"Scum" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... with a wet towel round his head, writing a leader upon the event. This production, which was very sonorous and effective, was peppered all over with such phrases as "protection of property," "outraged majesty of the law," and "scum of civilization"— expressions which had been used so continuously by Mr. O'Flaherty, that he had come to think that he had a copyright in them, and loudly accused the London papers of plagiarism if he happened to ...
— The Firm of Girdlestone • Arthur Conan Doyle
... Filthy slimy Substance: Then put it into a Morter, beat it well; take it out and wash it at some running stream, till the Foulness is gone: Then put it in a close Earthen pot; let it stand Four or Five days, look to its Purging, and scum it: When clean, put it into another Earthen Pot, and keep it close ...
— The School of Recreation (1696 edition) • Robert Howlett
... at what appeared a large green pond full of vegetation and in places covered with a thick scum. But it had a current and an outlet, proving it to be a huge, spring. Roy pointed down ...
— The Man of the Forest • Zane Grey
... coat, the yellow stockings—this man dragged wearily the wheelbarrow in the grim silences under the sinister skies of Dartmoor, with warders to taunt, or insult, or browbeat the Irish felon-patriot—with the very dregs and scum of our lowest social depths for companions and colleagues—and then think of this same man standing up before the supreme and august assembly where the might, sovereignty, power, and omnipotence of this world-wide empire are centred, and holding it for more than an hour and a half ...
— Sketches In The House (1893) • T. P. O'Connor
... ashes fell over the sea so thickly that within three miles of the island you could walk on them, and even five hundred miles away, the ashes formed a scum on the surface of the sea. The finer dust and the icy particles from the condensed vapor reached extreme heights in the air. These dust particles spread all round the world, completing the circuit ...
— The Boy with the U. S. Weather Men • Francis William Rolt-Wheeler
... For awhile the deserters outside, who were composed of the very scum of Southern society, many of them being the rowdies, gamblers, and cutthroats of the large cities, tried to interrupt us by every means in their power; but finding that their efforts produced no effect, they finally gave over, and left us to pursue ...
— Daring and Suffering: - A History of the Great Railroad Adventure • William Pittenger
... grasped the situation and adopted an attitude which is, in the main, that of most middle-class Christian Englishmen towards prostitutes. But as puberty develops this attitude has to be accommodated with the wish to make use of this scum, these moral lepers. The ordinary young man, who likes a spice of immorality and has it when in town, and thinks it is not likely to come to his mother's or sisters' ears, does not get over his arrogance and disgust or abate them in the least. He takes them with him, ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis
... scum alone, Not with the mind of equal birth! Confess! what men have always known, As knowledge now ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke
... swagger of stocks and lucky speculations, in the world, than was formerly the case. Society is decidedly less graceful, more care-worn, and of a worse tone to-day, than it was previously to the revolution of 1830. I presume the elements are unchanged, but the ebullition of the times is throwing the scum to the surface; a natural but temporary consequence of the present state ...
— A Residence in France - With An Excursion Up The Rhine, And A Second Visit To Switzerland • J. Fenimore Cooper
... were not for what we do, what would happen to the District.... The lower scum would conquer—those wild-eyed mechanics and common laborers who read the Valencian newspapers and talk about equality all the time. And they would divide up the orchards, and demand that the product of the harvests—thousands ...
— The Torrent - Entre Naranjos • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... a preposterous supposition yesterday that the private trader at Murder Point should ever be in a position to bid the veriest scum among cowards to be brave. As he spoke, the intelligence came back to Strangeways' eyes, the fear went out from them and the features, losing their agony, straightened into an expression which was almost grave. His hand became small in Granger's ...
— Murder Point - A Tale of Keewatin • Coningsby Dawson
... rose. "Mebbeso. You're a dirty dog, Jerry Durand. From the beginning you were a rotten fighter—in the ring and out of it. You and yore strong-arm men! Do you think I'm afraid of you because you surround yoreself with dips and yeggmen and hop-nuts, all scum of the gutter and filth of the earth? Where I come from men fight clean and out in the open. They'd stomp you out ...
— The Big-Town Round-Up • William MacLeod Raine
... sweet griddle-cakes which he had eaten for breakfast, and revolving in his mind two errands for his wife—one, a pail of lard; the other, three yards of black dress braid; he was considering the surface scum of existence, that which pertained solely to his own petty share of it; the girl, the clear residue of life which was, and had been, and would be. Each was on the way to humble labor for daily bread, but with a difference ...
— The Portion of Labor • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
... this clear solution, agitation is stopped, and the contents of the tank passed through a filter press. The scum, which accumulates on the treatment tank, may be transferred to a perforated box suspended over the tank, and the liquor allowed to drain from it. The filtered liquor is now rendered slightly alkaline by the addition of caustic soda ...
— The Handbook of Soap Manufacture • W. H. Simmons
... of steel consequently generally very much reduced. The process consists of submitting the molten pig-iron to a very great heat in a pear-shaped vessel (known technically as the "converter"). This is open at the top, and is supported on hinges, which permit of its being moved so as to pour off the scum which rises to the surface at the end of the operation, and which, we may explain, consists of "basic slag." In the original process the sides of the "converter" were lined with fire-bricks, consisting largely of silica. This process was known as the "acid" process. In the "Thomas-Gilchrist" ...
— Manures and the principles of manuring • Charles Morton Aikman
... Virginia and clenched her hands. All this was contrary to her social code of conduct. How could society excuse familiarity with the scum of the streets? What would Virginia's action cost the family in the way of criticism and loss of standing, and all that long list of necessary relations which people of wealth and position must sustain to the leaders of society? To Madam Page society represented ...
