Buffer

“ They desired nothing of that kind, their ambition soaring no higher than the creation of a buffer against which external impulsion might expend its force. That buffer was the Tsungli-Yamên. Foreign diplomacy, therefore, if it were to subsist at all, must subsist on its own resources, the foundation of which was force. ”

“ The buffers for this model must be properly made, with springs to take the pressure in case you should run into anything.
Fig. 24 shows this buffer. You will have to get it cast. Turn out in your lathe a wooden mold and get four castings in brass made from it. A Fig. 24 is cast with a square base plate 2 inches square, as in front view B, and is secured to the buffer beam by four flat-headed screws. The piece C must be turned true and just the size to slide in and out of A easily. Each part must be finished up in the lathe. A should be an inch and a half long. ”

“ It has been so effective, however, in restoring and maintaining peace along the Gaza-Sinai line that is has become virtually indispensable, at least until it be demonstrated that attitudes and relations between the peoples on both sides of the line have improved to the degree that a buffer between them is no longer necessary to prevent daily armed conflict. ”

“ For a time his plan of buffer states was carried out, but in 1846 another Kaffir rising convinced him of the futility of his schemes. The Kaffir chief who had accompanied him to England joined the enemy, and many of his converts showed that his efforts on their behalf had effected no change in their character. ”

“ In fact he continued to improve till he was the fine baby of the district, and I set it down to the fresh air in which he lived day and night. I am afraid I wickedly used the faith in duppies to my own advantage. Buffer hated a black man. At Montego Bay he used to sit outside the gate and kindly allow people to pass on the other side of the road, but if they came too near the territory he was guarding, he stepped out and held them up. If we heard a squeal we knew it was a woman, if a howl, a man, and flew to the rescue, but if they threw stones at him it almost took a motor car to shift him. ”

“ There lives in the parish of Saint Andrew a man of giant stature and strength; he is named Bufferio; he will do anything for money; whether it be to beat, wound, or kill a man, it is all the same to him. He fulfils his mission to the satisfaction of his employers, and he never betrays a secret. He has five or six intrepid companions engaged in the same trade as himself; they may be relied upon. Give me money to pay this ruffian, and you need have no anxiety; Bufferio will think that I am acting from personal vengeance ”

“ That was the beginning of Korea’s friendly relations with the outer world, and Japan naturally took credit for the fact that, thus early in her new career, she had become an instrument for extending the principle of universal intercourse opposed so strenuously by herself in the past.
From time immemorial China’s policy towards the petty states on her frontiers had been to utilize them as buffers for softening the shock of foreign contact, while contriving, at the same time, that her relations with them should War with China. involve no inconvenient responsibilities for herself. ”

“ Buff’s playfellows next pass in succession, between him and the candle, distorting their features as much as possible—hopping, limping, and performing odd antics, so as to make their shadows very unlike themselves. Buff, who is not blindfolded, must try to guess to whom the shadows belong, and if he guesses correctly, the player whose shadow he recognises takes his place. Buff is allowed only one guess for each person, and must not turn his head either to the right or to the left to see who passes. ”

“ The buried Buprestes, like those whom I have seized in the grasp of their kidnappers, are always deprived of any sign of life; in a word, they are decidedly dead. I was surprised to remark that, no matter when these corpses were dug up, they not only preserved all their freshness of colouring, but their legs, antennæ, palpi, and the membranes uniting the various parts of the body remained perfectly supple and flexible. ”

“ I thought it the most prudent method to lie still; and my design was to continue so till night, when, my left hand being already loose, I could easily free myself; and as for the inhabitants, I had reason to believe I might be a match for the greatest armies they could bring against me, if they were all of the same size with him that I saw.
[Footnote 2: Buff is the name given to a kind of leather, made originally of buffalo hide, but later of the skins of other animals]
But fortune disposed otherwise of me. When the people observed I was quiet, they discharged no more arrows ”

