"Red-letter" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... that of California, conjures up in the mind visions of gold; and the story of the gold excitement in both is very similar. January 24, 1848, was the red-letter day in California's history, and the news that transpired that day electrified the world. While constructing a saw-mill at Coloma Creek, a branch of the American River, John Marshall picked up a handful of gold nuggets in the mill-race. At once the gold fever ...
— Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania • Jewett Castello Gilson
... eleven at night; last night till nine. My business and office business in general have increased so; I don't mean I am there every night, but I must expect a great deal of it. I never leave till four, and do not keep a holiday now once in ten times, where I used to keep all red-letter days and some five days besides, which I used to dub nature's holidays.... I had formerly little to do.... Hard work and thinking about it taints even the leisure ...
— Stories of Authors, British and American • Edwin Watts Chubb
... Now that this red-letter day has gone by as any other day goes, will you play a game of billiards with me, ...
— A Comedy of Marriage & Other Tales • Guy De Maupassant
... a red-letter three weeks for the three Wellington girls. Jane found New York a vastly different city when peopled by those dear to her. During her brief shopping trip there the previous winter she had not liked New York. Now she discovered that it was a most wonderful place in which ...
— Jane Allen: Right Guard • Edith Bancroft
... too, quite easily, and sat up with eye-glasses on his nose and a paper between his paws. It was, as you may well imagine, a red-letter day with me when Peter said his prayers for the first time; and I was better pleased when he put his little paws up and lifted his eyes up to the ceiling than with any other of his accomplishments, though they were more appreciated by unthinking friends. ...
— The Junior Classics Volume 8 - Animal and Nature Stories • Selected and arranged by William Patten
... relating bits of history or legends which explained names or some natural phenomenon. The boom of the surf announced the end of the journey. As the Mountaineers left the canoes on the beach at Taholah, it was agreed that the trip down the Quiniault marked the red-letter ...
— The Beauties of the State of Washington - A Book for Tourists • Harry F. Giles
... get the benefit of it. They are also supposed to have the benefit of the exertions of certain small boys, who shake money-boxes before some mysterious little buildings like rural turnpikes, which (usually shut up close) fly open on Red-letter days, and disclose an image and some ...
— Pictures from Italy • Charles Dickens
... On one red-letter day, they roasted the two hares which Angus had killed, and cooked potatoes in the ashes. Each day was filled with fresh adventures, and the wild outdoor life agreed with Alan so well that his thin ...
— The Scotch Twins • Lucy Fitch Perkins
... newspapers sent representatives to furnish special reports of our new member's speeches. Indeed, the interest and excitement at these political gatherings was often feverish in its intensity, and for many years Mr. Bright's visits to Birmingham were red-letter days in the history ...
— A Tale of One City: The New Birmingham - Papers Reprinted from the "Midland Counties Herald" • Thomas Anderton
... half-past seven who had just read "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer." He said: "If there are any more books like them in the world, send them to me quick." I had to humbly confess to him that if there were any others I had not the good fortune to know of them. What a red-letter-day it is to a boy, the day he first opens "Tom Sawyer." I would rather sail on the raft down the Missouri again with "Huck" Finn and Jim than go down the Nile in December or see Venice from a gondola in May. Certainly Mark Twain is much better when he ...
— A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays • Willa Cather
... that on a certain morning—a red-letter day in my life—there arrived from Paris a lady companion and Philippe, the last remaining of my grandmother's valets, charged to carry me off. When my aunt summoned me to her room and told me the news, I could not speak for joy, and only gazed at ...
— Letters of Two Brides • Honore de Balzac
... red-letter day for Bob when, once, Miss Elton happened to come along just where he was at work. He saw her coming some time before she recognized him, but when she stopped to speak to him he was so excited that he scarcely knew what he ...
— Willie the Waif • Minie Herbert |
