"Serviceable" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... all sizes and descriptions were driven out and saddled; rusty muskets, balls of all shapes and of any available metal that would melt and run, disabled broadswords, horse-pistols, blunderbusses, whatever wore any resemblance to a weapon, or could be rendered serviceable to that end,—all were hunted out, cleaned, mended, and laid ready;—an array that might have made a properly drilled and equipped army smile in contempt, but whose deficiencies were more than supplied by iron sinews, true blood, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1, Nov. 1857 • Various
... the face of this long-legged upstart, with its small eyes, sharp nose, and furrowed brow! Could the beautiful Diadumenianus really be his son? No matter! The boy, the apple of his father's eye, was in his power, and was a surety for the old man's loyalty. After all, Macrinus was a capable, serviceable officer, and easier to deal with than the Romans of the ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... these weapons will prove more serviceable in the hands of our stout fellows than muskets or pistols, which take time to load," observed Adair. "They may serve us in good stead, should the Brazilians attempt ...
— The Three Lieutenants • W.H.G. Kingston
... in probate, and those for the purpose of public compensation to the owners of slaves legally condemned for capital crimes. The former were oftentimes purely perfunctory, and they are generally serviceable only as aids in ascertaining the ratios of value between slaves of the diverse ages and sexes. The appraisals of criminals, however, since they prescribed actual payments on the basis of the market ...
— American Negro Slavery - A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime • Ulrich Bonnell Phillips
... amatory character often make sayings acceptable, which for their intrinsic merit would scarcely raise a smile, and Lamb soon seriously deplored the loss of this serviceable ...
— History of English Humour, Vol. 2 (of 2) • Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange
... I am not writing his life—but editing his autobiographical reminiscences and diaries—and unless the anecdote could be introduced to explain or illustrate these, it would not be serviceable for my ...
— Letters of Edward FitzGerald to Fanny Kemble (1871-1883) • Edward FitzGerald
... fluting low in the hot sun between dusty hedges overlooked by contented cows; past farmsteads where man and beast, living in frank fellowship, learn pleasant and serviceable lessons each of the other; over the full-fed river, lipping the meadow-sweet, and thence on either side through leagues of hay. Or through bending corn they chant the mystical wonderful song of the reaper when ...
— Pagan Papers • Kenneth Grahame
... possibility foreseen by Hugh when he concluded to take that long and serviceable rope aloft with him. By this means the girl could first be lowered to the ground at a point where the flames had not yet reached; and afterwards it would be little trouble for, himself and chums to also slide down to safety. Hugh always paid much ...
— The Boy Scouts with the Motion Picture Players • Robert Shaler
... never regarded nations as peoples, men, women and children of like blood and frame as themselves, for whom governments existed and in whom governments had their life. They have regarded them merely as serviceable organizations which they could by force or intrigue bend or corrupt to their own purpose. They have regarded the smaller states, in particular, and the peoples who could be overwhelmed by force, as their natural tools and instruments of domination. Their purpose has long been avowed. ...
— In Our First Year of the War - Messages and Addresses to the Congress and the People, - March 5, 1917 to January 6, 1918 • Woodrow Wilson
... of weariness and dejection with that perfect hypocrisy she had acquired by her education, Laurent took the part of a sensible and serviceable man. He was full of little attentions for the two women, particularly for Madame Raquin, whom he overwhelmed with delicate attention. Little by little he made himself indispensable in the shop; it was him alone who brought a little gaiety into ...
— Therese Raquin • Emile Zola
... travelers, I wish to explain that my "Hawaiian riding dress" is the "American Lady's Mountain Dress," a half-fitting jacket, a skirt reaching to the ankles, and full Turkish trousers gathered into frills falling over the boots,—a thoroughly serviceable and feminine costume for mountaineering and other rough traveling, as in the Alps or any ...
— A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains • Isabella L. Bird
... read it every syllable through, aloud, hard names and all, from Genesis, to the Apocalypse, about once a year: and to that discipline—patient, accurate, and resolute—I owe, not only a knowledge of the book, which I find occasionally serviceable, but much of my general power of taking pains, and the best part of my taste in literature. From Walter Scott's novels I might easily, as I grew older, have fallen to other people's novels; and Pope might, perhaps, ...
— Stories of Authors, British and American • Edwin Watts Chubb
... was Father Higgins; uncommonly in the way of good eating, and now and then disposed for good drinking; as lazy as he dared be, ignorant enough for a hermit, and simple enough for a monk. His chief excellence lay in his kindliness of heart, which would doubtless have made him very serviceable and comfortable to his fellow-men, had it not been for his indolence, his spare intellectual gifts, and perhaps ...
— Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature • Various
... machinery, and farming implements must and will be supplied out of the abundance in the North. The want of mules will be severely felt for some years. No Yankee has yet been able to invent a machine that will create serviceable mules to order. We must wait for their production by the ordinary means, and it will be a considerable time before the supply is equal to the demand. Those who turn their attention to stock-raising, during the ...
— Camp-Fire and Cotton-Field • Thomas W. Knox
... ship's carpenters in building a vessel, and instruction, with the necessary plans for continuing the work after the frigate had gone. I had some knowledge of the art to begin with, so that I knew exactly what information I required. My ambition was to have a fine, serviceable little vessel, and I had every hope of succeeding. I was thoroughly up to ...
