They were long-winded in olden times

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Commonwealth v. McDonald, 1850

2006-08-07T07:47:00.000-07:00

"The indictment alleged, that the defendant, on the 19th of May, 1849, at Boston, in this county, 'did attempt to commit an offence prohibited by law, to wit, did attempt, with force and arms, to steal feloniously and take and carry away from the person of a certain man, whose name to said jurors as yet is not known, his personal property then in his pocket and in his possession, the name of said property not being known to said jurors, and the value of said property not being known to said jurors, that being an offence prohibited by law, and in such attempt did then and there do a certain overt act towards the commission of said offence, to wit, did then and there, with force and arms, feloniously and with intent then and there feloniously to steal, take, and carry away said person's said property, then and there being in his pocket on his person, thrust, insert, put and place his said John's hand into the pocket privily and secretly of said man, without his knowledge and against his will, but said John then and there did fail in the perpetration of said offence of stealing from the person of said man, and was intercepted and prevented in the execution of the same, against the peace, &c.'"

Thanks, Shannon!

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Santry v. France, 1951

2006-06-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

"In the winter of 1948, when the deceased was living with another old man in Lowell, he fell in the snow during a blizzard, and was helped into the house by neighbors, who put him to bed. The upper story of the house was not heated except by the heat from a gas oven in the lower story. The house was dirty and disorderly. After that experience, his mind began to deteriorate. He went about with his trousers unbuttoned."

[Not exactly long-winded, but amusing in an old-timey sort of way]

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Goggin v. New State Ballroom, 1969

2006-05-10T07:19:00.000-07:00

"The plaintiff in this case chose on an evening not noted for restraints on exuberance in the city of Boston to go with his lady to a public dance hall where he knew the patrons were lovers of the cha cha and the jitterbug. He knew these dances involved muscular contortions and a degree of abandon not associated with a minuet. A certain amount of innocent bumping in a large crowd would be unavoidable. "

[In a footnote, the court describes this "evening not noted for restraints on exuberance" as "a day commemorated in Boston as 'Evacuation Day.'" It is known more widely as St. Patrick's Day.]

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854

2006-05-07T17:45:00.000-07:00

"As for the Pyramids, there is nothing to wonder at in them so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs."

John Woolman, Journal, c. 1750

2006-05-07T17:40:00.000-07:00

“In the time of trading I had an opportunity of seeing that the too liberal use of spirituous liquors and the custom of wearing too costly apparel led some people into great inconveniences; and that these two things appear to be often connected with each other."

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Paper No. 31, 1788

2006-04-22T20:57:00.000-07:00

“Imagination may range at pleasure till it gets bewildered amidst the labyrinths of an enchanted castle, and knows not on which side to turn to extricate itself from the perplexities in to which it has so rashly adventured.”

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Paper No. 7, 1787

2006-04-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

“[Delinquencies in payment result from] the reluctance with which men commonly part with money for purposes that have outlived the exigencies which produced them and interfere with the supply of immediate wants."

G. Cochrane, Letter to Unk., 1766

2006-04-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

"I should explain to your Lordship what is meant by crackers; a name they have got from being great boasters; they are a lawless set of rascalls on the frontiers of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas and Georgia, who often change their places of abode."

Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, 1850

2006-04-05T14:13:00.000-07:00

"In consideration of the day and hour of my birth, it was declared by the day and by some sage women in the neighbourhood who had taken a lively interest in me several months before there was any possibility of our becoming personally acquainted, first, that I was destined to be unlucky in life; and secondly, that I was privileged to see ghosts and spirits; both these gifts inevitably attaching, as they believed, to all unlucky infants of either gender born towards the small hours on a Friday night."

Thanks, Ursula!

Fannie Meritt Farmer, The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1918

2006-03-23T07:36:00.000-08:00

"For school children the diet should be varied and abundant, constantly bearing in mind that this is a period of great mental and physical growth. Where children have broken down, supposedly from over-work, the cause has often been traced to impoverished diet. It must not be forgotten that digestive processes go on so rapidly that the stomach is soon emptied. Thanks to the institutor of the school luncheon-counter!"

