"Poor" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... and in the foregoing chapter we laid down the rule: Guard the avenues of impression and admit only such things as you wish to retain. This necessitates that you go slowly at first. This is a principle of all habit formation, but is especially important in habits of memorizing. Much of the poor memory that people complain about is due to the fact that they make first impressions carelessly. One reason why people fail to remember names is that they do not get a clear impression of the name at the start. They are ...
— How to Use Your Mind • Harry D. Kitson
... his illustration of this great principle gave Dickens the hint of his Dotheboy's Hall. You remember, doubtless, poor Harry Farmar's false quantity, and how Plunkett made him peel onions till he cried his eyes out; asserting his confidence in Horace's maxim, and that he had found the usual box on the ear quite incapable of any exciting effect on Harry's mind. Who would have said ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 62, No. 384, October 1847 • Various
... the engagement with Polly, and sitting in the parlour cried a little, and was sorry. But then "poor little Agnes" cried so easily nowadays. Richard said her nerves had been shattered by the terrible affair just before Christmas, when Mr. Glendinning had tried first to kill her, and then to cut ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson
... quoth he. "Everybody gets bald. The wisest people in the world lose their hair. Kings and generals, rich people and poor people, they are all bald! It is not a disgrace," said he; and he trod soberly forward in ...
— Here are Ladies • James Stephens
... Commission soon reached Boston [Sept. 19, 1634;] and it was at the same time rumoured that a Governor-General was on his way. The intelligence awakened the most intense interest in the whole colony, and led to the boldest measures. Poor as the new settlements were, six hundred pounds were raised towards fortifications; 'and the assistants and the deputies discovered their minds to one another,' and the fortifications were hastened. All the ministers assembled ...
— The Loyalists of America and Their Times, Vol. 1 of 2 - From 1620-1816 • Egerton Ryerson
... wisdom. Don't spoil it now, Harleston, don't spoil it now. Millionaires and day-labourers are the only classes that have any business to marry; the rest of us chaps either can't afford the luxury, or are not quite poor enough to be forced to marry in ...
— The Cab of the Sleeping Horse • John Reed Scott
... Lilly isn't going to leave her room until noon. No, wait. I want to speak to him myself. Hello, Albert? Well, bridegroom, good morning!... What's left of me is fine.... I'm making her stay in her room. Poor child, she's all nerves. Don't be late. I hate last-minute weddings. Did you see the item in the morning Globe?... Yes, the name is spelled wrong, Pen-nie, but there's quite a few lines. 'In lieu of a honeymoon,' it goes on to say, 'the young couple will go to housekeeping at once in their new ...
— Star-Dust • Fannie Hurst
... until August, 1289. He was then in sore straits for money, as was so often the case with him, and was glad of a present of L1,000 which the citizens offered by way of courtesy (curialitas). The money was ordered (14th October) to be levied by poll,(315) but many of the inhabitants were so poor that they could only find pledges for future payment, and these pledges were afterwards sold for what they would fetch.(316) A twelve-month later (October, 1290) when Edward visited London, he was fain to be content with the smaller sum of ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume I • Reginald R. Sharpe
... Lock them up for another year, if you must persist in your experiment, but don't, don't burn your bridges behind you! Oh, how can you think of leaving your splendid church and going off to consign yourself to oblivion, living with poor people the rest of your days? You—you—Don!—I can't believe ...
— The Brown Study • Grace S. Richmond
... the favorite, as the two peers passed his hiding place, "I have, indeed, had a most fortunate escape, for James is in poor condition to discuss even with Robert Carr, that which ...
— The Fifth of November - A Romance of the Stuarts • Charles S. Bentley
... possessions and form no ties. The monks and nuns are right. Let us shut ourselves up, and wear hair-cloth instead of merino, and catch our death of cold by moping around bare-foot at all unseasonable hours. All you said may be good religion, but it's mighty poor sense, and very unnatural." ...
— From Jest to Earnest • E. P. Roe
... at least a permissible short cut to heaven, it appears in modern times less as a separate school than as an aspect of most schools.[833] The simple and emotional character of Amidism, the directness of its "Come unto me," appeal so strongly to the poor and uneducated, that no monastery or temple could afford ...
— Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Charles Eliot
... shop of the tea-coffee-tobacco-and-snuff genus; and they lived as one family, entirely independent of any other village. In fact, the villages in that district were as sparingly distributed as are "livings" among poor curates, and, when met with, were equally as small; and so it happened, that as the landowners usually resided, like Mr. Honeywood, among their own people, a gentleman would occasionally be as badly off for a neighbour, as though he had been a resident in the backwoods of Canada. This evil, however, ...
— The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green • Cuthbert Bede
... "Poor dear old Gilly! We renamed him this morning. He is to be Foxy Grandpa hereafter, you know; not alone because he told the Grey Foxes what he was going to do, but because he planned such a beautiful snare and ran ...
— Girl Scouts in the Adirondacks • Lillian Elizabeth Roy
... Livingstone, I must conclude by assuring you of the tender interest we shall ever feel in your operations. It is not only as the husband of our departed Mary and the father of her children, but as one who has laid himself out for the emancipation of this poor wretched continent, and for opening new doors of entrance for the heralds of salvation (not that I would not have preferred your remaining in your former capacity). I nevertheless rejoice in what you are allowed to accomplish. ...
— The Personal Life Of David Livingstone • William Garden Blaikie
... woman was poor Lady Glencora. Mr Palliser's face became black beneath The Times newspaper. "I did not know," said he, "that my friend Mr Bott ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope
... "Poor Salome!" he murmured, closing the sash. "Foolish Salome! She thinks she is the cause of my ruin; but she is not. I wish to God I could say I am not the ...