— The Cruise of the Mary Rose - Here and There in the Pacific • William H. G. Kingston
... and serviceable, on a narrow side street so near to Park Row that the big table in the rear rattles its dishes when the presses begin their seismic rumblings, in the daily effort to shake the world. Here gather the pick and choice of New York journalism, while still on duty, to eat and drink and discuss ...
— Success - A Novel • Samuel Hopkins Adams
... imagined, I proceeded, with the aid of my men, to make a rough intrenchment and to erect a wall round the platform, sheltered by the projecting rock under which we lived. These bulwarks hid us from the sight of passing Tibetans, and were serviceable as fortifications in case of a night attack. All our things were buried a short distance ...
— An Explorer's Adventures in Tibet • A. Henry Savage Landor
... an art, like composing music or painting pictures, then compromise is in the very fabric of it. Getting different themes or colors that would like to be contradictory, to work together; developing a give and take. What's the important thing? To have a life that's full and good and serviceable, or to mince along through it with two or ...
— Mary Wollaston • Henry Kitchell Webster
... thinking, that he was doing for her sake what ought to be done for its own. He said to him that, as he was no man of business, and must give his best attention to his mother, he found it impossible for the present to acquaint himself with the state of the property, or indeed attend to it in any serviceable manner; and he begged him, as his father's friend and his own, to look into his affairs, and, so far as his other duties would permit, place things on at least ...
— Heather and Snow • George MacDonald
... now cleared for a serviceable definition of language. Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols. These symbols are, in the first instance, auditory and they are produced by the so-called "organs of speech." There is ...
— Language - An Introduction to the Study of Speech • Edward Sapir
... naively remarks that he is glad the marines have been withdrawn from the gun boats, as this may make the commanders of the latter keep a brighter lookout than formerly.] Gun-boats of this kind, together with the few small cutters owned by the government, were serviceable enough. They were employed all along the shores of Georgia and the Carolinas, and in Long Island Sound, in protecting the coasting trade by convoying parties of small vessels from one port to another, and preventing them ...
— The Naval War of 1812 • Theodore Roosevelt
... American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, the visitor, on the asking, may be gratified with the sight and touch of a curious old relic which will bring him almost into contact with a most agreeable family-circle of the olden time. It is a serviceable posset-pot, with a silver tip and lid, both of which are gilded, the cover, still playing faithfully on its hinge, being chased with the device of Adam and Eve in the garden partaking of the forbidden fruit. An accompanying record reads as follows:—"At ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 75, January, 1864 • Various
... all be made to read Meredith, and the book at which I would start them should be 'The Shaving of Shagpat.' It is in the nature of a handbook or guide to a young person of genius, it is true, and we can't all be persons of genius; but there is enough human nature in it to make it serviceable to all but the stupid. In the midst of its fantastic phantasmagoria there is a view of life so sane, so lofty, so feminine-tender, so masculine-strong, so piercing, keen and clear, that it is not easy to find an expression for admiration which shall be at once adequate and sober. On the mere surface ...
— My Contemporaries In Fiction • David Christie Murray
... different sentiment, enumerate a number of waters, which become salutary at certain times of the year, by being then charged with metallic salts; the mud of which being brought up from the bottom, has been serviceable in many diseases. Wherefore they say, it is not just to have recourse to a supernatural power for effects, which may be produced by the ordinary course of nature. But as far as I am able to judge of these contradictory opinions, a middle way between them seems to me to come ...
— Medica Sacra - or a Commentary on on the Most Remarkable Diseases Mentioned - in the Holy Scriptures • Richard Mead
... used for a variety of purposes; but they will be found most particularly serviceable for distributing handbills and ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, December 10, 1892 • Various
... Much space has been given to biography. From the standpoint of the constructive historian it is to be regretted that the magazine has devoted so little of its space to short articles culling and arranging and rendering more serviceable the facts published in documentary form. But the magazine has done and is still doing a work of vast importance in collecting and preserving ...
— Patrician and Plebeian - Or The Origin and Development of the Social Classes of the Old Dominion • Thomas J. Wertenbaker
... to say that I do. They are worn, but serviceable still," replied Mrs. Carroll, smiling. "Even at my age, I still believe that most husbands cherish their wives, and that most wives love their husbands, ...
— A Tar-Heel Baron • Mabell Shippie Clarke Pelton
... in bed with all manner of quaint imaginations. Much of the pleasure of the "Arabian Nights" hinges upon this Asmodean interest; and we are not weary of lifting other people's roofs and going about behind the scenes of life with the Caliph and the serviceable Giaffar. It is a salutary exercise, besides; it is salutary to get out of ourselves and see people living together in perfect unconsciousness of our existence, as they will live when we are gone. If to-morrow the blow falls, and the worst of ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XXII (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... here during the next season I employed myself in making (as well as I could) a great many baskets, both to carry earth, or to carry or lay up any thing, as I had occasion; and though I did not finish them very handsomely, yet I made them sufficiently serviceable for my purpose; and thus afterwards I took care never to be without them; and as my wicker-ware decayed I made more; especially I made strong deep baskets to place my corn in, instead of sacks, when I should come to ...
— The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) • Daniel Defoe
... one may lay one's plans with mathematical precision, and rely upon the Nayland Smiths and Dr. Petries to play their allotted parts. Excepting two faithful followers, my friends are long since departed. But here, in these vaults which time has overlooked and which are as secret and as serviceable to-day as they were two hundred years ago, I wait patiently, with my trap set, like ...