— In His Steps • Charles M. Sheldon
... her, I marvelled that she had found it possible to forsake all that was fair and lovely in life, to dare ignore caste, to deliberately face ridicule and insult and the scornful anger of her own kind, for the sake of the filthy scum festering in ...
— The Maids of Paradise • Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
... that the morale of the British soldier is steadily advancing. 'They forget,' said a lad from Ladysmith the other day, 'that we are not what we used to be. It used to be that the army was composed of the scum of the nation; some folks forget that it isn't so now.' They do, or, rather, perhaps they did until the war commenced and made the soldier popular. But the fact is that, especially during the last twenty years, there has been a steady improvement, and we venture to assert ...
— From Aldershot to Pretoria - A Story of Christian Work among Our Troops in South Africa • W. E. Sellers
... he was aware, "I try to keep not only a civil tongue, but a pleasant manner for every human being who tries to act decently. With you it's different. Before to-day I didn't know much about you. What little I did know wasn't to your credit. But now I know you to belong to nothing better than the scum of the earth. No human being with any self-respect could be ...
— The Grammar School Boys of Gridley - or, Dick & Co. Start Things Moving • H. Irving Hancock
... corps, wrote, February 21: "The town was fired in several different places by the villains that had that day been improperly freed from their confinement in the town prison. The town itself was full of drunken negroes and the vilest vagabond soldiers, the veriest scum of the entire army being collected in the streets." The very night of the conflagration he spoke of the efforts "to arrest the countless villains of every command that ...
— Historical Essays • James Ford Rhodes
... sir, that that scum does not touch it," said Grant, with dignity. "Well done, laddie!" he added to himself. "I'm beginning ...
— Three Boys - or the Chiefs of the Clan Mackhai • George Manville Fenn
... disappeared in a cloud of grayish vapor, the dull sound of an explosion filled the ear, and the ground under our feet trembled. There was nothing to be seen, even with the glass, save a light scum covering the water and some fragments of charred tree branches. But the air about us was full of a fine dust that powdered Betty's hair, as though for a costume ball, and ...
— The Gates of Chance • Van Tassel Sutphen
... mean the money-makingest: now listen me! our lairned Profession is a rascally one. It is like a barrel of beer. What rises to the top?" Here he paused for a moment, then answered himself furiously, "THE SCUM." ...
— Hard Cash • Charles Reade
... preservation, and offered up a petition that he would still take care of us. We then ate a little more pemmican, and took a draught of water from the river; though, to do so, we had to drive back the burned twigs and black scum which came floating down the stream. We then caught our horses, which, in consequence of being hobbled, had not strayed far; and after leading them down to drink we mounted and rode on to the north-east. Reaching ...
— Afar in the Forest • W.H.G. Kingston
... throat; "d'ye want yer nose punched? If you think I'm a thief, just keep it to yerself, or you'll find 'ow bloody well mistyken you are. Strike me blind if this ayn't gratitude for yer! 'Ere you come, a pore mis'rable specimen of 'uman scum, an' I tykes yer into my galley an' treats yer 'ansom, an' this is wot I get for it. Nex' time you can go to 'ell, say I, an' I've a good mind to give ...
— The Sea-Wolf • Jack London
... three or four gallon pot, three parts filled with cold water, and set it on the fire to boil; remove all the scum that rises to the surface, and then let it boil gently on the hob; when the meat has boiled an hour and is about half done, add the parsnips in a net, and at the end of another half hour put in the cabbages, also in a net. A piece of beef weighing five or six pounds will require about two hours' ...
— A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes • Charles Elme Francatelli
... attempt, to renew them here. Unfortunately there are Americans among us, who, knowing this, work upon this sensitive, suspicious feeling, to accomplish their own ends. The politician does it to secure votes; but the worst class is composed of those who edit papers that circulate only among the scum of society, and embittered by the sight of luxuries beyond their reach, are always ready to denounce the rich and excite the lower classes against what they call the oppression ...
— The Great Riots of New York 1712 to 1873 • J.T. Headley
... equalled only by the horrors of the worst days of the French Revolution. Gangs of men and boys, composed of railroad employees, workers in machine-shops, and a vast crowd of those who lived by preying upon others, thieves, pimps, professional ruffians,—the scum of the city,—jail-birds, or those who were running with swift feet to enter the prison-doors, began to gather on the corners, and in streets and alleys where they lived; from thence issuing forth they visited the great establishments on the line of their advance, commanding ...
— What Answer? • Anna E. Dickinson
... meant a float-bridge through the cracks of which the water spurted up in jets at each impact of the horses' hoofs. On either hand the bayou, but a plank's thickness below the level of the float-bridge, filmed with green weeds and the bright scum of water, not too stagnant, offered surprises to the watchful eye. One could see many mud-turtles floating lazily, feet outstretched in poise; and bullfrogs and little frogs; and, in the clear places, trim and self-sufficient mud hens. From the reeds at the edges flapped small green herons ...
— The Adventures of Bobby Orde • Stewart Edward White
... bring disgrace on the king's cause, and on our religion. It is not because the scum who march with the Dutchman behave like brutal savages, that we should do the same. There's plenty of work for you, in fighting against the enemies of your country, instead of frightening women and pillaging houses. Return to your homes, or, better still, go and join the king's ...
— Orange and Green - A Tale of the Boyne and Limerick • G. A. Henty
... to spurn the cocotte—but to look as nearly as she looks, to live as nearly as she lives, to resemble her and yet to place that resemblance on a legal and, consequently, secure foundation, is becoming more and more the life-work of that feminine "scum" which the war stirred up and peace has caused to overflow. Beneath it all I know there is a strata of the Magnificent, but the surface-ground is weedier than ever. I am not a prude (I think!), but the eternally ...