— A Dream of Empire - Or, The House of Blennerhassett • William Henry Venable
... city of Portland possessed the most northerly harbour on the Atlantic coast of the United States. Mr John A. Poor, whose lifetime was devoted to the extension of railways in northern New England, dreamed of making it, by a road to Montreal, the outlet of the trade of the West, at least so far as freight traffic went. Passengers ...
— The Railway Builders - A Chronicle of Overland Highways • Oscar D. Skelton
... big spider and weave a net to catch men and destroy them. You destroy alike your victims and your tools. The poor boy, Peter Gudge, whom you sent to my home—my heart bleeds when I think of him, and what you have put him up to! A wretched, feeble-minded victim of greed, who ought to be sent to a hospital for deformed ...
— 100%: The Story of a Patriot • Upton Sinclair
... We'll settle this business pretty quickly, now you've come. Then—Steady, boy! Steady! Hold up! This poor horse of mine is just about foundered, by the feel of him. He'll reach Doonha, though. Then we'll ask Carter to make a dash on Hanadra and bring Mrs. Bellairs—maybe we'll meet her and the Risaldar half-way—who knows? The sepoys wouldn't expect that, either. The move'd puzzle ...
— Told in the East • Talbot Mundy
... Rosie; "we have all been told again and again that you were to decide upon the name on your arrival; and you've been here—how many hours?—and it seems the poor little dear ...
— Elsie at Nantucket • Martha Finley
... decidedly low places of entertainment. There she would enjoy herself, looking on with eager interest at the coarse and gaudy representations of so-called "life." She would never laugh loudly, however, or applaud noisily, although she encouraged and smiled at those who did. She was very poor, but she was always neat in her person; and the expression in her big black eyes gave her a look a little above her station, so that, although she was not handsome, those who saw her once often turned to glance at her ...
— A Girl of the People • L. T. Meade
... Martin in royal rage—"The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of 'Woman's Rights,' with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feeling and propriety. Lady—ought to get a GOOD WHIPPING. It is a subject which makes the Queen so furious that she cannot contain herself. God created men and women different—then ...
— Queen Victoria • Lytton Strachey
... Boston. She was covered with dirt—the remains of mud pies I had compelled her to eat, although she had never shown any special liking for them. The laundress at the Perkins Institution secretly carried her off to give her a bath. This was too much for poor Nancy. When I next saw her she was a formless heap of cotton, which I should not have recognized at all except for the two bead eyes which ...
— Story of My Life • Helen Keller
... a few weeks in our present miserable abode, and had fully recovered my health, though I think that I was a little crazed with the prints, and the subjects of them, over which I daily pored in the large Bible, when the greatest misfortune of all came upon the poor Brandons—and that was, to add to their other losses, the loss of ...
— Rattlin the Reefer • Edward Howard
... one hand down into his pocket. I saw him draw out some money, which the man took; then poor Dempster came back on a run, ...
— Phemie Frost's Experiences • Ann S. Stephens
... standing on short wooden legs. I made the interesting discovery that it was a stove of the feminine persuasion; "Little Lottie" was the name which I spelled out in the broken letters that it wore across its glowing heart. And straightway Little Lottie became more human than ever—poor Little Lottie, the one solitary bright and cheerful object within these four smoke-grimed walls which I had ...
— The Long Day - The Story of a New York Working Girl As Told by Herself • Dorothy Richardson
... out,—the proceeds of the estate had been paid by the steward or farmer to the warden, and by him divided among the bedesmen; after which division he paid himself such sums as became his due. Times had been when the poor warden got nothing but his bare house, for the patches had been subject to floods, and the land of Barchester butts was said to be unproductive; and in these hard times the warden was hardly able to make out the daily dole for his twelve ...
— The Warden • Anthony Trollope
... didn't care about him," began Ishmael, then stopped, feeling he was a poor advocate of a simple and unmistakable method ...
— Secret Bread • F. Tennyson Jesse
... her see a good deal of Robin if you can. Poor Beattie! She'll never have a child of ...
— In the Wilderness • Robert Hichens
... bread; but the art of bread-making was the growth of ages, and Charles Goodyear was only ten years and a half in perfecting his process. Thousands of ingenious men and women, aided by many happy accidents, must have contributed to the successive invention of bread; but he was only one man, poor and sick. It cost him thousands of failures to learn that a little acid in his sulphur caused the blistering; that his compound must be heated almost immediately after being mixed, or it would never ...
— Famous Americans of Recent Times • James Parton
... "you don't think I would steal? A man in my position? Absurd. Look through my poor luggage if you desire. You will find nothing but the ...
— Seven Keys to Baldpate • Earl Derr Biggers
... the oath-breaker, the butcher of December, the sly, slow diplomate of Europe, the man of Rome, of Mexico, the man now reeling back to Chalons under the iron blows of an aroused people. In Paris, already, they cursed his name; they hurled insults at the poor Empress, that mother in despair. Thiers, putting his senile fingers in the porridge, stirred a ferment that had not even germinated since the guillotine towered in the Place de la Concorde and the ...
— Lorraine - A romance • Robert W. Chambers
... poor thing," said Mr. Jelly in Pete's ear as John the Clerk went off. "No more music in the man than my ould sow. Did you hear the horn this morning, sir? Never got up so early for a wedding before. I'll be giving you 'the Black and the Grey' going ...
