Various

“ Nothing is left to chance. Every emergency that experience or imagination can suggest is prepared for and studied out long in advance. Friends sometimes ask the captain of a great ship if the nervous strain does not exhaust him; if he is not depressed by the responsibility for so many hundreds of lives and so many millions of dollars worth of property. The answer to that question is always no. If the captain were to give himself up to such reflections he would be unfit for his position. The captain's experience is long and varied before he becomes master of an ocean greyhound. ”

“ GOOD MUSIC arouses a spirit of good-will, creates a harmonious atmosphere, and where harmony and good-will prevail, the disobedient, turbulent, unruly spirit finds no resting-place. Herbert Spencer puts his final test of any plan of culture in the form of a question, "Does it create a pleasurable excitement in the pupils?" Judged by this criterion, Music deserves the first rank, for no work done in the school room is so surely creative of pleasure as singing. Do we not all agree, then, that Vocal Music has power to benefit every side of the child nature? ”

“ Mildred took keen notice of every detail of Grace's dress—the blue cloth gown and jacket, simple but modish, with an air no Highland dressmaker could achieve, for who on earth out of Paris can make anything so perfect as a Paris gown, in which a pretty girl is sure to look like a dream? The little toque on the small head was perched over braids of smooth brown hair, the gloves and boots were well-fitting, and Grace Wainwright carried herself finely. ”

“ For miles the army was strung along the roads, and wearily the men walked as they struggled with the heavy cannon. These cannon were mounted on improvised sleds, and the soldiers pulled them over the snow with ropes. At times one of the sleds would slip and tumble over a precipice, carrying with it a number of the men who were dragging it along. The air was bitterly cold, and many of the soldiers died on the road, or from weakness fell off the cliffs, to be dashed to pieces on the rocks below. ”

“ Under such circumstances the screw on one side or the other is slowed so as to steer the vessel.
Whole books might be written about the engines of an ocean greyhound. To inspect the engines thoroughly you go down through four decks. Every bit of machinery is constantly watched. A record is kept of every turn of the screw, of every engine's work. The chief engineer has three first assistants, and one of these three is always on duty. The engine-room is like a gigantic roaring factory—it is a factory that makes power for pushing the ship along. ”

“ If it is only to sit for an hour with an older friend, or to take luncheon and a walk with Jenny on Saturday, or to write a letter for the cook, who cannot write her letter for herself, keep your word and be on time. Nothing else is worthy such a girl as the one I have in my mind while I write, so clever and sensible, and, in the main, so satisfactory that I cannot bear her to have even one little flaw. I don't want to think of her as one of those people who come hustling into church and Sunday-school ten minutes late, and who disturb everybody else in places of amusement by the same habit. ”

“ While writing Ben-Hur I once took the long journey from my Indiana home to New York city, and haunted one of the great libraries there persistently for days, merely to establish beyond a doubt a very small matter concerning the interior of a Roman galley. Yet, after all, it was not a small matter; trifles make perfection, and a little inaccuracy will result in imperfect work."
"Do you advise young authors to quote largely, or depend upon others for ideas?"
"By no means. Every man and woman is self-made. Every writer should be especially so. ”

“ What will happen to you is that you will be an awkward and unlucky player until you learn to use your legs. Therefore the regular daily exercise is good all round—for health and for pleasure.
Our first impulse on waking in the morning is to yawn, to push out the arms, to throw out the legs, to stretch and twist and roll about the body, and so gradually work off the cramped feeling induced during sleep. These natural gymnastics, in which even babies indulge when they first waken out of a sound slumber, indicate pretty clearly what is the best time to take a regular daily dose of gymnastic work. ”

“ He had some right to believe that he had been seen from the deck, as the ship was steering straight towards the island. But the vessel changed its course, and in spite of the balloonist's piercing cries, disappeared.
This unlucky departure would have driven many a resolute man to despair. For Mr. Andrée it was a lesson. He at once understood that it was impossible for any one on a vessel to see a human figure on this desolate island, and that he must contrive a more showy signal than his body, notwithstanding he was tall and strongly built. ”

“ There are people with whom we never associate the thought of death, and whose bright, genial lives seem meant to go on and on to extreme old age. When they are taken away we hear the tidings with surprise and regret, and looking over the work they have done we realize how much we are in their debt for hours of pleasure and profit. Such a man was Colonel Knox, whose Boy Travellers are in every village library, and whose name is a household word wherever bright young people meet. He was well known to the readers of the Round Table, to which he has often contributed. ”

“ How is it possible, we are often asked, to steer such a great vessel as the modern ocean liner? Steam and electricity have made the work almost seem like play. The senior officer on the bridge can tell at any moment just how fast the ship is going, how many revolutions the port and starboard screws are making per minute, just at what angle the rudder is set—in one word, all about the ship's progress. ”

“ A ship like the New York or the St. Paul, for example, takes 25,000 pounds of beef, more than three tons of game and poultry, 18,000 eggs, and other things in proportion. The law requires that enough provisions be carried to feed the ship's people for twenty-four additional days, in case of accident. We carry much more than that amount. In the refrigerating-rooms are also carried enough flowers to adorn the tables all the way to England and back.
Most of you, perhaps, think of an ocean greyhound as a swift-going floating hotel. ”

