"He clambered forward in the boat, and stared at the passing multitude."  From The Marriage of Esther by Guy Newell Boothby, 1895.

Ah, for an age when medical journals sported dragons.  From The Corpuscle of Rush Medical College, 1893.

"Greeks enjoying themselves."  And if the boat begins to sink, would they need to be bailed out?  (Ooh!  Topical!)  From Around the World on a Bicycle by Thomas Stevens, 1887.

Historically, a person could not take umbrage just anywhere. From The Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste, 1846.

Here's a precursor to the internet: "The web of uncertain quality," from Canadian Grocer July-Dec. 1896.

Here's an illustration by Georges Roux, from Maître du Monde by Jules Verne, 1902.

"Come in; I'm expecting ye," from God's Winepress by Arthur Jenkinson, 1896.

From St. Nicholas magazine.

The Dictionary of American Slang traces "disco" back to the 1960s, but here's the "entrance to the music hall, disco" from 1887's The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril & Heroism by Frederick Whymper.

Here's the patron saint of slippery slopes, from Lead, Kindly Light by John Henry Newman and illustrated by Frank Dadd, 1887.

"Dash it, don't you mean a hurdy-gurdy?"  From The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray, 1869

This is actually a Googlewhack, as of this posting: "A pound of prevention is worth an ounce of cheese."  From St. Nicholas magazine, 1903.

"Jamie, we are both playing a false game," from The Flower of Gala Water and Other Stories by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, 1895.

Magicians (like Uri Geller) who perform spoon bending aren't necessarily religious, but they have a patron saint just the same.  Here's the patron saint of magical cutlery, from The Saturday Evening Post, 1839.

The phenomenon of people holding up individual letters of a word and kerfuffling goes way back, apparently. This example is from 1910, in the Hampden-Sydney College Kaleidoscope yearbook.  (For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.)

"The Mist Lady," from Dormer Windows by Anne MacDonald, 1926.

Here's a precursor to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, from Twycross's Redemption by Alfred Saint Johnston, 1888.  The caption reads, "Don't let us pretend that any longer, dear."

"There are others," from The Literary Digest, 1890.