— The Manxman - A Novel - 1895 • Hall Caine
... knew that I had covered more than half the road. My ear had been alert for the sound of pursuit, but the bush was quiet as the grave. The man who rode my pony would find him a slow traveller, and I pitied the poor beast bucketed along by an angry rider. Gradually a hazy wall of purple began to shimmer before me, apparently very far off. I knew the ramparts of the Rooirand, and let my Schimmel feel my knees in his ribs. Within an hour I should be ...
— Prester John • John Buchan
... the privileged circle. This junction is at present the great fact of English politics, and was the main cause of the overthrow of the Liberal Government in 1874. The growth of the great cities itself seems likely, as the number of poor householders increases, to furnish Reaction with auxiliaries in the shape of political Lazzaroni capable of being organized by wealth in opposition to the higher order of workmen and the middle class. In Harrington's "Oceana," there is much nonsense, but it rises ...
— Lectures and Essays • Goldwin Smith
... poor visibility conditions and the deepening twilight, it must be admitted also that Scheer handled his ships with great skill. Caught in a noose by an overwhelming force, he disentangled himself by means of the torpedo attacks ...
— A History of Sea Power • William Oliver Stevens and Allan Westcott
... I saw him run out from cover some hundred yards away, aiming his long-gun: but no report followed: and in half a minute he was under her fore-paws, she striking out slaps at the barking, shrinking dogs. Maitland roared for my help: and at that moment, I, poor wretch, in far worse plight than he, stood shivering in ague: for suddenly one of those wrangles of the voices of my destiny was filling my bosom with loud commotion, one urging me to fly to Maitland's aid, one passionately commanding me be still. But it lasted, I believe, some ...
— The Purple Cloud • M.P. Shiel
... is their way. They chop each melon so that the poor people cannot fish them out and eat anyway. They do the same with the oranges, with the apples. Ah, the fishermen! There is a trust. When the boats catch too much fish, the trust throws them overboard from Fisherman Wharf, boat-loads, and ...
— The Valley of the Moon • Jack London
... the room, and after an hour or so Jane went over the hill, and Aunt Hildy stepped as firmly as before she came. Poor Aunt Hildy, this was the sorrow she had borne. I was glad she knew they were dead, for uncertainty is harder to bear than certainty. I wondered how it came that I should never have known and dimly remembered something about some one's going away strangely, ...
— The Harvest of Years • Martha Lewis Beckwith Ewell
... arouse wonder and surmise, even if Hannah could be induced to bring her the letter and give her sufficient light to read it. The old nurse would think her crazy or delirious, perhaps run and call her aunt and uncle. No, no; that was not to be thought of, the poor child said to herself as she lay and reasoned this all out; she must wait till the day came, and then she must contrive to read the letter when she was alone. Then she could decide whether or no it would do to take Colonel and Mrs. Rush into her confidence. She could not bear to think of keeping ...
— Bessie Bradford's Prize • Joanna H. Mathews
... in ten minutes,' was the waiter's false reply; for up to that moment poor Alaric had not yet succeeded in lifting his throbbing head from his pillow. The boots was now with him administering soda-water and brandy, and he was pondering in his sickened mind whether, by a manful effort, he could rise and dress himself; or whether he would not throw ...
— The Three Clerks • Anthony Trollope
... obedience to my elders and betters. You told me to go down and see how Mrs. Lankton's 'neurology' was; and I went. I found the poor old thing in bed, and moaning piteously. I am bound to say, however, that the moans did not begin till after I clicked the latch. It is frightful to see how suspicious a course of Mrs. Lankton always makes me. I went in, and the room was hermetically sealed, with a roaring fire in the ...
— Hildegarde's Neighbors • Laura E. Richards
... hoops; or attempting to get rid of poverty by converting the whole nation into paupers. No one, perhaps, will deny this in terms; and to admit it frankly is to admit that every scheme must be judged by its tendency to "raise the manhood of the poor," and to make every man, rich and poor, feel that he is discharging a useful function in society. Old Robert Owen, when he began his reforms, rested his doctrine and his hopes of perfectibility upon the scientific application of a scheme for "the formation of character". His plans were crude ...
— Social Rights and Duties, Volume I (of 2) - Addresses to Ethical Societies • Sir Leslie Stephen
... or limb, he spent nearly every hour in devising ways and means to help the South. Time and time again he said to me, during this visit, that it was not only the duty of the country to assist in elevating the Negro of the South, but the poor white man as well. At the end of his visit I resolved anew to devote myself more earnestly than ever to the cause which was so near his heart. I said that if a man in his condition was willing to think, work, and act, I should not be wanting ...
— Up From Slavery: An Autobiography • Booker T. Washington
... boards, or an unhinged door, supported upon stools, the face exposed, the rest of the body covered with a white sheet. Bound the body are stuck in brass candlesticks, which have been borrowed perhaps at five miles' distance, as many candles as the poor person can beg or borrow, observing always to have an odd number. Pipes and tobacco are first distributed, and then, according to the ability of the deceased, cakes and ale, and sometimes whiskey, are dealt ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. IV • Maria Edgeworth
... about in clods; fowls and cats had so taken possession of the out- buildings, that I couldn't help thinking of the fairy tales, and eyeing them with suspicion, as transformed retainers, waiting to be changed back again. One old Tom in particular: a scraggy brute, with a hungry green eye (a poor relation, in reality, I am inclined to think): came prowling round and round me, as if he half believed, for the moment, that I might be the hero come to marry the lady, and set all to-rights; but discovering his mistake, ...