“ Every living thing moved listlessly. The great Spanish flag, hanging from the tall slender staff just inside the gate of the fort, drooped like the wings of a tired bird. The sentries were almost gasping for breath. In the barracks the men grumbled and railed at the fate which had brought them from home and friends to fight in a country where fever thinned their ranks far more effectively than did the bullets of the insurgents. ”

“ Napoleon and his army of soldiers were marching across the Alps in Switzerland before descending into Italy upon that famous campaign in which all Italy bowed low to the French conqueror. Up the long steep slopes the soldiers toiled in the shadow of the frowning and overhanging cliffs. ”

“ Colonel Knox was very practical, not specially imaginative, a clear-sighted, straight-forward man, noted for common-sense and energy. As the boys whom he has so often entertained turn the pages of their favorite volumes, they cannot do better than remember that the man who wrote them was in every throb of the pulse an American, simple-hearted, patriotic, and sincere. ”

“ An earthen embankment ran around the inner side of the walls, and at such a height that when the soldiers appeared on it their bodies from the waist up offered a splendid target to an enemy. Some two hundred and fifty men formed the garrison, and they were quartered in a huge two-storied log barracks in the centre of the enclosed ground. In front of the barracks, and about twenty feet from it, was a small hut, in which Ben and Captain Marto, by the aid of the field-glass, had learnt Mr. Hinton was confined. ”

“ Then he threw his whole weight on his valve-rope, hundreds of cubic feet of gas instantly escaped, the Swea struck land with a shock, and the car was overturned. Our aeronaut, to his great satisfaction, was thrown, at full length on the ground.
Being young in the art of balloon management, Mr. Andrée could not imagine how quickly events happen in aerial navigation. Before he could grasp a rope the Swea had vanished in the air, and he was left alone on the island, without any food or covering, exposed to the cold of those latitudes during a long and dismal October night. ”

“ Andrée is a genuine offspring of the famous sea-kings. He is very tall, powerfully built, with a prominent forehead, blue eyes, and a forest of fair early hair, and is endowed with great muscular strength. As for his mental capacities, he is a talented writer and speaker, and can converse in German and English as fluently as in his native tongue, while he speaks French well enough to make himself easily understood by an audience. Mr. Andrée's practical education has not been neglected, and he knows how to use a hammer, a file, or a chisel as well as any trained workman. ”

“ You know, of course, that the ocean greyhound of to-day is a twin-screw ship—that is, that instead of being driven through the water by one propeller, she has two—one on each side of the end of her keel. Each screw is worked by its own set of engines. These engines are entirely independent of each other. The rudder is moved to one side or the other by steam or hydraulic power. Should the rudder become useless from any cause, it is possible to steer the ship by these screws. Most of you know that you can steer a row-boat by putting more force on one oar than on the other. ”

“ We fully realize that the relation we sustain toward the citizens of Oakland who so generously support the High-School, and toward the pupils we are required to instruct, demands that we zealously guard the interests of those placed under our care. Deeply impressed with this fact, we cannot see anything, however important it may be in itself, precede that for which the High-School is organized and supported. ”

“ By backing one screw and going ahead with the other, the ship can be turned around almost within her own length, as the phrase is. The ordinary vessel that loses her rudder is in a sad fix. The twin-screw ship simply needs a little extra care in handling. In fact, it has happened more than once that an ocean greyhound has been steered for more than a thousand miles straight into port while the rudder was useless.
It is easy to appreciate the necessity for making fast time across the ocean when you remember that each idle moment means a loss of earning power. ”

“ No man knows all the influences that affect the currents of the ocean. You may find the current in one place the same forty times in succession; on the forty-first trip it may be entirely changed. Sometimes a big storm that has ended four or five hours before the steamship passes a certain place may have given the surface current a strong set in one direction. There is no means of telling when these influences may have been at work save by taking the ship's position frequently. ”

“ I am Richard Blount, of Albany. I have some letters for General Howe and his Lordship; and I have crawled, walked, and stolen through the American lines, and it is my desire to reach New York. Anything that you can do for me I am sure will be appreciated by my family and the gentlemen I wish to see."
The officer laughed and advanced. "I am happy to meet you, sir," he said. "How did you do it?"
"I kept to the woods mostly, and used some Indian tactics, doubtless," answered George.
"He knows them well," broke in a voice. "See how he escaped us up the road." ”

“ In making an attempt a competitor may assume any position he pleases, but he must not step outside of this circle. In a contest each competitor is allowed three throws, and the best three men in the first trial are allowed three more throws. The measurement of a throw is made from the nearest edge of the first mark made by the head of the hammer to the point of the circumference of the circle nearest this mark. There are three kinds of fouls in hammer-throwing, which are not measured, but which count against the competitor as throws. ”

“ I do not claim to have any genius. It may be that infinite patience and an unlimited capacity for hard work have taken the place of genius, and been of service to me. When I began to study a subject or an object, I could never bring myself to stop until I had mastered all there was to be known about it. ”

“ The umpire looks after the men, calls fouls, etc. The ball is placed in the centre of the field, and at a signal the first rush of each team skates toward it, the second rush following immediately. As soon as one of the first rushes touches the ball it is in play, and every other man has the privilege of knocking it.
The object of each side is to get the ball into the opponents' goal. Each goal counts one for the side making it. As a general thing the aggressive work is done by the first and second rushes, and the defensive by the half-back and goal. ”