— Over the Fireside with Silent Friends • Richard King
... the authority of Aubin, explains this term as the name of a tribe living near Tezcuco. In derivation it appears to be a term of contempt, "workers in filth or refuse," scum, offscourings. It also appears ...
— Ancient Nahuatl Poetry - Brinton's Library of Aboriginal American Literature Number VII. • Daniel G. Brinton
... bank of mortar, and scoria; and brick-layers' refuse, on one side, which the clean water nevertheless chastises to purity; but it cannot conquer the dead earth beyond; and there, circled and coiled under festering scum, the stagnant edge of the pool effaces itself into a slope of black slime, the accumulation of indolent years. Half-a-dozen men, with one day's work, could cleanse those pools, and trim the flowers about their banks, ...
— The Crown of Wild Olive • John Ruskin
... 'You scum o' the airth!' cried Toole, hitting him, with his clenched fist, right upon the nose, so vigorous a thump, that his erudite head with a sonorous crash hopped off the wainscot behind it; 'you lying scullion!' roared the doctor, instantaneously repeating the blow, and down went Davy, and down ...
— The House by the Church-Yard • J. Sheridan Le Fanu
... thou couldst scorn the peerless blood That flows untainted from the Flood! Thy scutcheon spotted with the stains Of Norman thieves and pirate Danes! Scum of the nations! In thy pride Scowl on the Hebrew at thy side, And, lo! the very semblance there The Lord ...
— Gifts of Genius - A Miscellany of Prose and Poetry by American Authors • Various
... on thy course uncheck'd, heroic WOOD! Regardless what the player's son may prate, Saint Stephens' fool, the Zany of Debate— Who nothing generous ever understood. London's twice Praetor! scorn the fool-born jest— The stage's scum, and refuse of the players— Stale topics against Magistrates and Mayors— City and Country both thy worth attest. Bid him leave off his shallow Eton wit, More fit to sooth the superficial ear Of drunken PITT, and that pickpocket Peer, When ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb IV - Poems and Plays • Charles and Mary Lamb
... then a straggling village in the Indian Territory. Ma Barstow was a woman of thirty-five who looked sixty; withered by child-bearing; scorched by the sun; beaten by the wind; gnarled with toil; gritty with dust. Ploughing the barren little farm one day Clem Barstow had noticed a strange oily scum. It seeped up through the soil and lay there, heavily. Oil! Weeks of suspense, weeks of disappointment, weeks of hope. Through it all Ma Barstow had washed, scrubbed, cooked as usual, and had looked after the welfare of the Barstow litter. ...
— Gigolo • Edna Ferber
... be ashamed of what I think. I am a true son of the Church, and fear not what the vile Mortimer scum may say. But to pleasure thee, good Warbel, I will say no more. We will make our way home with all speed, and tell the tale to our father. I doubt not he will say it was well done. The Lord of Chad ...
— The Secret Chamber at Chad • Evelyn Everett-Green
... Jabez' arms fell to his side; an' when Dick spoke o' the Creole Belle his legs shut together like a pocket knife; an' he crumpled down on a little padded bench they had fixed up to kneel on. His face was gray, an' his eyes had a scum over 'em, while his mouth hung open like the mouth of a man dyin' of old age. Barbie gave a low, waverin' call: "Oh, what have you done, oh, Dick! Daddy, Daddy; what's ...
— Happy Hawkins • Robert Alexander Wason
... and daughter worked as busily as father and son. The men cut the cane and fed it to the mill, while the womenfolk took turns tending the pans in which the syrup boiled, skimming off the greenish foam and scum that gathered on the top. They urged the young boys, who hung around on such occasions, to bring on more wood to keep the fire going under the pans. The owner of the portable sorghum mill sometimes took his pay for its use in sorghum, if there was no money to be had. He was ...
— Blue Ridge Country • Jean Thomas
... he stormed. "You cowardly scum—perhaps you'll fight when you can't run! What are you afraid of? There's only a handful, you can chew 'em up, if you will! Push 'em ...
— My Lady of Doubt • Randall Parrish
... from paper bundles. It was not very tempting-looking food. Yet there were men in the crowd who looked longingly at it, and a few scuffles occurred in attempts to get some. That crowd represented the slag and scum of the boiling pot of nineteenth-century conditions. And as the flotsam on a river always centres at its eddies, so these had drifted, from the country, and from the slums, to the centre of the whirlpool of American life. Here they were waiting. Waiting for what? The ...
— The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him • Paul Leicester Ford
... fence taught me by Captain Galsworthy. The only work which all the prisoners had to perform in turn was the drawing of water from a well in the keep. The water of the moat, as I had seen when we crossed it on entering, was covered with a green scum, the rivulet which fed it not being of sufficient volume to keep ...
— Humphrey Bold - A Story of the Times of Benbow • Herbert Strang
... on you must realize that he is the very scum of the earth, a toping man, a worthless, immoral man that hates ...
— Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi • Plautus Titus Maccius
... Meeting House, which, in turn, right back to the miserable Indian days, had served the purposes of saloon, a trader's store, the home of a bloodthirsty badman, and before that goodness knows what. Now it was a house of worship for people, beside whom the scum of the earth was as the froth of whipped cream. It was—outrageous. It was so terrible to her that she felt as if she must ...
— The Law-Breakers • Ridgwell Cullum
... rolled into the square and sought to part its way through that scum somebody in the crowd made a proposition that was promptly favored as far as the votes by voices went: "Tip ...
— All-Wool Morrison • Holman Day
... hinds, the filth and scum of Kent, Mark'd for the gallows, lay your weapons down; Home to your cottages, forsake this groom. The king ...