— The Devil Doctor • Sax Rohmer
... They are constructed on a most solid plan, being built of stone with brick arches, and the wood-work of oak enclosing pillars of iron. It is altogether on a most extensive and commodious plan, with such regulations as have rendered it highly serviceable to the purposes of commerce. Adjoining are the warehouses of the Custom House, called the Douanes de Paris, the entrance is in the Rue Neuve Sanson, the house of the Director is attached, and particularly neat; the whole of the buildings, although constructed ...
— How to Enjoy Paris in 1842 • F. Herve
... moreover serviceable to Hannah. Once or twice as told she had brought me some figures to cast up, and when Sarah had left, she brought me others on various little scraps of paper. She asked me never to mention my having ...
— My Secret Life, Volumes I. to III. - 1888 Edition • Anonymous
... scientific man is advisable to avoid much loss of time, but I have met with not a few men, who, I feel sure, have often thus been deterred from experiment or observations, which would have proved directly or indirectly serviceable. ...
— The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume I • Francis Darwin
... more firmly they become fixed; and after a time, when they lose their moisture they are converted into long bony spines as dense as bristles, and having much of that character. They are known by the name of spotted achne. With regard to local treatment, the following lotions are calculated to be serviceable: 1. Distilled rose water, 1 pint; sulphate of zinc, 20 to 60 grains. Mix. 2. Sulphate of copper, 20 grains; rosewater, 4 ounces; water, 12 ounces. Mix. 3. Oil of sweet almonds, 1 ounce; fluid potash, 1 drachm. Shake well together and then add rose-water, 1 ounce; pure water, 6 ounces. Mix. ...
— Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 • Barkham Burroughs
... trigger, the moment of explosion could not be depended upon. To Col. Colt belongs the honour of so combining obsolete and modern inventions, and superadding such improvements of his own, as to produce the first practical and really serviceable weapon. ...
— Lands of the Slave and the Free - Cuba, The United States, and Canada • Henry A. Murray
... Ferrers, as he threw down the letter, and rubbed his hands with delight. "I little thought, when I schemed for this letter, that chance would make it so inestimably serviceable. There is less to alter than I thought for—the clumsiest botcher in the world could manage it. Let me look again. Hem, hem—the first phrase to alter is this: 'I know her enough to feel deep solicitude and anxiety for your happiness if centred in a nature so imperious and vain'—scratch ...
— Ernest Maltravers, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... security in the ice, the other the old English whaler type designed to sail the high seas and push her way through the looser ice-packs. And a brief consideration of southern conditions will show which of these types is more serviceable for Antarctic exploration, because it is obvious that the exploring ship must first of all be prepared to navigate the most stormy seas in the world, and then be ready to force her way through the ice-floes ...
— The Voyages of Captain Scott - Retold from 'The Voyage of the "Discovery"' and 'Scott's - Last Expedition' • Charles Turley
... constructed in 1937 for scheduled refueling stop on the round-the-world flight of Amelia EARHART and Fred NOONAN - they left Lae, New Guinea, for Howland Island, but were never seen again; the airstrip is no longer serviceable (2003 est.) ...
— The 2004 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency
... belonged to my father, between Reading and Henley. I was oftener on the water than on the land in those days. There are some who have treated me roughly because I fought against the late King; but folks are beginning to find out that the Brewer's disbanded red-coats can be honest and serviceable in time of peace." ...
— London Pride - Or When the World Was Younger • M. E. Braddon
... and other writers have supplied us with tales of the true blood-curdling type. Thomas Hood's "Haunted House," S. T. Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner," and some other weird works of poetry have also been found serviceable in producing that strange chill of the blood, that creeping kind of feeling all over you, which is one of the enjoyments of Christmastide. Coleridge (says the late Mr. George Dawson)[88] "holds the first place amongst English poets ...
— Christmas: Its Origin and Associations - Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries • William Francis Dawson
... accompanied her as a shepherd's dog might accompany a sheep. But, Mrs. Heep gave him little trouble; for she not only returned with the deed, but with the box in which it was, where we found a banker's book and some other papers that were afterwards serviceable. ...
— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens
... Some time afterwards (in or before 1761) Goldsmith, like Johnson, had tasted the bitterness of an usher's life, and escaped into the scarcely more tolerable regions of Grub Street. After some years of trial, he was becoming known to the booksellers as a serviceable hand, and had two works in his desk destined to lasting celebrity. His landlady (apparently 1764) one day arrested him for debt. Johnson, summoned to his assistance, sent him a guinea and speedily followed. The guinea had already been changed, and Goldsmith was ...
— Samuel Johnson • Leslie Stephen
... the churchyard I found a serviceable thumbnail and put it in my pocket. I waited a little, peering this way and that, and listening, but all was still. No ...
— Wanderers • Knut Hamsun
... though not too early for the understanding. At college he was a severe student; his mind was founded and elemented in words and generalities, and these too formed all the superstructure. That revelry and that debauchery, which are so often fatal to the powers of intellect, would probably have been serviceable to him; they would have given him a closer communion with realities, they would have induced a greater presentness to present objects. But Mr. Pitt's conduct was correct, unimpressibly correct. His after-discipline in the special pleader's office, and at the bar, carried ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 2, July, 1850. • Various
... on Palomar, the Mountain of Doves, many miles away, had been hauled by oxen over trackless hill and valley, to form the joists and rafters that one sees to-day, after the lapse of more than a century, firm and serviceable, fastened with wooden spikes and stout ...
