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Excerpt: A Set of Six by Joseph Conrad.

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Contents AUTHOR?S NOTE .........................................................................................4 A SET OF SIX ..................................................................................................8 GASPAR RUIZ .................................................................................................8 AN IRONIC TALE .........................................................................................65 AN INDIGNANT TALE.................................................................................90 A DESPERATE TALE..................................................................................113 A MILITARY TALE.....................................................................................136 A PATHETIC TALE .....................................................................................223...

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Excerpt: The Third Part of Henry the Sixth with the Death of the Duke of Yorke; Actus Primus -- Scoena Prima -- Alarum. Enter Plantagenet, Edward, Richard, Norfolke, Mount-ague, Warwicke, and Souldiers. Warwicke. I Wonder how the King escap?d our hands? Pl. While we pursu?d the Horsmen of y North, He slyly stole away, and left his men: Whereat the great Lord of Northumberland, Whose Warlike eares could never brooke retreat, Chear?d up the drouping Army, and himselfe. Lord Clifford and Lord Stafford all abrest Charg?d our maine Battailes Front: and breaking in, Were by the Swords of common Souldiers slaine. Edw. Lord Staffords Father, Duke of Buckingham, Is either slaine or wounded dangerous. I cleft his Beauer with a down- right blow: That this is true (Father) behold his blood. Mount. And Brother, here?s the Earle of Wiltshires |(blood, Whom I encountred as the Battels joyn?d. Rich. Speake thou for me, and tell them what I did. Plan. Richard hath best deseru?d of all my sonnes: But is your Grace dead, my Lord of Somerset? Nor. Such hope have all the line of John of Gaunt. Rich. Thus do I hope to shake King Henries head. Warw. And s...

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Table of Contents: The third Part of Henry the Sixt, 2 -- Actus Primus. Scoena Prima., 2

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Excerpt: The War in the Air by H. G. Wells.

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Excerpt: I; FROM Clee to heaven the beacon burns, The shires have seen it plain, From north and south the sign returns And beacons burn again. Look left, look right, the hills are bright, The dales are light between, Because ?tis fifty years to-night That God has saved the Queen. Now, when the flame they watch not towers About the soil they trod, Lads, we?ll remember friends of ours Who shared the work with God. To skies that knit their heartstrings right, To fields that bred them brave, The saviours come not home to-night Themselves they could not save. It dawns in Asia, tombstones show And Shropshire names are read; And the Nile spills his overflow Beside the Severn?s dead. We pledge in peace by farm and town The Queen they served in war, And fire the beacons up and down The land they perished for. ?God save the Queen? we living sing, From height to height ?tis heard; And with the rest your voices ring, Lads of the Fifty-third....

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Table of Contents: I 1887, 1 -- II, 2 -- III, 2 -- The Recruit, 2 -- IV Reveille, 3 -- V, 4 -- VI, 5 -- VII, 6 -- VIII, 7 -- IX, 8 -- X March, 9 -- XI, 10 -- XII, 11 -- XIII, 11 -- XIV, 12 -- XV, 13 -- XVI, 13 -- XVII, 14 -- XVIII, 14 -- XIX To an Athlete Dying Young, 15 -- XX, 16 -- XXI Bredon Hill, 16 -- XXII, 18 -- XXIII, 18 -- XXIV, 19 -- XXV, 19 -- XXVI, 20 -- XXVII, 21...

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Excerpt: There was a large, brilliant evening star in the early twilight, and underfoot the earth was half frozen. It was Christmas Eve. Also the War was over, and there was a sense of relief that was almost a new menace. A man felt the violence of the nightmare released now into the general air. Also there had been another wrangle among the men on the pit-bank that evening....

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Contents CHAPTER I: THE BLUE BALL ..............................................................................................4 CHAPTER II: ROYAL OAK.................................................................................................. 16 CHAPTER III: ?THE LIGHTED TREE? .............................................................................. 25 CHAPTER IV: ?THE PILLAR OF SALT? ............................................................................. 38 CHAPTER V: AT THE OPERA ............................................................................................ 45 CHAPTER VI: TALK ............................................................................................................ 55 CHAPTER VII: THE DARK SQUARE GARDEN................................................................. 64 CHAPTER VIII: A PUNCH IN THE WIND........................................................................ 71 CHAPTER IX: LOW-WATER MARK ................................................................................... 84 CHAPTER X: THE WAR AGAIN .......................................................................

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Excerpt: War and the Future: Italy, France and Britain at War by H. G. Wells.