— King Henry VI, Second Part • William Shakespeare [Rolfe edition]
... Admiralty never gave as good as it took. Clearly, it could not. True, it supplied substitutes to go in "pressed men's rooms," but to call them "men in lieu" was a gross abuse of language. In reality the substitutes supplied were in the great majority of cases mere scum in lieu, the unpressable residuum of the population, consisting of men too old or lads too young to appeal to the cupidity of the gangs, poor creatures whom the regulating captains had refused, useless on land and worse than ...
— The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore • John R. Hutchinson
... anarchy of aimless revolutions and to the trampling to and fro of stranger squadrons on her shores, that the news of a Lutheran troop, levied with the express object of pillaging Rome, and reinforced with Spanish ruffians and the scum of every nation, scarcely roused her apathy. The so-called army of Frundsberg—a horde of robbers held together by the hope of plunder—marched without difficulty to the gates of Rome. So low had the honor of Italian princes fallen that ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) • John Addington Symonds
... (as he and his followers come forward from right background). Make no resistance, ye scum of Dagon's brood, or Merrymount and all that is within it shall be sacked within the hour! Where is the maid ...
— Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People • Constance D'Arcy Mackay
... patron of the Societe de Secours aux Blesses was ill-treated. Matters would, however, probably be far worse at the present time, for Paris, with all her apaches and anarchists, now includes in her population even more scum than was the ...
— My Days of Adventure - The Fall of France, 1870-71 • Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
... we will have some for high tea to-night, and some for breakfast in the morning, and give our landlady the rest. Nice woman that; full of stories about the prisoners, and Bony and his wretched scum. Ugh! The very name of the rascal raises my bile, and—There, I think I had better take you home ...
— The Ocean Cat's Paw - The Story of a Strange Cruise • George Manville Fenn
... it?' said Percy, ironically. 'So you approve her marrying an old rogue and miser, who had heaped up his hoards by extortion of wretched Indians and Spaniards, the very scum of Mammon, coming to the ...
— Heartsease - or Brother's Wife • Charlotte M. Yonge
... outside, and Adelaide (always loquacious), exclaimed, "Here comes the General and his staff!" The words were scarcely uttered before the men jumped from their seats and dashed from the room. We were afterwards convinced that they were some of the scum of Sherman's army, and while we (myself and daughters) were sitting quite unsuspectingly, they were lurking ...
— Plantation Sketches • Margaret Devereux
... the square ditch because he would not swop his little snuff box for Wells's seasoned hacking chestnut, the conqueror of forty. How cold and slimy the water had been! A fellow had once seen a big rat jump into the scum. Mother was sitting at the fire with Dante waiting for Brigid to bring in the tea. She had her feet on the fender and her jewelly slippers were so hot and they had such a lovely warm smell! Dante knew a lot of things. She had taught ...
— A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man • James Joyce
... milk, half a pint; lemon juice, one-quarter ounce; white brandy, half ounce. Boil the whole and skim it clear from all scum. Use night and morning. ...
— The Ladies Book of Useful Information - Compiled from many sources • Anonymous
... from the scum of human society. They were made up of bankrupts, decadent students, gamblers, topers, and beggars. They came from the ranks of those who had been pursued by misfortune and who bore the marks of crime. No one was too ...
— The Goose Man • Jacob Wassermann
... pilfering race; So purge thy garden from disgrace.' 'What arrogance!' the snail replied; 'How insolent is upstart pride! Hadst thou not thus with insult vain, Provoked my patience to complain, I had concealed thy meaner birth, Nor traced thee to the scum of earth. 30 For scarce nine suns have waked the hours, To swell the fruit, and paint the flowers, Since I thy humbler life surveyed, In base, in sordid guise arrayed; A hideous insect, vile, unclean, You dragged a slow and noisome train; And from your spider-bowels drew Foul film, and spun the ...
— The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase • Joseph Addison, John Gay, William Sommerville
... the sea, the immense gulf with slight waves; to his right was the decaying stretch of the marsh. Stagnant water stretching to the horizon, coarse grass and reeds, an extraordinary tangle of water-plants, small ponds whose greenish scum did not stir under the stiff breeze, water that was heavy and dirty. Along this narrow strip of land thrust thus between the marsh, the sky and the sea, he hurried, with many stumblings, his eyes fixed on the deserted gulf. ...
— The Secret of the Night • Gaston Leroux
... the ice neither grew any thinner nor any thicker, but seemed to remain at a stand-still. In the early part of the morning it was almost strong enough to bear them; but during the day the sun melted it, until it was little better than a scum over ...
— Popular Adventure Tales • Mayne Reid
... had light winds and the coast was but indistinctly seen. The sea was covered with a brown scum which Captain Cook's sailors called sea saw-dust, from its resemblance to that substance.* Very few fish were noticed, but they were generally more ...
— Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia - Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 • Phillip Parker King
... war the character of the immigration began to change, and during the eighties and nineties came to be almost entirely made up of the lowest, most wretched, and barbarous races of Europe—the very scum of the continent. Even to secure these wretched recruits the agents of the transatlantic steamers and the American land syndicates had to send their agents all over the worst districts of Europe and flood the countries with lying circulars. Matters had come to the point ...
— Equality • Edward Bellamy
... plays the hypocrite. He likes praise, he likes to be talked about, he likes to know great people, and he no more cares to conceal his likings than Sancho Panza cared to conceal his appetite. Three pullets and a couple of geese were but so much scum, which Don Quixote's squire whipped off to stay his stomach till dinner-time. By the time Boswell was six-and-twenty he could boast that he had made the acquaintance of Adam Smith, Robertson, Hume, Johnson, Goldsmith, Wilkes, Garrick, Horace Walpole, Voltaire, Rousseau, ...
