Soper's Select Speaker: Containing Choicest Orations, Humorous, Dramatic and Pathetic Readings and Recitations, Dialogues, Drills and Tableaux in National, Patriotic, Old Time and Modern Costume : Selections Especially for Christmas, New Year's, Easter, Decoration Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Birthdays of Authors and Statesmen, School, Church, Home, Soldiers' Re-unions, Temperance Meetings, Labor Days, Old Settlers' Meetings, and All Miscellaneous Gatherings |
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Common terms and phrases
ain't arms asked Aunt awful bells bless bobolink brave Burdock child Christmas cried dark dead dear Decoration Day door dream ELEANOR H ELLA WHEELER WILCOX eyes face father feel feet flag flowers folks friends girl give glory goin hair hand head hear heard heart heaven JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY keep kentry King kiss knew laugh light lips live look Lord mantilly Mary morning mother neath NEPH never newsboy night o'er poor prayer Ring rose Saint Patrick Santa Claus shoomp shout side silent sing smile song Soper soul stand stiff upper lip stood sweet Tableau tears tell thee there's things thou thought to-day trundle bed turned twas Uncle voice wait wife wild bells words young
Popular passages
Page 365 - For every sound that floats From the rust within their throats Is a groan. And the people — ah, the people, They that dwell up in the steeple, All alone, And who tolling, tolling, tolling, In that muffled monotone, Feel a glory in so rolling On the human heart a stone — They are neither man nor woman, They are neither brute nor human, They are Ghouls...
Page 364 - HEAR the sledges with the bells — Silver bells! What a world of merriment their melody foretells ! How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, In the icy air of night! While the stars that oversprinkle All the heavens, seem to twinkle • With a crystalline delight...
Page 435 - Thou know'st the mask of night is on my face, Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night. Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny What I have spoke: but farewell compliment! Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say 'Ay,' And I will take thy word: yet, if thou swear'st, Thou mayst prove false; at lovers' perjuries, They say, Jove laughs.
Page 299 - We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most — feels the noblest — acts the best.
Page 181 - Mr President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty?
Page 249 - WITH deep affection And recollection I often think of Those Shandon bells. Whose sounds so wild would, In the days of childhood, Fling round my cradle Their magic spells. On this I ponder Where'er I wander, And thus grow fonder, Sweet Cork, of thee, With thy bells of Shandon, That sound so grand on The pleasant waters Of the river Lee.
Page 356 - Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword : His truth is marching on.
Page 364 - How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, In the icy air of night! While the stars that oversprinkle All the heavens, seem to twinkle With a crystalline delight; Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells From the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells,— From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
Page 227 - UP from the South at break of day, Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay, The affrighted air with a shudder bore, Like a herald in haste, to the chieftain's door, The terrible grumble, and rumble, and roar, Telling the battle was on once more, And Sheridan twenty miles away.
Page 399 - When I tread the verge of Jordan, Bid my anxious fears subside : Death of death, and hell's destruction, Land me safe on Canaan's side : Songs of praises I will ever give to thee.