— The Penance of Magdalena & Other Tales of the California Missions • J. Smeaton Chase
... cynic, as heartless as he seems. And without thinking of cynicism, real or affected, let us remember, that, though the taste ought to be refined, and daily refining, it ought not to be refined beyond being practically serviceable. Let things be good, but not too good to be workable. It is expedient that a cart for conveying coals should be of neat and decent appearance. Let the shafts be symmetrical, the boards well-planed, the whole ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 46, August, 1861 • Various
... fermenting with barm, &c., is pursued with the dough, as with other bread. In baking, it turns of a bright light brown, and is lighter than bread made after the common process, and therefore I consider the knowledge of it serviceable to ...
— The Backwoods of Canada • Catharine Parr Traill
... gone to bed overnight; nor could there be a stronger contrast between the furniture of both, than the flickering half-burnt remains of the thin muslin curtains, and the strong, bare, dungeon-looking walls of the room itself, or the very serviceable wooden stool, of which he had made such ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott
... Complete Text Book," 1s. 8d., post free, and "Thirty-five Exercises," 1s. 3d., in order to thoroughly learn the system; but the above is serviceable as a ...
— The Esperantist, Vol. 1, No. 3 • Various
... the bridle inlaid with enamelled knobs. I almost dreaded to think that all this was about to become my property, and that such luck could not last long. So strong was this apprehension that I was about asking for trappings less gaudy and more serviceable; but again, I thought that any delay might be my ruin; so without mincing the matter I mounted him, and in a very short time had passed the gates of the city, and was ...
— The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan • James Morier
... ground of a landscape. It possesses a slight degree of turbidness, and is esteemed for this property, which is considered to give it a retiring quality. By admixture with Antwerp blue or indigo it affords a fine range of quiet greens, also a very serviceable yellowish drab with Vandyke brown. The ochre is valuable in warm skies, the sails of ships and boats, sandstone rocks and cliffs, buildings, hay, sheep, &c. It does not compound kindly with any of the cold colours, and should therefore ...
— Field's Chromatography - or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists • George Field
... justifiable to run risks which would not be permissible in the case of an older person. To save an upper limb, also, risks may be run which would not be justifiable in the case of a lower limb, because, while a serviceable artificial leg can readily be procured, any portion of the natural hand or arm is infinitely more useful than the best substitute which the instrument-maker can contrive. The risk involved in attempting to save a limb should always be explained to the patient or his ...
— Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. • Alexander Miles
... bad effect; whereas most of the figures in them are simmetrically coupled. Of the first I once saw in Germany a striking instance; an instance that served to confirm that affinity between the arts which renders them so serviceable to ...
— A Treatise on the Art of Dancing • Giovanni-Andrea Gallini
... overweening presumption in a suggestion he makes, that all species of animals and plants which are useless to man should be systematically rooted out. As if any one could presume to assert that the smallest weed may not, as knowledge advances, be found to have some property serviceable to man. When we consider that the united power of the whole human race cannot reproduce a species once eradicated—that what is once done, in the extirpation of races, can never be repaired; one can only be thankful that amidst all which the past rulers of mankind have to answer for, ...
— Auguste Comte and Positivism • John-Stuart Mill
... indeed, sahib, and the zemindar's head man told me that I was to consider the horse on which I ride my own. He will carry me well, for he is a stout and serviceable animal. I was wondering what we should do for horses; for there are but few in the city, as most of those owning them sent them away, with their valuables, ...
— At the Point of the Bayonet - A Tale of the Mahratta War • G. A. Henty
... of milk and water would be both delightful and serviceable; but I might take the sugar," I added, with a sudden thought, upsetting the sugar-bowl into a "Boston Journal" which we had bought in the train. "I can never use it, but it will be ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, Issue 67, May, 1863 • Various
... McCormick made a gift of a sample copy of every one of our new publications to the presidents of State associations in eighteen of the western States, as a means of bringing them in closer touch with the national office.... Aside from our own literature we have been grateful for a very serviceable congressional document, thousands of which have been distributed in the last few months, the speech of Congressman Edward T. Taylor of Colorado. It proved a successful and timely campaign document and we are indebted not only to ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V • Ida Husted Harper
... use pure water, the most common and most serviceable of remedies. It cools, soothes and restores equilibrium because its mineral affinities determine its vibratory action as of lower, slower grade, and because one of its constituents is oxygen, the most negative of ...
— Valere Aude - Dare to Be Healthy, Or, The Light of Physical Regeneration • Louis Dechmann
... cars or locomotives enough to do this work. I then instructed and authorized him to hold on to all trains that arrived at Nashville from Louisville, and to allow none to go back until he had secured enough to fill the requirements of our problem. At the time he only had about sixty serviceable locomotives, and about six hundred cars of all kinds, and he represented that to provide for all contingencies he must have at least one hundred locomotives and one thousand cars. As soon as Mr. Guthrie, the President of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, ...
— Memoirs of Three Civil War Generals, Complete • U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, P. H. Sheridan
... of the special envoy, Tatisheff, whom, on the night of July 30, the Tsar had despatched to Berlin[556]? There is not a single sign that the Berlin Government really feared "the Eastern Colossus," though statements as to "the eastern peril" were very serviceable in frightening German ...