— Boswell's Correspondence with the Honourable Andrew Erskine, and His Journal of a Tour to Corsica • James Boswell
... will be frank with you. Brigandage is abnormal. Abnormal professions attract two classes: those who are not good enough for ordinary bourgeois life and those who are too good for it. We are dregs and scum, sir: the dregs very filthy, the ...
— Man And Superman • George Bernard Shaw
... take the risk," added the sergeant, who had not quite finished. He ended with an irrepressible outburst of honest indignation: "Why, you blasted, thieving Dutch scum, do you think I don't know you were stealing that ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves
... something or kill somebody. How to get rid of this taint was a problem which our statesmen found it difficult to solve. In times of war they mitigated the evil by filling the ranks of our armies from the gaols, and manning our navies by the help of the press-gang, but in times of peace the scum of society ...
— The Book of the Bush • George Dunderdale
... was rumbling with the news. Under Ballard's devilry, all the latent hatred of the ranger and all the concealed opposition to the Forest Service came to the surface like the scum on a pot of broth. The saloons and eating-houses boiled with indignant protest. "What business is it of Ross Cavanagh's?" they demanded. "What call has he to interfere? ...
— Cavanaugh: Forest Ranger - A Romance of the Mountain West • Hamlin Garland
... bells were ringing for evensong, and a squad of Salvation Army lassies came singing down Waterloo Road. On the bridge a number of loafers were watching a curious brown scum that came drifting down the stream in patches. The sun was just setting, and the Clock Tower and the Houses of Parliament rose against one of the most peaceful skies it is possible to imagine, a ...
— The War of the Worlds • H. G. Wells
... "Never! You scum!" Karl was on the dais in a single bound. He had the Zar by the throat, his fingers twisting in the flabby flesh. Might as well have it over at once. "Fratricide—murderer of my father, I'll take ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930 • Various
... humming preparatory to their attacks. Add these new trials to the groans of the dying, which, during my residence on board, never ceased, and at night were more awful and painfully distinct. The nurses were all men, obtained from the scum of the sea-ports, for no others would volunteer for the duty—a set of brutes indifferent to the sufferings of others. As long as they were, during the day, superintended and watched by the officers, they did their duty, but at night the ...
— Borneo and the Indian Archipelago - with drawings of costume and scenery • Frank S. Marryat
... and flashing of passions, the thrill and sting of which he had never known. Saved as he was by his temperament alike from deep suffering and tense emotion, and from any vital mingling either with the scum and foam or with the stagnancy and mire of life, the books remain as a brilliant illusion, with much of the shifting hues and changing glimmer of his own ardent and restless mind rippling over the surface of a depth which is always ...
— Hugh - Memoirs of a Brother • Arthur Christopher Benson
... shouldn't I be allowed to let you in also for a share of that good fortune? You think there's a difference, but I tell you it's imaginary—pure moonshine. Why, the very people whose opinion you're afraid of—what did they do themselves when the South African craze was on? I'm told that the scum of the earth had only to own some Chartered shares, and pretend to be 'in the know' about them—and they could dine with as many duchesses as they liked. I knew one or two of the men who were in that deal—I wouldn't have them in my house—but it ...
— The Market-Place • Harold Frederic
... full of sand and scum from the sea, but before the day is over I intend to give them a good scrubbing and drying. Then I'll feel like a new man. But wait! This may be Sunday, not Monday. Can't wash on Sunday, can I? Let's see, the wreck was on Thursday night, ...
— Nedra • George Barr McCutcheon
... us for a beacon, and we set light to our sticks in the lava, which slowly ran through the hollows of the crater. The surface of the inflamed matter nearly resembles metal in a state of fusion, but as it flows it carries a kind of scum, which gradually hardens into scoria and rolls like fire-balls to the bottom of the mountain. We thought ourselves pretty secure in this spot, and had no wish to retire; but shortly a most terrific explosion which launched to an inconceivable height in the air, immense ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, Issue 266, July 28, 1827 • Various
... three or four going to and fro against the grey hillside. "They will hang about me now all the night ... until I kill," said Andoo. "Filth of the world!" And mainly to annoy them, he resolved to watch the red flicker in the gorge until the dawn came to drive the hyaena scum home. And after a time they vanished, and he heard their voices, like a party of Cockney beanfeasters, away in the beechwoods. Then they came slinking near again. Andoo yawned and went on along the cliff, and they followed. Then he stopped ...
— Tales of Space and Time • Herbert George Wells
... first, they did not notice the talk of the card players which was directed against them; for Matt, being called away to his bar, was replaced by a third loafer. Gradually there came to their ears the words, "conceited, offish, up-settin', pedlars, tramps, pious scum," with condemnatory and other adjectives prefixed, and then they knew that their characters and occupations were undergoing unfavourable review. Mr. Rawdon was too "hail fellow well met" with the loafers ...
— Two Knapsacks - A Novel of Canadian Summer Life • John Campbell
... could be permanent; that any song or story could live to give delight in future ages. But literature is like a river in flood, which gradually purifies itself in two ways,—the mud settles to the bottom, and the scum rises to the top. When we examine the writings that by common consent constitute our literature, the clear stream purified of its dross, we find at least two more qualities, which we call the tests of literature, ...
— English Literature - Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World • William J. Long
... soon as a bed has ceased to bear a crop worth picking clear it out, lime-wash the place it occupied, and make up another bed. Carefully observe that no old loam or manure is allowed to accumulate anywhere, or green scum forms upon the boards, paths, or walls; boiling water impregnated with alum poured over the boards, walls, and other scum-covered surfaces, will kill the eel worms, but it should not be allowed to touch the mushroom beds that are in bearing ...