— Pictures from Italy • Charles Dickens
... encounters with the giants of Brobdingnag.... By a singular dispensation of Providence, we usually read the Travels while we are children; we are delighted with the marvellous story, we are not at all injured by the poison. Poor Swift! he was conscious of insanity's approach; he repeated annually Job's curse upon the day of his ...
— Gulliver's Travels - Into Several Remote Regions of the World • Jonathan Swift
... current issues: deforestation; soil erosion; land degradation; air and water pollution; the black rhinoceros herd - once the largest concentration of the species in the world - has been significantly reduced by poaching; poor mining practices have led to toxic waste ...
— The 2005 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... Publican sped himself; it will happen unto them much as it happened unto the vagabond Jews, exorcists, who took upon them to call over them that had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus; that were beaten by that spirit, and made fly out of that house naked and wounded, Acts xix. 13. Poor sinner, thou wilt say the Publican's prayer, and make the Publican's confession, and say, "God be merciful to me a sinner." But hold; dost thou do it with the Publican's heart, sense, dread, and simplicity? If ...
— The Pharisee And The Publican • John Bunyan
... poverty and with none of the luxuries of life, are convinced that they are sincere in what they teach, and have really given up home and friends and ease and safety, for the good of others. No wonder they make converts, for it must be a great blessing to the poor people among whom they labour to have a man among them to whom they can go in any trouble or distress, who will comfort and advise them, who visits them in sickness, who relieves them in want, and who they see living from day-to-day in danger of persecution ...
— The Malay Archipelago - Volume I. (of II.) • Alfred Russel Wallace
... Jones, who was so stunned he did not try to dodge. "Thoughtless man! Murderer! it's too late!" cried Wallace, laying me back across his knees. "It's too late. His teeth are locked. He's far gone. Poor boy! poor boy! ...
— The Last of the Plainsmen • Zane Grey
... Union came, was accepting a partner with very poor material resources. As regards agriculture, for example, vast regions were untilled, or tilled only in the straths and fertile spots by the hardy clansmen, who could not raise oats enough for their own subsistence, and periodically endured ...
— A Short History of Scotland • Andrew Lang
... came early in the morning with music to awaken his bride, instead of a living Juliet, her chamber presented the dreary spectacle of a lifeless corse. What death to his hopes! What confusion then reigned through the whole house! Poor Paris lamenting his bride, whom most detestable death had beguiled him of, had divorced from him even before their hands were joined. But still more piteous it was to hear the mournings of the old Lord and Lady ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb
... "why the poor, ignorant fool—can't you see that the vein is getting bigger? Well, how can it be a gash-vein when it's between two good walls and increasing in width all the time? Your friend must ...
— Silver and Gold - A Story of Luck and Love in a Western Mining Camp • Dane Coolidge
... and twenty seamen, arrived overland from Fredericton, New Brunswick. The Indians, Ottawas, Chippewas, Shawnees, Delawares, Mohawks, Saiks, Foxes, Kickapoos, and Winebagoes, came to Quebec to inform the Governor General that they were poor and needed arms, but would fight to the last drop of blood for the British against the Americans, who had taken away their lands, General Prevost was, of course, exceedingly glad to hear it, and having expressed his regret for the death of Tecumseh, he loaded them with presents, ...
— The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation - Volume 1 • Charles Roger
... closed his eyes and his tired face touched Pen's heart. "You poor dear!" she exclaimed. "It was awfully hard on you ...
— Still Jim • Honore Willsie Morrow
... eight or ten Americans in the party the whole matter was a huge joke and we admired the spunk of the Bishop's wife, but the poor Japanese police officer was facing what he ...
— Flash-lights from the Seven Seas • William L. Stidger
... sweeps past him out of the room, without even making an inquiry about that priceless idea, leaving poor Potts rooted to the ground, striving wildly, but vainly, to convict himself ...
— Molly Bawn • Margaret Wolfe Hamilton
... taken in hand by the poor woman whose privilege it was to show the ruins. For a little distance they walked up the path in single file; not that it was too narrow to accommodate two, but M. Lacordaire's courage had not yet been screwed to a point which admitted of his ...
— The Chateau of Prince Polignac • Anthony Trollope
... you always with him, and solace him with your companionship and converse." Prince Bahman, prostrating himself before the presence, answered, "'Tis the very end and aim of all our wishes, O Shadow of Allah upon Earth, that on the morrow when thou shalt come from the chase and pass by our poor house, thou graciously deign enter and rest in it awhile, thereby conferring the highmost of honours upon ourselves and upon our sister. Albeit the place is not worthy of the Shahinshah's exalted presence, yet at times do mighty Kings condescend to visit the huts of their slaves." The King, ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton
... you," she said. "Poor soul! how tired you sound. Another day of miserable failure, I suppose. Never mind, come and sit down in the warm, and you'll ...
— The Phantom Lover • Ruby M. Ayres
... that the whole of the grocery stores—tea, coffee, dried vegetables, and jars and drawers of sweetstuff—were gradually devoured. Irma was still going to school, when, one day, the place was sold up. Her father died of a fit of apoplexy, and Irma sought refuge with a poor aunt, who gave her more kicks than halfpence, with the result that she ended by running away, and taking her flight through all the dancing-places of ...
— His Masterpiece • Emile Zola
... never! Their fates were fixed. For him, poor insect as he was, a solitary flight by day, and a return at evening to his wingless mate! For her—he thought he saw ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1867 • Various
... eyed her carefully. "I gave 'em away," he said, slowly. "Two poor, hungry little chaps stood looking at me. I am awfully fond of children, and before I knew ...