— The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.) • John Holland Rose
... in with another member of her newly-adopted family:—a big, raw-boned Irishwoman, who wore her curling reddish hair cropped short, answered to the name of "Frank," and dressed chronically in a serviceable skirt and covert coat, and a man's shikarri helmet. When riding, the skirt was replaced by that of a country-made habit; and in the simplest evening gown this large-featured, large-hearted woman stood a martyr confessed. For ten years she had been the ...
— Captain Desmond, V.C. • Maud Diver
... beaten army that plodded back to the line of the Marne. Its retreat at times narrowly approached a rout. But the army was not crushed, annihilated. It remained a coherent, serviceable part of the allied line in the successful action speedily fought along the Marne. But had it not been for the presence of the airmen the British expeditionary force would have been wiped out then ...
— Aircraft and Submarines - The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day - Uses of War's Newest Weapons • Willis J. Abbot
... Now behold, Helaman and his brethren were no less serviceable unto the people than was Moroni; for they did preach the word of God, and they did baptize unto repentance all men whosoever would ...
— The Book Of Mormon - An Account Written By The Hand Of Mormon Upon Plates Taken - From The Plates Of Nephi • Anonymous
... I've lived too long in this world to suppose nobody can improve on 'em. I've heard men who go down in the dresses of other makers praise 'em just as much as I do mine, an' maybe with as good reason. I believe 'em all to be serviceable. When I've had more experience of 'em I'll be able to say which I think the best.— I've got a noo hand on to-day," continued Baldwin, "an' as he's goin' down this afternoon for the first time, so you've come at a good time. He's a smart young man, ...
— Under the Waves - Diving in Deep Waters • R M Ballantyne
... background. The imputed virtue of folios full of knockdown arguments is supposed to reside in them, just as some of the majesty of the British Empire dwells in the constable's truncheon. They are used in pure superstition, as old clodhoppers spoil Latin by way of an exorcism. And yet they are vastly serviceable for checking unprofitable discussion and stopping the mouths of babes and sucklings. And when a young man comes to a certain stage of intellectual growth, the examination of these counters forms a gymnastic at once amusing and fortifying to ...
— Virginibus Puerisque • Robert Louis Stevenson
... the serviceable ammunition, amounting to several hundred rounds, to a convenient hiding-place in the cellar of a building fronting on the Lesser or Eastern river, and he also transported thither the carbines, the latter carefully wrapped in greased rags to preserve them from dampness. Some ...
— The Doomsman • Van Tassel Sutphen
... passenger over with interest, from his feet in their serviceable shoes, to his head under his round-crowned, wide-brimmed ...
— Trail's End • George W. Ogden
... in children, could holding them up by their heels for a second or two of time be of service after venesection? Or the exhibition of crude quicksilver two ounces every half hour, till a pound is taken, be particularly serviceable in this circumstance? Or could half a pound, or a pound, of crude mercury be injected as a clyster, the patient being elevated by the knees and thighs so as to have his head and shoulders much lower than his bottom, or even for a short time held up ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin
... taken at bedtime, are often serviceable in preventing a threatened cold or cutting it short, the patient going immediately to bed, with extra clothing and hot drinks. The free perspiration induced helps ...
— A Practical Physiology • Albert F. Blaisdell
... real character of slavery, and to touch the South by showing that the inevitable wrong of it lay in the system rather than in those involved in it. Abundant material was in her hands, and the author burned to make it serviceable. What should she do? She might have done what she did afterwards in The Key, presented to the public a mass of statistics, of legal documents. The evidence would have been unanswerable, but the jury might not have ...
— The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial Issue • Various
... to state that the laurel tie, with its inscriptions and its magnificent mountings, was only formally laid, and that it became from that day a relic to be officially cherished; and it should be added that the more serviceable tie which replaced it was cut into fragments by men eager to have some memento of the occasion. Other ties for a time shared the same fate, until splinters of what was claimed to be "the last tie laid" became as common as ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various
... mountains, they support merely a few dwarf plants. Why, then, and the case is not peculiar to myself, have these arid wastes taken so firm a hold on my memory? Why have not the still more level, the greener and more fertile Pampas, which are serviceable to mankind, produced an equal impression? I can scarcely analyse these feelings: but it must be partly owing to the free scope given to the imagination. The plains of Patagonia are boundless, for they are scarcely passable, and hence unknown: they bear the stamp ...
— A Naturalist's Voyage Round the World - The Voyage Of The Beagle • Charles Darwin
... can never be made to do anything unless they are bespattered with the dust of somebody's feet, be it on their heads or on their backs! What a pity if after keeping Brahmins saved up in our armoury for all these ages—keen and serviceable —they cannot be utilized to urge on this rabble in the time of ...
— The Home and the World • Rabindranath Tagore
... on Mrs. Martha, probably after learning with precision her circumstances. "I showed my willingness to renew my old acquaintance. She expressed her inability to be serviceable." Even after the Denison and Winthrop fluctuations he was not abashed by refusal, and he must have been (to quote Mrs. Peachum's words) "a bitter bad judge 'o women," for ...
— Customs and Fashions in Old New England • Alice Morse Earle
... clay. The house was of logs, the glassless windows were of deerskin parchment, the door-lock and the door-hinges were of wood, the latch string was of deerskin, the fireplace and the chimney were of clay, the roof thatch was of bark. The abode was clean, serviceable, and warm; and yet it was a house that could have been built thousands of years ago. But consider, for instance, Oo-koo-hoo's comfortable lodge; a similar dwelling, no doubt, could have been erected a million years ago; and thus, even in our time, the pre-historic still hovers on the outskirts ...