— Mushrooms: how to grow them - a practical treatise on mushroom culture for profit and pleasure • William Falconer
... the tax amounts to more than one half of what you pay for the article itself; these taxes go in part to support sinecure placemen and pensioners; and the ruffians of the hired press call you the scum of society, and deny that you have any right to show your faces at any public meeting to petition for a reform, or for the removal of any ...
— Political Pamphlets • George Saintsbury
... "Ah, the Prussian scum!" exclaimed Sambuc, wiping the sweat from his forehead, "he gave us trouble enough! Say, Silvine, light another candle, will you, so we can get a good view of the d——d pig and see ...
— The Downfall • Emile Zola
... until it was no longer passable. Huge bowlders lay jammed and crowded in clefts of the mountain before them. Penn remembered the spot. He had been there in spring, when down over the rocks, now covered with lichens and dry scum, poured an ...
— Cudjo's Cave • J. T. Trowbridge
... Rainer as they hurried through the gardens. "A week ago I got a cable from Paris saying that a kidnapping gang were after Dorothy. I'm a millionaire, and the scum are after ransom. I cabled to McNeill, my Paris agent, to come right here with half a dozen of the best detectives in France, scooped up Mr. Buist of the New York police,"—he nodded towards the short, ...
— The Admirable Tinker - Child of the World • Edgar Jepson
... life's tide, yearns for something to cling to, a tie to bind her, a duty to perform. The pit from amid its scum throws it to her; she accepts it and devotes herself to it. This mysterious bandit, transformed into heliotrope or iris, becomes a religion to her. She espouses him in the presence of night. She has a thousand little wifely ...
— The Memoirs of Victor Hugo • Victor Hugo
... floating scum-like substances on fresh water; they deserve to be more studied, for some, as dulse, laver, badderlocks, &c., are eatable, and others are ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth
... degenerate into noxious Marshes, if some Care was not taken to divert those impure Gushings into their proper Channels. Hence it may be inferred, that laying open the most honorary, as well as important and useful Professions of Society, to the Intrusion, or rather pyratical Invasions, of the Scum and Dregs of the People, cannot, however varnished over with the fictitious Colourings of pretended Liberty, ...
— An Essay on the Antient and Modern State of Ireland • Henry Brooke
... to Liverpool, 'you scum of a despot limited monarchy, and have another dose of Bunker Hill. That good man, Mr. Pendergast,' says I, 'said we were to observe the day in a befitting manner, and I'm not going to see ...
— Sixes and Sevens • O. Henry
... active thought and love by the gewgaws she hangs on her bonnet! How light must be that thing which will float on the sea of passion—a bubble, a feather, a puff-ball! And yet multitudes of women float there, live there, and call it life. Poor things! Scum on the surface! But there is a truth, young women; woman was made for a higher purpose, a nobler use, a grander destiny. Her powers are rich and strong; her genius bold and daring. She may walk ...
— Aims and Aids for Girls and Young Women • George Sumner Weaver
... lengths of an inch and a half; melt an ounce of butter in a stew pan and fry the pieces in this, turning them about for five minutes. Add two quarts of stock or water and bring gently to a boil. Throw in a teaspoonful of salt, and carefully remove the scum as it rises. Add a carrot, a turnip and an onion with two cloves stuck in it, a little celery, a blade of mace and a small bouquet of garum. Stew gently two and one half hours. Strain the soup and put the pieces of ox tail in cold ...
— My Pet Recipes, Tried and True - Contributed by the Ladies and Friends of St. Andrew's Church, Quebec • Various
... will be a benefit to England." He appealed to Palmerston to consider whether the time had not come to recognize the South. "The North will never be our friends. (Cheers.) Of the South you can make friends. They are Englishmen; they are not the scum and refuse of Europe. (The Mayor of Manchester: 'Don't say that; don't say that.') (Cheers and disapprobation.) I know what I am saying. They are Englishmen, and we ...
— Great Britain and the American Civil War • Ephraim Douglass Adams
... the Commune had decided upon certain measures they had them voted by the Assembly then and there. If the Assembly resisted, they sent their armed delegations thither— that is, armed bands recruited from the scum of the populace. They conveyed injunctions which were always slavishly obeyed. The Commune was so sure of its strength that it even demanded of the Convention the immediate expulsion of deputies ...
— The Psychology of Revolution • Gustave le Bon
... as much as possible. It is a good thing to place some boards across the head of the pond to give shade and shelter to the fry. It will probably be found that if much artificial food is given to the little fish, a scum will be formed on the surface of the water. This scum is composed of grease, and should be removed, as soon as it is observed, with a ...
— Amateur Fish Culture • Charles Edward Walker
... bauble, trinket, bagatelle, Rickshaw, knickknack, whim-wham, trifle, " trifles light as air "; yankee notions [U. S.]. trumpery, trash, rubbish, stuff, fatras[obs3], frippery; " leather or prunello "; chaff, drug, froth bubble smoke, cobweb; weed; refuse &c. (inutility) 645; scum &c. (dirt) 653. joke, jest, snap of the fingers; fudge &c. (unmeaning) 517; fiddlestick[obs3], fiddlestick end[obs3]; pack of nonsense, mere farce. straw, pin, fig, button, rush; bulrush, feather, halfpenny, farthing, brass farthing, doit[obs3], peppercorn, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... spirit to this work. I am sure you may observe that any thing goes more smoothly and sweetly with you than the worship of God, because your mind is more upon any thing else. I fear the most part of us who endeavour, in some measure, to seek God, have too much dross of outward formality, and much scum of filthy hypocrisy and guile. O! pray that the present furnace may purge away this scum. It is the great ground of God's present controversy with Scotland, but, alas! the bellows are like to burn, and we not to be purged. Our scum goes not out from us. We satisfy ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning
... out on the table to cool—piling them while hot injures the glaze—and put away the first washing before commencing on the heavy, greasy things. The washing water must be changed as soon as a greasy scum collects around the sides ...