— Salthaven • W. W. Jacobs
... offer my father a share of the land, if some honest lawyers, whom he quoted, could find proper means for arranging it. But my father said: "If I cannot have my rights, I will have my wrongs. No mixture of the two for me." And so, for the last few years of his life, being now very poor and a widower, he took refuge in an outlandish place, a house and small property in the heart of Exmoor, which had come to the Fords on the spindle side, and had been overlooked when their patrimony was confiscated by the Brewer. Of him I would speak ...
— Slain By The Doones • R. D. Blackmore
... determin'd to punish him. As all the costly Jewels, and other valuable Decorations, in which every young Widow that sacrificed her self on her Husband's Funeral-pile, were their customary Fees, 'tis no great Wonder, indeed, that they were inclin'd to burn poor Zadig, for playing them such a scurvy Trick. Zadig therefore, was accus'd of holding heretical and damnable Tenets, in regard to the Celestial Host: They depos'd, and swore point-blank, that he had been heard to aver, that the ...
— Zadig - Or, The Book of Fate • Voltaire
... wooded character and grew more sombre and less fertile the farther they left the Loire behind them. Trot, trot! Trot, trot!—for ever, it seemed to some. Javette wept with fatigue, and the other women were little better. The Countess herself spoke seldom except to cheer the Provost's daughter; who, poor girl, flung suddenly out of the round of her life and cast among strangers, showed a better spirit than might have been expected. At length, on the slopes of some low hills, which they had long seen ...
— Count Hannibal - A Romance of the Court of France • Stanley J. Weyman
... cackled the old sailor, in the darkness. "But this is a poor time to spend in love-makin', cap'n. Wait till we git settled down ag'in. Tom an' me'll agree ...
— Frank Merriwell Down South • Burt L. Standish
... on which the notice had been posted a few moments later. She turned up her nose after having read the order to be present at the Council Fire and wanted to know if the Camp Girls were too poor to buy paper. She said she had plenty of writing paper and declared that she would offer it to Mrs. Livingston so the Chief Guardian would not have to write her orders on bark ...
— The Meadow-Brook Girls Under Canvas • Janet Aldridge
... year 1662, the first work of the Recollect on the coast of Luzon opposite Manila begins, with the invitation of the Franciscans who are engaged in work there, but who must give up that field, a poor one, because of a scarcity of religious. Quickly accepting the invitation, the Recollects enter upon the work with enthusiasm, and found the convents of Binangonan, Valer, Casiguran, and Palanan. In that district much fruit for heaven is gathered; ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume 41 of 55, 1691-1700 • Various
... at the ornery little devil! He took advantage of the poor workingmen's trustfulness, got 'em in debt to him, then went and begun buying over their shares, so they had to leave the shop because he wouldn't hire 'em to do their own work, but went and hired cheaper men. Listen to the ...
— The Gibson Upright • Booth Tarkington
... even the children (to my grief) touching them freely; the elder chatting at intervals—the girl in the same black weed and bowed in the same attitude as yesterday. It was painfully plain she would conceal, if possible, her face. Perhaps she had been beautiful: certainly, poor soul, she had been vain—a gift of equal value. Some consultation followed; I was told that nothing was required for outfit, but a gift in money would be gratefully received; and this (forgetting I was in the South Seas) I was about to make in silence. The confounded expression of the schoolmaster ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 18 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... playing with the Liberal women, promising support and then laughing the matter off. But they are now reduced to an appeal to the maternal instinct of the women. They say it is unloving of them to oppose their own kind. Politics is a poor game, but this ...
— A Short History of Women's Rights • Eugene A. Hecker
... "Poor child!" he said. "It's a shame to make you remember. But I'm afraid it is inevitable. Won't you lie on the sofa? You will find it ...
— The Rocks of Valpre • Ethel May Dell
... a writer, but as a man. In all the relations of son, brother, father, he is deserving all honour; and I know not another instance of such long-continued, sincere, and graceful friendships, through all varieties of fortune, from the Cardinal of Cabassole, to the poor fisherman at Vaucluse, as his life offers; including literary friendships, which, after so many years, passed without one discordant feeling of rivalry or jealousy, ended so generously and beautifully, with his bequest to poor Boccaccio of "five hundred florins of the gold of Florence, to buy ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. XVII. No. 469. Saturday January 1, 1831 • Various
... the eastward, came galloping over the temporary drawbridge with a warning to Don Hermoso to fly, with all his family and dependents, since Weyler, with his army of butchers, was already approaching in such overpowering strength that nothing could possibly stand before him. The poor fellow gasped out a breathless story of ruthlessly savage murder and destruction, telling how he had seen every atom of his property looted and burnt, every member of his family shot down; and how he had at the last moment escaped by the skin of his teeth, with the horse he rode ...
— The Cruise of the Thetis - A Tale of the Cuban Insurrection • Harry Collingwood
... himself along the ground like a whipped cur, as he went up to John and said: "Why are you silent, John? Your words are like golden apples in vessels of silver filigree; bestow one of them on Judas, who is so poor." ...
— The Crushed Flower and Other Stories • Leonid Andreyev
... how it was in a moment. The poor girl had apparently been tempted into trying to get at some of the yellow lilies and silvery water crowfoot which were growing abundantly in the centre of the wide moat, and to effect this she had entered a clumsy old boat that was evidently utilised for clearing out the weeds and ...