“ There stands before me as I write Sir John Millais’ great picture of ‘Bubbles.’ Both the picture and the experience that it portrays are wonderfully familiar. The curly head; the upturned face; the entire absorption of the little bubble-blower in the shining balls that he is hurling into space; the half-formed hope that this one, at least, may not sputter out and become an unbeautiful splash of soapsuds on the floor; the wistful half-expectancy that now, at last, he has created a lovely globe that shall float on and on, like a little fairy-world, for ever and for evermore. ”

“ Buffle here.”
“Here he is, ma’am, and yours truly,” said Buffle, removing his hat.
He could afford to. She was not beautiful, but she seemed to be in trouble, and a troubled woman can command, to the death, even worse men than free-and-easy miners. She had a refined, pure face, out of which two great brown eyes looked so tenderly and anxiously, that these men forgot themselves at once. She seemed young, not more than twenty-three or four; she was slightly built, and dressed in a suit of plain black. ”

“ Their appointed time of liberty was at hand, and in a few days the little brown folk would fly into the sunshine with pæans of joy.
I went into the tool-house with Burbidge. Burbidge is a man of order. Every night he makes “his boys” hang up the tools, after cleaning them with care. Those not in use shine brightly against the wall. Every night they are rubbed clean with a rag steeped in oil. Great strings of onions hung from the massive oak beams. ”

“ I called one of the bubble forms, if you remember, by its name, catenoid; this is produced when there is no pressure. The dotted curve in the second figure B is this one; and to show that this catenary can be so drawn, I shall roll upon a straight edge a board made into the form of the corresponding section, which is called a parabola, and let the chalk at its focus draw its curve upon the black board. There is the curve, and it is as I said, exactly the curve that a chain makes when hung by its two ends. Now that a chain is so hung you see that it exactly lies over the chalk line. ”

“ The Germans, being unable to reinforce in masses owing to our guns, dribbled up men from their rear in very small parties. As regards details of the Buffs’ advance: all companies of the battalion got clear of the front trench before the enemy’s barrage commenced, but, owing to the darkness, sections, platoons and companies soon got mingled up together and at one time part of the Middlesex belonging to the 54th Brigade came across the Buffs’ front in the dark, but the error was skilfully rectified. ”

“ For an illustration of this, see the passage from Bach's fugue in C minor, quoted in § 215. Here the exposition ends on the first note of the ninth bar, and the following episode, which modulates to E flat, to introduce the next entry of the subject, is the beginning of the middle section of the fugue. But if the first episode does not modulate away from the tonic or dominant key, but leads either to the counter-exposition, or to an isolated entry of subject or answer in the original key (as in our example (a) § 222) this episode and the following entry belong to the first section. ”

“ Lay no weight heavier than a light surprise;
His tresses soft, like silver undefiled,
Hung on his sunbright face, or in a floating wreath
Clouding his lips, moved mildly with his breath.
A Rock long-bearded with cold weeds marine,
In whose wet womb the ocean-creatures sleep,
Should it uplift its scalp above the deep,
Were likest to that hellish Woman seen ”

“ Yet here before him, in the full glare of the acetylene lamps, she stood eying him like an offended young goddess, precisely as though he were responsible and she meant to punish him. Mr. Burrow had not arranged his battle-front to receive that type of enemy. It dawned upon him that this was a very brave young woman and, although he admitted it reluctantly, a very beautiful young woman. ”

“ They were driving out into the country to catch fish, to shoot, to walk about and have tea in the open air. They were driving to that region of bliss in which Bugrov as a boy—the barefoot, sunburnt, but infinitely happy son of a village deacon—had once raced about the meadows, the woods, and the river banks. Oh, how fiendishly seductive was that May! How happy those who can take off their heavy uniforms, get into a carriage and fly off to the country where the quails are calling and there is the scent of fresh hay. Bugrov’s heart ached with a sweet thrill that made him shiver. ”