— The Complete Home • Various
... Who trust revenge with such mad instruments, Whose blindfold business is but to destroy; And, like the fire, commissioned by the winds, Begins on sheds, but, rolling in a round, On palaces returns. Away, ye scum, That still rise upmost when the nation boils; Ye mongrel work of heaven, with human shapes, Not to be damned or saved, but breathe and perish, That have but just enough of sense, to know The master's voice, when rated, to depart. [Exeunt MUSTAPHA ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Vol. 7 (of 18) - The Duke of Guise; Albion and Albanius; Don Sebastian • John Dryden
... chose for the enforcement of this cruel order. A driving blizzard had raged throughout the night, and the snow had banked up in drifts in places many feet deep. The temperature was freezing, and the strong east wind cut like a knife. It was Ames's desire to teach these scum a needed lesson, and he had chosen to enlist the elements to aid him ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking
... to Teutonic languages), the scum formed on the top of malt liquor when fermenting; yeast used to leaven bread, or to ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 - "Banks" to "Bassoon" • Various
... fresh soot into a coarse sack, and hang it in a tub containing 30 or 40 gallons of water; leave it there for eight or ten days; then remove it and throw in half a peck of fresh lime. Mix well, then take off the surface scum. A decoction of quassia made by boiling 2 or 3 ozs. of chips to a gallon of water for twenty-five or thirty minutes (or steeped in soft water for twenty-four hours) added to the above is a useful insecticide. Syringe with this before the buds appear, but not ...
— The Book of Pears and Plums • Edward Bartrum
... Anderson," said the captain, "so at the slightest sign of danger draw back. I don't want a man to be even wounded at the expense of capturing a score of the black scum, even if one of them proves to ...
— Hunting the Skipper - The Cruise of the "Seafowl" Sloop • George Manville Fenn
... of Spain had poured their gold To thin his ranks, and every hour his crews Deserted, he had laughed—"Let Spain buy scum! Next to an honest seaman I love best An honest landsman. What more goodly task Than teaching brave men seamanship?" He had filled His ships with soldiers! Out in the teeth of the gale That raged against him he had driven. In vain, Amid the boisterous laughter of the quays, A pinnace ...
— Collected Poems - Volume One (of 2) • Alfred Noyes
... up of but a single cell. This consists of a small mass of protoplasm surrounded almost always by a thicker skin or covering, known as the cell wall and enclosing a complicated kernel known as the nucleus. The protoplasm seems to be the living substance itself. The cell wall is not a simple dead scum on the outside of the protoplasm, but is itself able to do certain things which can only, so far as we know, be done by living substances. For instance, of two materials dissolved in the water in which the cell floats, the wall may permit one to soak into the animal ...
— The Meaning of Evolution • Samuel Christian Schmucker
... salted, and hung for a day, to give it firmness. Wash and clean the fish well, and rub salt inside of it; tie it up, and put it on the fire in cold water; throw a handful of salt into the fish-kettle. Boil a small fish 15 minutes; a large one 30 minutes. Serve it without the smallest speck and scum; drain. Garnish it with lemon, horseradish, the milt, roe, and liver. Oyster or ...
— Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 • Barkham Burroughs
... gantlet of the burning cotton, butting down trees, and smashing through bridges, the column entered a stretch of smooth water that seemed to promise fair and unobstructed sailing. But toward the end of this expanse of water a kind of green scum was evident, extending right across the bayou, from bank to bank. Porter's keen eye caught sight of this; and, turning to one of the negroes who had taken refuge on the gunboat, he asked what it was. "It's nuffin' ...
— The Naval History of the United States - Volume 2 (of 2) • Willis J. Abbot
... it had been planked over, but it was partially filled up with rubbish, as Rosa discovered when she peered into it. Only a tiny pool of scum was in the bottom. After a long scrutiny the girl arose, convinced at last of her brother's delusion, and vaguely ashamed of her own credulity. This was about the last repository that such a man as Don Esteban, her father, ...
— Rainbow's End • Rex Beach
... entered by every frontier like a surging sea. Great waves of men arrived one after the other, scattering all around them a scum of freebooters. General Carrel's brigade, separated from its division, retreated continually, fighting each day, but remaining almost intact, thanks to the vigilance and agility of Lieutenant Lare, who seemed to be everywhere at the same ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant
... habit reconciled the visitor to the din, the oaths and objurgations, together with the words "cheat, liar, knave," &c. &c., separated themselves from the rest of the conversation, and swam like a sort of scum upon the top of the buzz. Though all were met there for enjoyment, too, it is worthy of remark, that many of the countenances around bore strong marks of fierce and angry passions, disappointment, hatred, revenge; and many a flushed cheek and flashing eye told the often-told ...
— The King's Highway • G. P. R. James
... the crater still remaining may be seen the level (so to speak) to which the molten lava rose before it burst its barrier. This level is marked by a projecting platform of reddish or yellow material, rich in specular iron, apparently part of the frothy scum which formed on the surface of the lava and adhered to the side of the basin at the moment ...
