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Impromptu - How to Think on Your Feet
by Grenville KleiserThe game of "Impromptu" is the outgrowth of an exercise devised by the author and used by him in The Public Speaking Club of America.A number of cards, each bearing a separate subject, are placed in a hat. Then a member of the club stands up, selects one of the cards, announces the subject named on the card, and proceeds to speak on that particular..
The Collected Works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 06 (of 12)
by William HazlittThe first edition was published in two 8vo volumes, the first volume in 1821 with the following title-page: ‘Table-Talk; or, Original Essays. By William Hazlitt. London: John Warren, Old Bond-Street 1821’; the second volume in 1822 with the following title-page: ‘Table-Talk; or, Original Essays. By William Hazlitt. Vol. II. London: Printed for Henr..
Impressions and experiences
by William Dean HowellsMy earliest memories, or those which I can make sure are not the sort of early hearsay that we mistake for remembrance later in life, concern a country newspaper, or, rather, a country printing-office. The office was in my childish consciousness some years before the paper was; the compositors rhythmically swaying before their cases of type; the pr..
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume XII
by Ambrose BierceRats is two kinds, the common and the mush. The common is the scourge of the world, but the mush he lives in the water and is highly respected. The fur of the mush is a article of commerce and keeps your hands warm when winter stalks abroad like a devouring kangaroon. If I was a mush I would keep my fur for my own self and say: “You fool humans can..
Illustrations of the Author of Waverley
by Robert ChambersWhen the Highlanders, upon the morning of the battle of Prestonpans, made their memorable attack, a battery of four field-pieces was stormed and carried by the Camerons and Stuarts of Appine. The late Alexander Stuart of Invernahyle was one of the foremost in the charge, and observed an officer of the king’s forces, who, scorning to join the flight..
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 09
by Ambrose BierceA German physician of some note once gave it out as his solemn conviction that civilized man is gradually but surely losing the sense of smell through disuse. It is a fact that we have noses less keen than the savages; which is well for us, for we have a dozen “well-defined and several” bad odors to their one. It is possible, indeed, that it is to ..
Learning and Other Essays
by John Jay ChapmanAn expert on Greek Art chanced to describe in my hearing one of the engraved gems in the Metropolitan Museum. He spoke of it as ‘certainly one of the great gems of the world,’ and there was something in his tone that was even more thrilling than his words. He might have been describing the Parthenon or Beethoven’s Mass,—such was the passion of reve..
Facts and fancies for the curious from the harvest-fields of literature
by Charles C. BombaughThe electrotype plates of a compilation which maintained remarkable popularity for more than thirty years, “Gleanings for the Curious from the Harvest Fields of Literature,” having been destroyed in the fire which wrecked the extensive plant of the J. B. Lippincott Company in November, 1899, the publishers requested the compiler to prepare a compan..