"I suppose I am old-fashioned"-there was a murmur of polite dissent from all the ladies present, except the one addressed-"Oh, I take it as a compliment nowadays, I assure you; but when I was a girl a young lady would have no more thought of flying than of"-she paused almost on a note of pained surprise at finding the familiar comparison of a lifetime cut off-"well, of standing on her head."

ESTIMABLE BARBARIAN, -Your opportune suggestion that I should permit the letters, wherein I have described with undeviating fidelity the customs and manner of behaving of your accomplished race, to be set forth in the form of printed leaves for all to behold, is doubtless gracefully-intentioned, and this person will raise no barrier of dissent against it

Homo faber. Man is born to make. His business is to construct: to plan: to carry out the plan: to fit together, and to produce a finished thing. That human art in which it is most difficult to achieve this end (and in which it is far easier to neglect it than in any other) is the art of writing. Yet this much is certain, that unconstructed writing is at once worthless and ephemeral: and nearly the whole of our modern English writing is unconstructed.

The sun had dipped behind the western mountains before Kai Lung, with twenty li or more still between him and the city of Knei Yang, entered the camphor-laurel forest which stretched almost to his destination. No person of consequence ever made the journey unattended; but Kai Lung professed to have no fear, remarking with extempore wisdom, when warned at the previous village, that a worthless garment covered one with better protection than that afforded by an army of bowmen.

It was eight o'clock at night and raining, scarcely a time when a business so limited in its clientele as that of a coin dealer could hope to attract any customer, but a light was still showing in the small shop that bore over its window the name of Baxter, and in the even smaller office at the back the proprietor himself sat reading the latest Pall Mall. His enterprise seemed to be justified, for presently the door bell gave its announcement, and throwing down his paper Mr Baxter went forward.

The complete short story casebook of the blind rival of Sherlock Holmes
In the pages of the influential Strand Magazine, there was a time when Ernest Bramah's stories of crime and detection, featuring the blind detective Max Carrados, appeared alongside those about the world's most renowned fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, and received equal critical acclaim. George Orwell considered the Max Carrados stories to be among the finest detective fiction published since the genre's creation by Edgar Allan Poe. The first Carrados stories appeared in 1914 as the Great War erupted and...

The complete short story casebook of the blind rival of Sherlock Holmes
In the pages of the influential Strand Magazine, there was a time when Ernest Bramah's stories of crime and detection, featuring the blind detective Max Carrados, appeared alongside those about the world's most renowned fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, and received equal critical acclaim. George Orwell considered the Max Carrados stories to be among the finest detective fiction published since the genre's creation by Edgar Allan Poe. The first Carrados stories appeared in 1914 as the Great War erupted and...

"Four Max Carrados Detective Stories" from Ernest Bramah. English author (1868-1942).

"Kai Lung's Golden Hours" from Ernest Bramah. English author (1868-1942).