— Volcanoes: Past and Present • Edward Hull
... throats and pick pockets with their own hands? The thing is impossible. The laws of the country are, therefore, ineffectual and abortive, because they are made by the rich for the poor, by the wise for the ignorant, by the respectable and exalted in station for the very scum and refuse of the community. If Newgate would resolve itself into a committee of the whole Press-yard, with Jack Ketch at its head, aided by confidential persons from the county prisons or the Hulks, and would make a clear breast, ...
— The Spirit of the Age - Contemporary Portraits • William Hazlitt
... shoes—the cobbler. Cobblers are always philosophers. Not pretty men, but thinkers. In their little, dingy shops they sit all day with their eyes down, isolated from the "hum and scum" about them, to the tune of their "tap, tap, tap," their minds are detached to think ...
— Vignettes of San Francisco • Almira Bailey
... enough of the piece until you can see no more bubbles. Leave the piece to be plated in the solution for about one-half hour, then take the article out and with a tooth brush and some pumice, clean the yellowish scum off, rinse in clear water and dry in sawdust. When thoroughly dry, take a cotton flannel rag and some polishing powder and polish the article. The article must have a fine polish before plating if it is desired to have ...
— The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - 700 Things For Boys To Do • Popular Mechanics
... did his soldiers the treacherous nature of the ground in front of the enemy. He saw that it was one of those districts where peat had been taken out in large squares for fuel, and where a fallacious and verdant scum upon the surface of deep pools simulated the turf that had been removed. He saw that the battle-ground presented to him by his sagacious enemy was one great sweep of traps and pitfalls. Before he could carry the position, many ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... work. I was willing to compromise before—so long as there was no tangible bond between that family and mine—but they've got their blood mixed with mine; they've got a finger-hold in spite of hell, and I suppose they'll hold on. But I won't acknowledge a grandchild with scum like that in its veins. Good God! Now listen—you." Wharton's jaw was outthrust, his gaze hard and unwavering. "No child tainted with that blood will share in one penny of my money, now or at any other ...
— The Auction Block • Rex Beach
... had swept the hotel office with a desperate glance, trying to select a face to which she might appeal. There wasn't one. Estabrook was filling with its usual week-end scum; crafty faces, hard faces, faces shallowly good-natured, and therefore doubly treacherous. Even the pimply clerk at the desk, discerning her unescorted state, had changed subtly in voice ...
— Winner Take All • Larry Evans
... mental chemicalization, which has brought con- 65:30 jugal infidelity to the surface, will assuredly throw off this evil, and marriage will become purer when the scum ...
— Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures • Mary Baker Eddy
... which it has been managed. One can imagine how Swift might have introduced the subject in Grildrig's conversations with the King of Brobdingnag. "The King asked me more about our 'dots' of houses, as his Majesty was pleased to call them; and how we removed the scum and filth from those little 'ant-heaps' which we called great towns. I answered that our custom was to have a long brick tube, which we called a sewer, in the middle of our streets, where we kept a sufficient supply of filth till it fermented, and the foul air was then distributed by gratings ...
— The Claims of Labour - an essay on the duties of the employers to the employed • Arthur Helps
... came up, and grew warm. The wind died. I took off my sweater. Between flights I basked deliciously. The affair was outside of all precedent and reason. A duck shooter ought to be out in a storm, a good cold storm. He ought to break the scum ice when he puts out his decoys. He ought to sit half frozen in a wintry blast, his fingers numb, his nose blue, his body shivering. That sort of discomfort goes with duck shooting. Yet here I was sitting out in a warm, summerlike day in ...
— The Killer • Stewart Edward White
... boiling fish. A broth is made by boiling three onions, two carrots, two turnips, some parsley, pepper, salt, sufficient water, a tumbler of white wine, and a tumbler of vinegar together; the scum is removed as it rises, the fish is simmered in the broth. This broth is called Court bouillon. Fish cooked thus is eaten hot or ...
— The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII, No. 355, October 16, 1886 • Various
... are seen The dregs and scum of earth and seas, Her kindness counting all things clean That lend ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... water is a good proportion. Put it into a large pot, and add half a table-spoonful of salt. Hang it over a good fire, as early as six o'clock in the morning, if you dine at two. When it has come to a hard boil, and the scum has risen, (which it will do as soon as it has boiled,) skim it well. Do not remove the lid more frequently than is absolutely necessary, as uncovering the pot causes the flavour to evaporate. Then set it on hot coals in the corner, and keep it simmering steadily, adding fresh coals ...
— Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches • Eliza Leslie
... tossed half-a-dozen cigars on the pavement derisively. They were scrambled for, as when a pack of wolves are diverted by a garment dropped from the flying sledge, but the unluckier hands came after his heels in fuller howl. He noticed the singular appearance of the streets. Bands of the scum of the population hung at various points: from time to time a shout was raised at a distance, "Abasso il zigarro!" and "Away with the cigar!" went an organized file-firing of cries along the open place. Several ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... Christians, when so convertible. Should they prove impressionable, Miss Macpherson then contemplates their emigration to Canada. Many had already been sent out; and her idea was to extend her operations in this respect: not, be it observed, to cast hundreds of the scum of the East End of London upon Canada—a proceeding to which the Canadians would very naturally object—but to form a Home on that side to be fed from the Homes on this, and so to remove from the old scenes of vice and temptation ...
— Mystic London: - or, Phases of occult life in the metropolis • Charles Maurice Davies
... whether it is a complicated one like one of the flowering plants, or some humbler member of the vegetable kingdom,—a moss, seaweed, toadstool,—or even some still simpler plant like a mould, or the apparently structureless green scum that floats on a stagnant pond. In any case the impulse is to investigate the form and structure as far as the means at one's disposal will permit. Such a study of structure constitutes "Morphology," which ...
— Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany - For High Schools and Elementary College Courses • Douglas Houghton Campbell |