Idaho Supreme Court, Ferbrache v. Drainage Dist. No. 5 of Bonner County, 1912

2006-03-16T11:31:00.000-08:00

"This contention is not well founded, and cannot be sustained by the court for the reason that the provisions found in section 2448 fixing the qualifications of voters voting upon the question of organization is a specific requirement of the legislative enactment, and no doubt was an inducement for the passage of such act, for it is provided in the act in said section that, if the first qualification fixed is found unconstitutional, another provision is prescribed, which is likewise a violation of the Constitution, and if one of the qualifications was not the intention of the Legislature, and the second qualification is, and such latter qualification is in violation of the statute, it is evidence that the general laws relating to elections should not be applied, and this provision would defeat the constitutionality of the entire act."

Submitted by Ava Barbour, who knows a run-on sentence when she sees one.

Dr. James Thacher, Incidents at the Evacuation of Boston, 1776

2006-03-16T07:32:00.000-08:00

"Our breastworks are strengthened, and among the means of defence are a great number of barrels, filled with stones and sand, arranged in front of our works; which are to be put in motion and made to roll down the hill, to break the ranks and legs of the assailants as they advance. These are the preparations for blood and slaughter!"

The Whip, October 29, 1842

2006-03-15T12:59:00.000-08:00

The man who is too poor to pay a shilling or two to visit our theatres, can gratify his appetite for music, at least, if he will take the trouble to walk down opposite Peale's, or the American Museum. There he may hear the most inspiring strains free of all cost. How often have we made these places a resort when on our "crumbs!"

(Courtesy of George Thompson on the American Dialect Society mailing list.)

Massachusetts Appeals Court, D.C. v. J.S., 2003

2006-03-09T12:52:00.000-08:00

"Was it proper for the judge thus to answer the question of custody on the basis in some part of the infusion of matters having to do with escape and relocation? Is such a melange or mixture or blending proper?"

[Not exactly olden times, but damn!]

Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady, 1880

2006-03-08T14:43:00.000-08:00

"Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, 1850

2006-03-08T14:41:00.000-08:00

“Had there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans, he might have seen in this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and mien, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity, which so many illustrious painters have vied with one another to represent; something which should remind him, indeed, but only by contrast, of that sacred image of sinless motherhood, whose infant was to redeem the world.”

Submitted by Susan Fehsenfeld. Thanks, Susan!

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843

2006-03-06T17:35:00.000-08:00

"If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot--say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance--literally to astonish his son's weak mind."

W. Clark Russell, The Extraordinary Adventure of a Chief Mate, 1888

2006-03-06T07:55:00.000-08:00

"Perhaps I ought to have felt grateful for the miraculous creation of this spot of land, when, but for it, I must have miserably perished in the life-buoy, dying a most dreadful, slow, tormenting death, if some shark had not quickly dispatched me; but the solitude was so frightful, my doom seemed so assured, I was threatened with such dire sufferings ere my end came, that, in the madness and despair of my heart, I could have cursed the intervention of this rock, which promised nothing but the prolongation of my misery."

Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, On Patriotism, 1733

2006-03-03T21:41:00.000-08:00

"If liberty be that delicious and wholesome fruit, on which the British nation hath fed for so many ages, and to which we owe our riches, our strength, and all the advantages we boast of; the British constitution is the tree that bears this fruit, and will continue to bear it, as long as we are careful to fence it in, and trench it round, against the beasts of the field, and the insects of the earth."

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Township of West Mahanoy v. Watson, 1889

2006-03-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

"Both horses were dead when found, having evidently come in contact with a moving locomotive, and were thus killed."

Benjamin Franklin, a letter to the Royal Academy of Brussels, 1781

2006-03-02T18:13:00.000-08:00

"He that dines on stale Flesh, especially with much Addition of Onions, shall be able to afford a Stink that no Company can tolerate; while he that has lived for some Time on Vegetables only, shall have that Breath so pure as to be insensible to the most delicate Noses; and if he can manage so as to avoid the Report, he may any where give Vent to his Griefs, unnoticed."

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Moyshenko v. Board of Health of North Andover, 1964

2006-03-02T17:38:00.000-08:00

"It is within the realm of common knowledge that some piggeries may be attended by noisome and injurious odors."

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Chase v. City of Lowell, 1889

2006-03-02T16:20:00.000-08:00

"The plaintiff was injured, while traveling in a public street in Lowell, by the falling upon him of a shade tree growing in the street."

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Doherty v. Town of Ayer, 1908

2006-03-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

"He then got a horse, and with the help of laborers who shoveled sand from in front of the wheels, and with the use of his engine, and the pulling of the horse and the men, he got the machine out of the sandy place. In doing this he broke the automobile."