the critic; here are claps and shouts, hisses and groans; in short, everything which was ever seen or heard ...
— The History of Tom Jones, a foundling • Henry Fielding
... greasy sea-stained garments, contrasting oddly with the huge gold chain about his neck, waddles up, as if he had been born, and had lived ever since, in a gale of wind at sea. The upper half of his sharp dogged visage seems of brick-red leather, the lower of badger's fur; and as he claps Drake on the back, and, with a broad Devon twang, shouts, "be you a coming to drink your wine, Francis Drake, or be you not?—saving your presence, my lord;" the lord high admiral only laughs, and bids Drake go and drink his wine; for John Hawkins, admiral of the port, is the patriarch ...
— Westward Ho! • Charles Kingsley
... loof'd, The noble ruin of her magick, Antony, Claps on his sea-wing, and, like a doting mallard, Leaving the fight in height, flies after her; I never saw an action of such shame; Experience, manhood, honour, ne'er before ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 76, April 12, 1851 • Various
... the tow'r an' churchyard wall, Out nearly overright our door, A tongue ov wind did always call Whatever we did call avore. The vaice did mock our neaemes, our cheers, Our merry laughs, our hands' loud claps, An' mother's call "Come, come, my dears" —my dears; Or "Do as I do ...
— Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect • William Barnes
... train Spreads all the beach, and wide o'ershades the plain: Along the region runs a deafening sound; Beneath their footsteps groans the trembling ground. Fame flies before the messenger of Jove, And shining soars, and claps her wings above. Nine sacred heralds now, proclaiming loud(82) The monarch's will, suspend the listening crowd. Soon as the throngs in order ranged appear, And fainter murmurs died upon the ear, The king of kings his awful figure raised: High in his hand the golden sceptre ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer
... flee Thy presence none—confidingly Pour out their very hearts to thee. The mockbird sees thy tenderness Of deed; doth with melodiousness, In many tongues, thy praise express. And all the while, his dappled wings He claps his sides with, as he sings, From perch to perch his body flings: A poet he, to ecstasy Wrought by the sweets his tongue ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 1 July 1848 • Various
... me; It brought his ghost,—as you shall see. Says he, 'I'm Tom Track's ghost, that's flat.' Says I, 'Now only think on that.' Says he, 'I'm come to torment you now;' Which was hard lines,—as you'll allow. 'So, Master Ghost, belay your jaw; For if on me you claps a claw, My locker yonder will reveal, A tight rope's end, which you shall feel.' Then off his winding-sheet he throwed, And by his trousers Tom I knowed; He wasn't dead; but come to mess, So here's an end,—as you ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 183, April 30, 1853 • Various
... knows as how you told me you could not pay me a pitiful tizzy? Oh, you're a queer one, I warrants; but you won't queer Margery Lobkins. Out of my ken, you cur of the mange!—out of my ken; and if ever I claps my sees on you again, or if ever I knows as how you makes a flat of my Paul, blow me tight but I'll weave you a hempen collar,—I'll hang you, you dog, I will. What! you will answer me, will you? Oh, you viper, budge ...
— Paul Clifford, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... this while could not see him, on account of his invisible coat, so that Jack, coming up close to the monster, struck a blow with his sword at his head, but, missing his aim, he cut off the nose instead. At this, the giant roared like claps of thunder, and began to lay about him with his iron club like one stark mad. But Jack, running behind, drove his sword up to the hilt in the giant's back, so that he fell down dead. This done, Jack cut off the giant's head, and sent it, with his brother's also, to King ...
— English Fairy Tales • Joseph Jacobs (coll. & ed.)
... was Doctor Rank, but he doesn't come here professionally. He is our greatest friend, and comes in at least once every day. No, Torvald has not had an hour's illness since then, and our children are strong and healthy and so am I. (Jumps up and claps her hands.) Christine! Christine! it's good to be alive and happy!—But how horrid of me; I am talking of nothing but my own affairs. (Sits on a stool near her, and rests her arms on her knees.) You mustn't be angry with me. Tell me, is it really true that you did not love ...
— A Doll's House • Henrik Ibsen
... you'll be glad enough to eat up every one of them words the day you claps eyes on Master William, for a more splendid gentleman nor he never fetched ...
— Six Plays • Florence Henrietta Darwin
... impulse the dexterity of his art is poured forth; the long training of the workshop aids him. He paints the horse and makes it look not only like a real horse, but a particular one. The bourgeois claps his hands exclaiming, "See it is unmistakably old Dobbin, the white spot on his fetlock is there and his tail ragged on the end; and the laborer, I know him at once. How true to life with side whiskers and that ugly cut across the forehead and his hat with the ...
— Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures • Henry Rankin Poore
... to think that sometimes, in that cold and dismal hour before the dawn, when hope and courage are at their lowest ebb, there appears among the worn and homesick soldiers in the trenches the spirit of the Great Emperor. Cheeringly he claps each man upon ...
— Italy at War and the Allies in the West • E. Alexander Powell
... her, and they crept downstairs on tiptoe, holding their very breath in their efforts to be still, the stairs creeking at every step. Did you ever particularly want stairs to keep still, that they didn't creak like thunder-claps? ...
— Gypsy's Cousin Joy • Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
... his fellow stroules, in the summer he turnes king of the gipsies: if not, some great man's protection is a sufficient warrant for his peregrination, and a meanes to procure him the town-hall, where hee may long exercise his qualities, with clown-claps of great admiration, in a tone sutable to the large eares of his illiterate auditorie. Hee is one seldome takes care for old age, because ill diet and disorder, together with a consumption, or some worse disease, taken vp in his full careere, ...
— Microcosmography - or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters • John Earle
... club lying by his side. Jack, in his coat of darkness, was quite invisible. He drew close up to the giant and struck a blow at his head with his sword of sharpness; but he missed his aim and only cut off his nose. The giant roared with pain, and his roars were like claps of thunder. He took up his iron club and began to lay about him, but not being able to see Jack, he could not hit him; for Jack slipped nimbly behind, and jumping upon the block of wood, stabbed the giant in the ...
— Favorite Fairy Tales • Logan Marshall
... note from the Vladika's flute—a single note, sweet and subtle, which I can only compare with a note from a nightingale, vastly increased in powers. It, too, won through the thunder of the hand-claps, and on the second the sound ceased. The sudden stillness, together with the darkness, was so impressive that we could almost hear our hearts beating. And then came through the darkness the most beautiful and impressive ...
— The Lady of the Shroud • Bram Stoker
... lodgings; whilst others have lustily sworn that the soul was a vagrant, with no claim to any place of settlement whatever. Nevertheless, a vulgar notion has obtained that the soul dwelt on a little knob of the brain; and that there, like a vainglorious bantam-cock on a dunghill, it now claps its wings and crows all sorts of triumph—and now, silent and scratching, it thinks of nought but wheat and barley. The first step to knowledge is to confess to a late ignorance. We avow, then, our late benighted ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various |