— The Drama of the Forests - Romance and Adventure • Arthur Heming
... George Losin. Aug. 7th, the first of the seven half fasts. Aug. 14th, Theodor wened. Aug. 21st, John Hammond to Stade. Aug. 22nd, natus William Hazilwood mane hora sexta fere, forte hora 5 min. 45, by Maydston in Kent. Sept. 9th, Roger his serviceable letters of the Lord Rosenberg. Sept. 12th, the wynde cam East after five wekes most part West. Sept. 16th, ante meridiem hora 9 in delinquiciis A. C. incidi ex ingratitudine concepta ex verbis uxoris, et Anall Mari. Sept. 22nd, stilo ...
— The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee - And the Catalog of His Library of Manuscripts • John Dee
... Harvard Quinquennial Catalogue never lost its savor, and in the full tide of his social success in London he still thought that the society he had enjoyed at the Saturday Club was the best society in the world. To deracinate Lowell was impossible, and it was for this very reason that he became so serviceable an international personage. You knew where he stood. It was not for nothing that his roots ran down two hundred years deep. He was the incarnation of his ...
— Modern American Prose Selections • Various
... electro-positive character of aluminium is most important. At elevated temperatures the metal decomposes nearly all other metallic oxides, wherefore it is most serviceable as a metallurgical reagent. In the casting of iron, steel and brass, the addition of a trifling proportion (0.005%) removes oxide and renders the molten metal more ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... convinced by your neighbor's arguments, you confess yourself a poltroon (and moreover you invite injuries from every neighbor) if you pocket your wrongs. The only course in such a case is to thump your neighbor, and to thump him soundly for the present. This treatment is very serviceable to your neighbor's optics; he sees things in a new light after a sufficient course of so distressing a regimen. But mark, even in this case, war has no tendency to propagate war, but tends to the very opposite result. To thump is as costly, and in other ways as painful, as to be ...
— Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers • Thomas De Quincey
... saddled with the possession of a perfectly useless animal. In this way there were rocks in the course through which Tifto was called on to steer his bark. Of course he was anxious, when preying upon his acquaintances, to spare those who were useful friends to him. Now and again he would sell a serviceable animal at a fair price, and would endeavour to make such sale in favour of someone whose countenance would be a rock to him. He knew his business well, but ...
— The Duke's Children • Anthony Trollope
... it shall be conformable to it as it is glorious; conformable, I say, by partaking of that glory that then the soul shall partake of; yea, it shall also have an additional glory to adorn, and make it yet the more capable of being serviceable to it, and with it in its great acts before God in eternal glory. Oh, what great things are the souls of the sons ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... tutor, but whose chief duty consisted in finding conversation for the Marquis when there was no one else to talk to him. There was also a French governess and a Swiss maid. But as they both learned English quicker than the children learned French, they were not serviceable for the purpose at first intended. The Marchioness had resolved that her children should talk three or four languages as fluently as their own, and that they should learn them without any of the agonies generally incident to tuition. In that she had ...
— Marion Fay • Anthony Trollope
... a young man with me who wants to appear as a singer in plays or oratorios. I think you'll find him likely to be serviceable in either. He is not one-and-twenty, and has no conceit. He has a good tenor voice—very good ear and a great deal of execution, of the right kind. He reads notes very quick, and can accompany himself. ...
— Memoirs of the Life of the Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan V1 • Thomas Moore
... copper electrode and holder become fused until no longer serviceable while on the ...
— The Traveling Engineers' Association - To Improve The Locomotive Engine Service of American Railroads • Anonymous
... old friends of our family, my dear, that's all," said the king timidly. "Often and often they have been godmothers to us. One, in particular, was most kind and most serviceable to Cinderella ...
— Prince Prigio - From "His Own Fairy Book" • Andrew Lang
... shunned. I appeared to have done something that was evil. Whenever Mrs. Prodgit called, after dinner, I retired to my dressing-room - where the temperature is very low indeed, in the wintry time of the year - and sat looking at my frosty breath as it rose before me, and at my rack of boots; a serviceable article of furniture, but never, in my opinion, an exhilarating object. The length of the councils that were held with Mrs. Prodgit, under these circumstances, I will not attempt to describe. I will merely remark, that Mrs. Prodgit ...
— Reprinted Pieces • Charles Dickens
... had built his cabin, to a point within a hundred yards of the fallen tree in which the bees had constructed their hive. As a matter of course, Ben profited by this circumstance to carry his canoe to the latter place, with a view to render it serviceable in transporting the honey. First securing everything in and around the chiente, he and Gershom embarked, taking with them no less than four pieces of fire-arms; one of which was, to use the language of the west, a double-barrelled "shot-gun." Before quitting ...
— Oak Openings • James Fenimore Cooper
... mountains, we determined not to encumber ourselves with any superfluous apparel; and accordingly, while the rest were rigging themselves out with some idea of making a display, we were content to put on new stout duck trousers, serviceable pumps, and heavy Havre-frocks, which with a ...
— Typee - A Romance of the South Sea • Herman Melville
... man be such a coward as to be afraid to change his mind in order to prevent another Rebellion, another Civil War? No, no, we are more civilized than that. We want our own men in Congress, our own friends in office, just so long as they are serviceable—just so long as the country can stand it, if you like it in that way. But if it comes to be a question between the public good and having your cousin made postmaster in a country village, I think there is enough patriotism in the average Democrat or Republican to send the country ...