“ The thing snorted and reared as if it had been shot, slapped over with a bang, and became an extension-table for ten people. When they recovered from the panic, they came back. They found the commission-merchant in the corner trying to get breath enough to swear, while he rubbed his shins. Buffum had disappeared, but they knew he had not gone far. The [Pg 75] invention appeared to have taken a fancy to him, and incorporated him into the firm, so to speak. ”

“ After luncheon I felt better, and was carried out on a sofa to the lawn on the east side of the house, some favourite books were placed near me, and the letters I 289 had received that morning. Burbidge was by that time very penitent and full of compunction, now that he was no longer terrified, and was sure that my leg was not broken. He brought me a sprig of lavender, “to have summat nice to sniff,” and assured me “that them birds of mine in the aviary should be looked after proper;” ”

“ Buford’s appearance in an immense, fur-lined overcoat with buttons made of gold nuggets and a voluminous [325] fur cap on his head, was given the last touch of grotesqueness by a tiny tinsel spangle fastened on the end of his nose. This adornment, on his entrance hardly noticeable, was soon the focusing point of every eye. It looked as if it grew on its prominent perch, and as he spoke, a slight, vibrating movement, which he imparted to that portion of his visage, made the tinsel send out continuous, uneasy gleams. ”

“ There was no alternative other than to go away forever.
It was midnight before she arose and went to her room. She went deliberately to a drawer which she kept locked, and, finding the key, she opened it. From it she took the little black case, and, turning back the cover, she revealed the phials, the needles, and the tiny syringe that had played so sinister a part in her past. ”

“ Every candidate has a little fire, where, after having rubbed his bubberah with charred grass and fat, he warms it, eyes it up and down to see that it is true, then out he comes, weapon in hand. He looks at the winning spot, and with a scientific flourish of his arm sends his bubberah forth on its circular flight ”

“ When the two lateral bubbles are gradually reduced in size, or the two terminal ones enlarged, the upper furrow becomes shorter and shorter; and at the moment when it is about to vanish, a new furrow makes its instantaneous appearance in a direction perpendicular to the old one ”

“ The effect upon the apes was electrical—they stopped their movements and stood in attitudes of intent listening for a moment, and then one fellow, huger than his companions, raised his face to the heavens and in a voice that sent the cold shudders through the girl's slight frame answered the far-off cry. ”

“ As luck would have it, old James Burbage and his son Dick were waiting for Field, with a lot of dramatic manuscript that must be put in print at once.
We were casually introduced to the great the [44] atrical magnate Burbage, as relatives from Stratford who were just then in search of work.
James Burbage gazed for a moment on the manly form of William and blurted out in his bluff manner, "What do you know?"
Quick as a flash William replied: "I know more than those who know less, and know less than those who know more."
"Sharp answer, 'boy.' See me to-morrow at the Blackfriars at noon." ”

“ We are going to put up cocoa-nuts for tom-tits, and hang up some pieces of fat bacon for the starlings, besides which we are going to sweep round the sundial for the rooks. Papa said they were to be fed, and we are going to do it—Burbidge and me.”
“What will Miss Weldon do?” I asked.
“Oh, she will read,” with great contempt said Bess; “she reads, and never sees anything. Burbidge says that there are many who would know more if they read less.” ”

“ Farmer Bluff began to whine. Long service deserved indulgence, he hinted. "A man must take what the Lord sends him," said he.
But the Squire stopped him. "Men often make mistakes about the source of their misfortunes, Bluff," said he. "I don't believe that your complaint is often of the Lord's sending."
The bailiff's eyes reverted uncomfortably to the silver mug. ”

“ The recital of those deeds, and a description of the character of the war and conditions in which they achieved them, cannot therefore but inspire those who come after them in the battalions of the Buffs; so that should they too in their generation be called on to pass through the fiery ordeal, they also may, in the faith of their fathers, pass through unshaken to final victory. ”