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. How King Arthur took a wife, and wedded Guenever, daughter to Leodegrance, King of the Land of Cameliard, with whom he had the Round Table. In the beginning of Arthur, after he was chosen king by adventure and by grace; for the most part of the barons knew not that he was Uther Pendragon?s son, but as Merlin made it openly known. But yet many kings and lords held great war against him for that cause, but well Arthur overcame them all, for the most part the days of his life he was ruled much by the counsel of Merlin. So it fell on a time King Arthur said unto Merlin, My barons will let me have no rest, but needs I must take a wife, and I will none take but by thy counsel and by thine advice....

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. How twelve aged ambassadors of Rome came to King Arthur to demand truage for Britain. When King Arthur had after long war rested, and held a royal feast and Table Round with his al lies of kings, princes, and noble knights all of the Round Table, there came into his hall, he sitting in his throne royal, twelve ancient men, bearing each of them a branch of olive, in token that they came as ambassadors and messengers from the Emperor Lucius, which was called at that time, Dictator or Procuror of the Public Weal of Rome....

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Excerpt: I am Buffalo Bill?s horse. I have spent my life under his saddle -- with him in it, too, and he is good for two hundred pounds, without his clothes; and there is no telling how much he does weigh when he is out on the war-path and has his batteries belted on. He is over six feet, is young, hasn?t an ounce of waste flesh, is straight, graceful, springy in his motions, quick as a cat, and has a handsome face, and black hair dangling down on his shoulders, and is beautiful to look at; and nobody is braver than he is, and nobody is stronger, except myself. Yes, a person that doubts that he is fine to see should see him in his beaded buck-skins, on my back and his rifle peeping above his shoulder, chasing a hostile trail, with me going like the wind and his hair streaming out behind from the shelter of his broad slouch. Yes, he is a sight to look at then -- and I?m part of it myself....

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Contents A Horse?s Tale CHAPTER I SOLDIER BOY - PRIVATELY TO HIMSELF............................................................................. 4 CHAPTER II LETTER FROM ROUEN - TO GENERAL ALISON........................................................................7 CHAPTER III GENERAL ALISON TO HIS MOTHER.........9 CHAPTER IV CATHY TO HER AUNT MERCEDES........10 CHAPTER V GENERAL ALISON TO MERCEDES........13 CHAPTER VI SOLDIER BOY AND THE MEXICAN PLUG..........................................................................19 CHAPTER VII SOLDIER BOY AND SHEKELS.............27...

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Excerpt: The Tragedie of Cymbeline; Actus Primus -- Scoena Prima -- Enter two Gentlemen. Gent. You do not meet a man but Frownes. Our bloods no more obey the Heavens Then our Courtiers: Still seeme, as do?s the Kings. Gent. But what?s the matter? His daughter, and the heire of?s kingdome (whom He purpos?d to his wiues sole Sonne, a Widdow That late he married) hath referr?d her selfe Unto a poore, but worthy Gentleman. She?s wedded, Her Husband banish?d; she imprison?d, all Is outward sorrow, though I thinke the King Be touch?d at very heart. None but the King? He that hath lost her too: so is the Queene, That most desir?d the Match. But not a Courtier, Although they weare their faces to the bent Of the Kings lookes, hath a heart that is not Glad at the thing they scowle at. And why so? He that hath miss?d the Princesse, is a thing Too bad, for bad report: and he that hath her, (I meane, that married her, alacke good man, And therefore banish?d) is a Creature, such, As to seeke through the Regions of the Earth For one, his like; there would be something failing In him, that should compare. I do not thinke, So faire an Outward, and s...

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Table of Contents: The Tragedie of Cymbeline, 1 -- Actus Primus. Scoena Prima., 1 -- Scena Secunda., 3 -- Scena Tertia., 6 -- Scena Quarta., 7 -- Scena Quinta., 8 -- Scena Sexta., 12 -- Scena Septima., 14 -- Actus Secundus. Scena Prima., 20 -- Scena Secunda., 21 -- Scena Tertia., 22 -- Scena Quarta., 26 -- Actus Tertius. Scena Prima., 32 -- Scena Secunda., 34 -- Scena Tertia., 36 -- Scena Quarta., 38 -- Scena Quinta., 43 -- Scena Sexta., 47 -- Scena Septima., 48 -- Scena Octaua., 50 -- Actus Quartus. Scena Prima., 51 -- Scena Secunda., 51 -- Scena Tertia., 62 -- Scena Quarta., 63 -- Actus Quintus. Scena Prima., 65 -- Scena Secunda., 66 -- Scena Tertia., 67 -- Scena Quarta., 69 -- Scena Quinta., 74...