— In the King's Name - The Cruise of the "Kestrel" • George Manville Fenn
... brambles seemed to have a special penchant for Mrs. Hading's flying ends of tulle and lace, and she spent most of her time disengaging herself while Druro went ahead, pushing branches out of the way. Poor Marice! Her feet ached in their high-heeled shoes, and her French toilette was created for a salon and not out-of-door walking. Truly, she was no veld-woman. What came as a matter of course to Gay was a tragedy ...
— Blue Aloes - Stories of South Africa • Cynthia Stockley
... ultimately renders the private soldier independent of the officer, and thus destroys the bond of discipline. This is a mistake, for there are two kinds of discipline, which it is important not to confound. When the officer is noble and the soldier a serf—one rich, the other poor—the former educated and strong, the latter ignorant and weak—the strictest bond of obedience may easily be established between the two men. The soldier is broken in to military discipline, as it were, before he enters the army; or rather, military discipline is nothing but an enhancement ...
— Democracy In America, Volume 2 (of 2) • Alexis de Tocqueville
... distant, and get guides from him to lead me back to the main river beyond Loanda, and by this plan only three days of the stream will be passed over unvisited. Thani would evidently like to receive the payment, but without securing to me the object for which I pay. He is a poor thing, a slaveling: Syed Majid, Sheikh Suleiman, and Koroje, have all written to him, urging an assisting deportment in vain: I never see him but he begs something, and gives nothing, I suppose he expects me to beg from him. I ...
— The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume II (of 2), 1869-1873 • David Livingstone
... experience, are so varied. The effects produced by deep ploughing on the estates of the Marquis of Tweeddale, are familiarly known to most Scottish agriculturists, and they are at once explained by the analyses of the soil and subsoil here given, which show that the latter, though poor in some important constituents, contains more than twice as ...
— Elements of Agricultural Chemistry • Thomas Anderson
... to bring this box home, with your own little hands, to poor grandma, honey, and—and if you don't change your mind, why—why, you can send it. You be the one to bring it to her, honey. Remember, it's a wise girlie knows when to ...
— Humoresque - A Laugh On Life With A Tear Behind It • Fannie Hurst
... looking over the rail and speaking in monosyllables: no bridge, no glasses clinking with ice, no elaborate toilets and carefully dressed hair, no flash of jewels, no light laughter following one of poor Vail's sallies. ...
— The After House • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... strangely enough she had no idea even at this moment what his business was, except that from some casual remark she judged that he was familiar with mercantile life; he might have some money or he might be very poor, she had not the least idea which it was; he might be of an old and honored family, or his father might have been a blacksmith, and his mother even now a washer-woman. She admitted to herself that she knew nothing at all about it; and she was obliged also to admit ...
— The Chautauqua Girls At Home • Pansy, AKA Isabella M. Alden
... called to see him. She had discarded her rainbow-colored garb, and was clothed in funereal black. When she entered Giles' study he saw that her eyes were red, and her face swollen with weeping. He felt extremely sorry for the poor girl, and privately determined to look after her as Denham had requested. Meantime he did his best to ...
— A Coin of Edward VII - A Detective Story • Fergus Hume
... turned away one artist: the poor creature was utterly incompetent to depict the sublime, graceful, and pathetic personages and events with which this history will most assuredly abound, and I doubt whether even the designer engaged ...
— The Newcomes • William Makepeace Thackeray
... she, "a fear which is insulting to you. You came in so hurriedly that I had not time to see whom I was talking to. My house is rather lonely; I am alone; ill-disposed people might easily take advantage of these circumstances to plunder a poor woman who has little enough to lose. The times are so bad! You seem tired. Will ...
— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere
... his children, who were shouting joyfully about his knees, he asked at once after Herse, the head groom, and whether anything had been heard from him. Lisbeth answered, "Oh yes, dearest Michael—that Herse! Just think! The poor fellow arrived here about a fortnight ago, most pitifully bruised and beaten; really, he was so battered that he couldn't even breathe freely. We put him to bed, where he kept coughing up blood, and after repeated questions we heard a story that no one could understand. ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IV • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke
... poor old Ahuna, or let loose upon him the ghost of Kaaukuu's father, supposed to be crouching there in the corner, who commanded Ahuna to divulge to her the burial- place. I tried to stiffen him up, telling ...
— On the Makaloa Mat/Island Tales • Jack London
... no particular reason because a few others have led the way, and they end by believing that the man whom they are acclaiming is almost divine; yet it is certain that they elected this man on the whole because of the two he had more points in common with them, this poor despicable and very unheroic thing was the person whom they delighted to honour because they themselves were very unheroic and somewhat despicable. We cannot see the greatness of a truly great man unless there is just a bit of greatness in ourselves; Christ was too big and too divine ...
— Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known Characters • George Milligan, J. G. Greenhough, Alfred Rowland, Walter F.
... afraid of taking cold, sleeping out of doors?" asked Sam, who, poor as he had always been, had never been without a roof to ...
— The Young Outlaw - or, Adrift in the Streets • Horatio Alger
... cried Jack, imploringly, "don't look like that. It makes me think so of poor mamma. You look so like her. I say don't, or you'll make me cry too; and I won't," he cried, grinding his teeth. "I said I'd never cry again, because it's ...
— Off to the Wilds - Being the Adventures of Two Brothers • George Manville Fenn
... Milverton. Poor animal! it little knows that all this sudden notice is only by way of ridiculing us. Why I did not maintain my ground stoutly against Dunsford is, that I am always afraid of pushing moral conclusions too far. ...