— An American Politician • F. Marion Crawford
... think these must be enviable lessons. I have seen some charming models as well as useful things made by the boys—a perfect miniature landau, complete in every detail, benches, bureaux, carts, tables, chairs, besides many other serviceable articles. Besides this pleasure-work at school, the boys, if they are farmers' sons, have practical lessons at home by helping their father on the farm. The authorities being anxious to help the farmer, they allow him to keep a boy at home half the day for instruction in ...
— Denmark • M. Pearson Thomson
... was no denying Forrest, and Dell fell heir to the first extra saddle found among the effects of a trail outfit. The galled horses had recovered serviceable form, affording each of the boys a mount, and even the threatened cloud against the range lifted. The herd of a thousand cows crossed the Beaver, and Forrest took particular pains to inform its owners of the whereabouts of unclaimed range the year before. Evidently ...
— Wells Brothers • Andy Adams
... warmly, "pardon these suggestions in matters where you are far better fitted to pass sound judgment than a humble servant of the Church like myself. But in this case intimacy with my brother's family affords me data which may be serviceable in bringing this matter to a conclusion. If ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking
... on a long discussion. I and your brother both endeavoured to convince him it was his duty to remain in England; that he could be more serviceable here, and would find better opportunities for effecting that good which he had so warmly at heart than in ...
— Anna St. Ives • Thomas Holcroft
... was, both mentally and physically, one of the most picturesque figures in society. Alike in his character and in his aspect the Creole blood which he had inherited from his maternal descent triumphed over the robust and serviceable commonplace which was the characteristic quality of the Peels. Lord Beaconsfield described "a still gallant figure, scrupulously attired; a blue frock coat, with a ribboned button-hole; a well-turned boot; hat a little ...
— Collections and Recollections • George William Erskine Russell
... or middle the next, the sinuous lever of stage discipline. After all, concurrently may it not, be said that this colour instinct aspect of cosmically conceived romanticism is never wilfully vulgarized. For its incomparable, iconographical purpose it exists, and is as intrinsically useful and serviceable to the scheme as the figures which admirably illustrate the pictures of Hogarth and Holman Hunt. When introduced, music is rarely intended to edge itself into the important place of "first study." This in alchemy or ...
— Original Letters and Biographic Epitomes • J. Atwood.Slater
... of policy could longer restrain the impetuous monarch from casting off the yoke of a detested marriage: and as a first step towards emancipation, he determined to permit the ruin of its original adviser, that unpopular minister, but vigorous and serviceable instrument of arbitrary power, whom he had hitherto defended with pertinacity ...
— Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth • Lucy Aikin
... ever be immediately serviceable for saving human life, is held under this burden, that a perishing fellow-creature, who cannot otherwise help himself in a case of extreme need (c. iv., n. 8, p. 243), may make such use of the property of another as shall suffice ...
— Moral Philosophy • Joseph Rickaby, S. J.
... now, as it should seem, upon his first visit to town. He was clad in a coarse gray coat, well worn, but in excellent repair; his under garments were durably constructed of leather, and fitted tight to a pair of serviceable and well-shaped limbs; his stockings of blue yarn were the incontrovertible work of a mother or a sister; and on his head was a three-cornered hat, which in its better days had perhaps sheltered the graver brow of the lad's father. Under his left arm was a heavy cudgel formed of an oak sapling, ...
— The Snow Image • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... different and irreconcilable planes of life, there had never been a moment since he had first seen her when he would not, save for his dragging on the steady curb of reason, have fallen into a headlong infatuation. Now he wished only to prove himself a serviceable friend. ...
— A Pagan of the Hills • Charles Neville Buck
... Illustration of Self-Love, to that which whirls it about the common Center of the World, answering to universal Benevolence. Is the Force of Self-Love abated, or its Interest prejudiced by Benevolence? So far from it, that Benevolence, though a distinct Principle, is extreamly serviceable to Self-Love, and then doth most Service when 'tis ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
... exclusively to nitrate of soda. Probably nitrate of soda has in the past been often used in this indiscriminate way so as to produce such results. The fault, therefore, lies not in the manure, but in the mode of its application. A few remarks, therefore, on this most important subject may prove serviceable. ...
— Manures and the principles of manuring • Charles Morton Aikman
... dispassionate action; a nation that neither sits in judgment upon others, nor is disturbed in her own counsels, and which keeps herself fit and free to do what is honest and disinterested and truly serviceable for the ...
— History of the American Negro in the Great World War • W. Allison Sweeney
... refrained from giving any of her little pupils accomplishments unsuited to their situation. Some had a fine ear for music, others showed powers of dancing; but they were taught neither dancing nor music—talents which in their station were more likely to be dangerous than serviceable. They were not intended for actresses or opera-girls, but for shop-girls, mantua-makers, work-women, and servants of different sorts; consequently they were instructed in things which would be most necessary and useful to young women in their rank of life. Before they ...
— Murad the Unlucky and Other Tales • Maria Edgeworth
... must halt with our tourist. The result of his lucubrations at Barnes—a Model for a Magazine will be found very serviceable to all prospectus writers, and furnish skeleton articles for a whole volume. We have been amused with the pleasantries of the author, and in return we thank him, and recommend his little ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 13, No. 375, June 13, 1829 • Various
... any instinct at the bottom of her heart, telling her that in the possibility of trying events to come his friendship might be equally serviceable to her, and that, even in the mere distant companionship of a slave with his mistress, she might feel a certain protecting influence, she did not stop to ask. Neither did she inquire whether she wished to ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 2, August, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... a neglige shirt with a windsor scad, light-colored, serviceable trousers with a belt, russet shoes, and a tennis hat-a knockabout costume, he considered. His mother, good soul, thought it a special suit put on for her benefit and admired ...