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Excerpt: That Belgium is now one of the European kingdoms, living by its own laws, resting on its own bottom, with a king and court, palaces and parliament of its own, is known to all the world. And a very nice little kingdom it is; full of old towns, fine Flemish pictures, and interesting Gothic churches. But in the memory of very many of us who do not think ourselves old men, Belgium, as it is now called--in those days it used to be Flanders and Brabant--was a part of Holland; and it obtained its own independence by a revolution. In that revolution the most important military step was the siege of Antwerp, which was defended on the part of the Dutch by General Chasse, with the utmost gallantry, but nevertheless ineffectually....

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Excerpt: The Champion Of His Country. When young Nevil Beauchamp was throwing off his midshipman?s jacket for a holiday in the garb of peace, we had across Channel a host of dreadful military officers flashing swords at us for some critical observations of ours upon their sovereign, threatening Africa?s fires and savagery....

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. Enter Dame Gossip As Chorus. Everybody has heard of the beautiful Countess of Cressett, who was one of the lights of this country at the time when crowned heads were running over Europe, crying out for charity?s sake to be amused after their tiresome work of slaughter: and you know what a dread they have of moping. She was famous for her fun and high spirits besides her good looks, which you may judge of for yourself on a walk down most of our great noblemen?s collections of pictures in England, where you will behold her as the goddess Diana fitting an arrow to a bow; and elsewhere an Amazon holding a spear; or a lady with dogs, in the costume of the day; and in one place she is a nymph, if not Diana herself, gazing at her naked feet before her attendants loosen her tunic for her to take the bath, and her hounds are pricking their ears, and you see antlers of a stag behind a block of stone. She was a wonderful swimmer, among other things, and one early morning, when she was a girl, she did really swim, they say, across the Shannon and back to win a bet for her brother Lord Levellier, the colonel of cavalry, who l...

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Excerpt: While we pursued the horsemen of the north, He stole away and left his men: Whereat the great Lord of Northumberland, Whose warlike ears could never brook retreat, Cheer?d up the drooping army; and himself, Lord Clifford and Lord Stafford, all abreast, Charged our main battle?s front, and breaking in Were by the swords of common soldiers slain....

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Excerpt: The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.

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Excerpt: Why We Are at War by Woodrow Wilson.

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Introduction: In an issue of the London World in April, 1890, there appeared the following paragraph: ?Two small rooms connected by a tiny hall afford sufficient space to contain Mr. Rudyard Kipling, the literary hero of the present hour, ?the man who came from nowhere,? as he says himself, and who a year ago was consciously nothing in the literary world.?...

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Contents At the Golden Gate ..................................................... 5 American Politics ....................................................... 18 American Salmon ...................................................... 29 The Yellowstone ........................................................ 37 Chicago ..................................................................... 46 The American Army ................................................... 55 America?s Defenceless Coasts ................................. 60...

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Excerpt: PREFACE; This book is essentially a desultory book, the result of intermittent observation, and often, no doubt, of rash assumption. Having been written in Paris, at odd moments, during the last two years of the war, it could hardly be more than a series of disjointed notes; and the excuse for its publication lies in the fact that the very conditions which made more consecutive work impossible also gave unprecedented opportunities for quick notation. The world since has been like a house on fire. All the lodgers are on the stairs, in dishabille. Their doors are swinging wide, and one gets glimpses of their furniture, revelations of their habits, and whiffs of their cooking, that a life-time of ordinary intercourse would not offer. Superficial differences vanish, and so (how much oftener) do superficial resemblances; while deep unsuspected similarities and disagreements, deep common attractions and repulsions, declare themselves. It is one of these fundamental substances that the new link between France and America is made, and some reasons for the strength of the link ought to be discoverable in the suddenly bared depths of...

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Table of Contents: Preface, 1 -- I ?First Impression, 4 -- I, 4 -- II, 6 -- III, 8 -- II? Reverence, 10 -- I, 10 -- II, 13 -- III, 15 -- III? Taste, 17 -- I, 17 -- II, 17 -- III, 18 -- IV, 21 -- IV? Intellectual Honesty, 24 -- I, 24 -- II, 26 -- III, 28 -- V? Continuity, 31 -- I, 31 -- II, 32 -- III, 35 -- IV, 37 -- VI? The New Frenchwoman, 39 -- VII? In Conclusion, 48 -- I, 48 -- II, 52 -- III, 53...

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Excerpt: The law, as quoted, lays down a fair conduct of life, and one not easy to follow. I have been fellow to a beggar again and again under circumstances which prevented either of us finding out whether the other was worthy. I have still to be brother to a Prince, though I once came near to kinship with what might have been a veritable King, and was promised the reversion of a Kingdom--army, law-courts, revenue, and policy all complete. But, to-day, I greatly fear that my King is dead, and if I want a crown I must go hunt it for myself....

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Excerpt: What Is Coming? A Forecast of Things after the War by H. G. Wells.