— Friends in Council (First Series) • Sir Arthur Helps
... plates constitutes the working part of the furnace. This is lined on the bottom and sides with a packing of fine charcoal, O, or such other material as is both a poor conductor of heat and electricity—as, for example, in some cases, silica or pulverized corundum or well-burned lime—and the charge, P, of ore and broken, granular, or pulverized carbon occupies the ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 508, September 26, 1885 • Various
... immense advantages of the Short-Time system to the cause of good education is the great diminution of its cost, and of the period of time over which it extends. The last is a most important consideration, as poor parents are always impatient to profit by their ...
— The Uncommercial Traveller • Charles Dickens
... "National Republican," published in Washington, with corruption, and that I was interested in and would make money through the syndicate. It was said that I "came to the United States Senate several years ago a poor and perhaps a honest man. To-day he pays taxes on a computed property of over half a million, all made during his senatorial term, on a salary of $6,000 a year and perquisites." My property at home and in Washington was discussed by this letter, and the inference was drawn that in some way, by ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman
... the cups and saucers and other things that Alice handed her from the cupboard; and when a few minutes after the tea and the cakes came in, and she and Alice were cosily seated, poor Ellen hardly knew herself in such a pleasant state ...
— The Wide, Wide World • Susan Warner
... over von Horn's shoulder. "Ah, poor Number One," he sighed, "that you should have come to such an ...
— The Monster Men • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... principally the property of a wild faction, named M'Kippeen, whose great delight is to keep up perpetual feud against an opposite faction of the O'Squads, who on their part are every whit as eager for the fray as their enemies. These are also poor enough, and in an election are not to be depended on. I should say, in addition to this, that several renewal, fines will fall in during the course of the winter. I shall, however, examine the leases, and other documents, ...
— Valentine M'Clutchy, The Irish Agent - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton
... teach man wisdom. Though we are come so far, we know not whether He will please to teach you by us, or no. If He teaches you, you will learn wisdom; but we can do nothing." All the inference which the poor Indian could draw from this was, that he who had come as a religious teacher disclaimed his own abilities, and referred to a divine Instructer, of whom the Mico could know nothing as yet, by whom alone the converting knowledge was ...
— Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe • Thaddeus Mason Harris
... I'm wrong. I just stopped there, but I have a poor memory for names," said the stranger quickly. "But permit me to introduce myself. I'm John Wakely, of Buffalo. I'm a stranger in New York, and, as you are also, I thought we might go about ...
— The Boy from the Ranch - Or Roy Bradner's City Experiences • Frank V. Webster
... tea in the lounge of the Empire Hotel, followed the tall restless young man with their eyes. He was worth looking at, so big and fine, and bronzed, and so worried, so anxious-looking, poor fellow. ...
— The Imaginary Marriage • Henry St. John Cooper
... the incomparable achievement of certain harmonies in colour; it is the negation, the immolation, the annihilation of everything else. By the code which accepts as the highest of models and of masterpieces the cups and fans and screens with which "the poor world" has been as grievously "pestered" of late years as ever it was in Shakespeare's time "with such waterflies"—"diminutives of nature"—as excited the scorn of his moralizing cynic, Velasquez is as unquestionably condemned as is Raphael or Titian. It is true that this ...
— The Gentle Art of Making Enemies • James McNeill Whistler
... rude young scamp to whom I shall have to teach respect for his sister. But Mrs. Lorton, dearest—I'm afraid she won't be pleased. I ought to have told you, Nell, that I'm a poor man." ...
— Nell, of Shorne Mills - or, One Heart's Burden • Charles Garvice
... any more than I am hustling," panted poor Jimmy. "Do you want me to drop down of heart failure or ...
— The Radio Boys Trailing a Voice - or, Solving a Wireless Mystery • Allen Chapman
... of the closing scene of poor Keats's life were 60 not made known to me until the Elegy was ready for the press. I am given to understand that the wound which his sensitive spirit had received from the criticism of Endymion was exasperated by ...
— Adonais • Shelley
... miles of railway have been built to carry the traffic of the country. Most of them were built by private corporations, but on account of financial difficulties and poor service they were acquired by the government. The policy proved a ...
— Commercial Geography - A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges • Jacques W. Redway
... blade, when the panther, satisfied, no doubt, threw herself gracefully at his feet and glanced up at him with a look in which, despite her natural ferocity, a glimmer of goodwill was apparent. The poor Provencal, thus frustrated for the nonce, [Footnote: For the nonce: for the present.] ate his dates as he leaned against one of the palm-trees, casting an interrogating glance from time to time across the desert in quest of some deliverer, ...
— Short Stories and Selections for Use in the Secondary Schools • Emilie Kip Baker
... ram she was strapped, face to the tail, and so ran the gauntlet of the yelling host in the courtyard, and of the Countess of Hauterive's chill gaze from the parvise. By this time she had become a mere doll, poor wretch; and as there is no pleasure in a love of justice which is not quickened by a sense of judgment, the pursuers tired after the first mad bout. Some, indeed, found that they had hurt themselves severely by excess of zeal. This was looked upon as clear ...
— The Forest Lovers • Maurice Hewlett
... how many, then, will there be in a series of years? Should he that decides suits at law make gain his ordinary motive and hear causes with a view to receiving bribes, then will the suits of the rich man be like a stone flung into water,* while the plaints of the poor will resemble water cast on a stone. In such circumstances, the poor man will not know whither to betake himself, and the duty of a minister will not ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi
... I can assist you in defeating a base and mercenary design against this poor young lady, you have but to show me how. One thing is clear, Peschicra was not personally engaged in this abduction, since I have been with him all day; and—now I think of it—I begin to hope that you ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... pity could raise these weak, [15] pitifully poor objects from their choice of self-degrada- tion to the nobler purposes and wider aims of a life made honest: a life in which the fresh flowers of feeling blos- som, and, like the camomile, the more trampled upon, the sweeter the odor ...
— Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896 • Mary Baker Eddy
... system of this kind was apt to give rise to abuses, and it was found that a few of the more unscrupulous planters, not content with the ordinary profits, stooped to the shameful meanness of cheating the poor islander out of his hard-earned reward. They hurried him on board a vessel, and sent after him a parcel containing a few shillings worth of property; then, when he reached his home, he found that all his toil and his years ...
— History of Australia and New Zealand - From 1606 to 1890 • Alexander Sutherland
... will be young again in a week or two," May observed, consolingly; and at that instant an emerald light struck full upon the white facade of San Giorgio, and straightway the poor old moon was consigned to the ...
— A Venetian June • Anna Fuller
... Surely, too, it is time for the American people to rebuke that class of politicians, North and South, whose only capital consists in keeping up a fruitless warfare upon the subject of slavery—nay! abundant in fruits to the poor colored man; but to him, "their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter; their vine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel ...
— Cotton is King and The Pro-Slavery Arguments • Various
... empirically established and acted upon by farmers, while yet there has been no conception of them as science; such as that particular manures are suited to particular plants; that crops of certain kinds unfit the soil for other crops; that horses cannot do good work on poor food; that such and such diseases of cattle and sheep are caused by such and such conditions. These, and the every-day knowledge which the agriculturist gains by experience respecting the management of plants and ...
— Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects - Everyman's Library • Herbert Spencer
... it won't do for me, sir; no, sir—I see you are an attorney—ready to prosecute some of my poor young men for breach of promise; but we stand no nonsense of that kind in the gallant Sucking Pidgeons. So, trot off, old man, and take your decoy-duck with you, or I think its extremely likely you'll be tost in a blanket. Do you hear?—go for your broken-hearted ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various
... Lord Keeper to his repose in this poor chamber of ours," said the Master of Ravenswood, interrupting his talkative domestic, who immediately turning to the doorway, with a profound reverence, prepared to usher his master from ...
— Bride of Lammermoor • Sir Walter Scott
... Poor Titchfield[21] died last night at eight o'clock, having lingered for some days in a state which gave to his family alternate hopes and fears. He was better till yesterday afternoon, when he was ...
— The Greville Memoirs - A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William - IV, Volume 1 (of 3) • Charles C. F. Greville
... injuring anything weak and helpless. To despise the world's social code, and then to fall conspicuously below its simplest articles; to aim at being pure intelligence, pure open-eyed rationality, and not even to succeed in being a gentleman, as the poor commonplace world understands it! Oh, to fall at her feet, and ask her pardon before parting for ever! But no—no more posing; no more dramatising. How can he get away most quietly—make least sign? The thought of that walk home in ...
— Robert Elsmere • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... be glad," said the doctor, "to allow you to see him, were it not for his extreme nervousness, but I dare not risk it. It seems hard to think the dying request of this poor old man can not be granted. He seems to consider this family almost ...
— A Woman's Life-Work - Labors and Experiences • Laura S. Haviland
... "you wouldn't lay low if there was a good chance to make some money, and not give us poor devils ...
— The Debtor - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... Washington, in search of food and shelter. With a little training they made fair servants if only their pilfering propensities could be restrained. But religious fervor did not ensure obedience to the eighth commandment. "The good Lord ain't goin' to be hard on a poor darky just for takin' a chicken now and then," said a wench to a preacher who had asked her how she could reconcile her religion with her indifference as to the ownership ...
— The Reminiscences of an Astronomer • Simon Newcomb
... died when I was a very little child, scarcely three years old. I remember her but very indistinctly. The woman who is now my father's wife, was his housekeeper in my mother's life-time. She, of course, came from the common walks of life, her father being a very poor butcher. How she ever became my father's wife, I do not know; but my old nurse used to intimate to me that it was by no honorable means. Be that as it may, he married her when I was four years of age; and from that date my miserable story begins. The first incident of my life after ...
— Leah Mordecai • Mrs. Belle Kendrick Abbott
... not a few tears for poor Miss Smith-Waters's disappointment. That is the worst of living a life morally ahead of your contemporaries; what you do with profoundest conviction of its eternal rightness cannot fail to arouse hostile and painful ...
— The Woman Who Did • Grant Allen
... beginning of a much needed reform in the daily press. Poor editors, they are obliged to fill orders, like the cooks and waiters serving the gentlemen and ladies in the elegant dining-room, ladies' ordinary and ground-floor cafe. Alas! that the discovery should not be made by everybody, so they could send in different orders. How gladly would the ...
— The Right Knock - A Story • Helen Van-Anderson
... saw me for the first time. He looked frightened and was about to run away when I called out—"Come back, you brute, and help me relieve the poor ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 6 • Charles H. Sylvester
... simplicity of Biddy and Patrick, had grown to be a young miss of seventeen. Those black eyes of hers, which had attracted the gaze of the tall western youths for the last time, had in no way lost their brilliancy. Mischief still sat triumphant therein, and not a day passed but some poor uninitiated was brought to test the merits of that gift. Miss Winnie looked upon this removal to more enlightened regions, as a change altogether for the best; for how could such as she, at that age which never comes but once in a lifetime, be content to feed on air, a la prairie. She had tired ...
— Natalie - A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds • Ferna Vale |