— Main-Travelled Roads • Hamlin Garland
... the shape of the word "psychotherapy." Mrs. Bassett liked it, and declared that if she read a paper before the Fraserville Woman's Club the next winter—a service to which she was solemnly pledged—psychotherapy should be her subject. Thus Mrs. Bassett found Sylvia serviceable and comforting. And the girl ...
— A Hoosier Chronicle • Meredith Nicholson
... concealing the one he had used in the drawer of the table; for the last time he made sure that the chair which had the broken leg was in such close and perfect contact with the wall as to make it safely serviceable if not rashly removed into a wider sphere of action. Then, as he passed the chest of drawers, he gave a final touch to the half-dozen ragged-edged books which composed his library—three volumes of Puschkin, of three different editions, Ivan Kryloff's Poems and Fables, Gogol's Terrible Revenge, ...
— A Cigarette-Maker's Romance • F. Marion Crawford
... prunes, and prism are all very good words for the lips, especially prunes and prism. You will find it serviceable in the formation of ...
— Charles Dickens and Music • James T. Lightwood
... Some days after, finding me tolerably well recovered of the fatigue I had endured by a long and tedious journey, and reflecting that most princes of our religion applied themselves to some art or calling that might be serviceable to them upon occasion, he asked me, if I had learned any whereby I might get a livelihood, and not be burdensome to others? I told him that I understood the laws, both divine and human; that I was a grammarian and poet; and above all, that I could write ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 1 • Anon.
... flowers, and a litter of new books and magazines had already restored its inhabited look, Delia found a woman awaiting her, in whom the girl's first glance discerned a personality. She was dressed with an entire disregard of the fashion, in plain, serviceable clothes. A small black bonnet tied under the chin framed a face whose only beauty lay in the expression of the clear kind eyes, and quiet mouth. The eyes were a little prominent; the brow above them unusually smooth and untroubled, ...
— Delia Blanchflower • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... window. The pole holds up the vine at first, of course, but the vine keeps the pole straight; not in any ugly and commonplace fashion, but by winding round, and round about it, and hanging its blossoms in and out and here and there, till the poor, serviceable pole is forgotten in the beauty ...
— Polly Oliver's Problem • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
... tower and discourses against the service of Love; Ami offers his consolations; at length the lover is again admitted to the flowery precinct, finds his rosebud half unclosed, and obtains the joy of a kiss. But Jealousy raises an unscalable wall around the rose; the serviceable Bel-Accueil is imprisoned, and with a long lament of the lover, the poem (line ...
— A History of French Literature - Short Histories of the Literatures of the World: II. • Edward Dowden
... but by the blessing of God they soon came to a good many; and their Flesh served us instead of Mutton. We kept Hens and Hogs also: And seeing no sudden likelihood of Liberty, we went about to make all things handsome and convenient about us: which might be serviceable to us, while we lived there, and might farther our Liberty whensoever we should see an occasion to attempt it: which it did, in taking away all suspition from the People concerning us: who not having Wives as the others had, they ...
— An Historical Relation Of The Island Ceylon In The East Indies • Robert Knox
... them together with a piece of muslin, so the muslin will form the top and two sides of the box. Then stretch into box form by inserting a small strip of wood as a brace between the two boards. This makes a good, serviceable box, and, when done with for the season, it can be packed into a very small space, by simply removing the brace and bringing the two board sides together. As there is no patent on the contrivance, anybody can make the ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 286 - June 25, 1881 • Various
... Buck, of the T. A. Buck Featherloom Petticoat Company, New York. Note, please, that it has all the advantages of our grandmother's hoop-skirt, but none of its awkward features. It is graceful"—she turned slowly, lightly—"it is bouffant" she twirled on her toes—"it is practical, serviceable, elegant. It can be made up in any shade, in any material—silk, lace, crepe de Chine, charmeuse, taffeta. The T. A. Buck Featherloom Petticoat Company is prepared to fill orders ...
— Emma McChesney & Co. • Edna Ferber
... on the labors of others. Her devotion to her work has been remarkable, and her organizing abilities are unsurpassed among her own sex and equalled by very few among the other. She is still young, and with her power and disposition for usefulness is destined we hope to prove greatly serviceable to the country ...
— Woman's Work in the Civil War - A Record of Heroism, Patriotism, and Patience • Linus Pierpont Brockett
... monitors, none of which are in commission nor at the present time serviceable. The batteries of these ships are obsolete, and they can only be relied upon as auxiliary ships in harbor defense, and then after such an expenditure upon them as might not be ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various
... men supplemented each other well; Clay less austerely virtuous, but far more lovable; his personal ideals less exacting, but his sympathies wider. The co-operation between them was honorable to both and serviceable to the country; but partisan bitterness stigmatized it as a corrupt alliance; the air was full of suspicion and jealousy toward the cultivated and prosperous class that had hitherto supplied the chiefs of the government, and the rising democratic sentiment found ...
— The Negro and the Nation - A History of American Slavery and Enfranchisement • George S. Merriam |
