"Now beat me, do beat me," from The Caxtons by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1898.

Some of the many tools we use to create Abecedarian (in honor of Teresa Burritt), from Fra Det Moderne Frankrig by Richard Kaufmann, 1882.

"Out of the mouth of the pit ... sprang a vast column of water."  From Heart of the World by Henry Rider Haggard, 1896.

From Midsummer Eve by S. C. Gall, 1870.

"Tom immediately walked upon his hands to the window, and—if the expression be allowable—looked in with his shoes."  From The Works of Charles Dickens, Household Edition.

Here's a precursor to James and the Giant Peach, from The Child World by Gabriel Setoun, 1896.

From Sketch-Book of the North by George Eyre Todd and illustrated by Alexander Stuart Boyd, 1896.

An illustration from Earthquakes by Arnold Boscowitz (1890).  The caption reads: "A family wandering in the snow, to avoid an earthquake shock."

Here's a precursor to a Peter Lorre caricature, from The Farm Poultry, 1907.  (Peter would have been just three years old at the time.)

"I cast myself with my face on the dewy earth.  The spirit of Stonehenge was strong upon me!"  From Lavengro; The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest by George Henry Borrow, 1896.

From La Vie à Montmartre by Georges Montorgueil, 1899.

An illustration by L. Du Guernier, 1714.

An illustration from Our Earth and Its Story by Robert Brown (1893).  The caption reads: "Fig. 232 — Aurora borealis observed in Alaska, December 27, 1865."

"Pride shall be overthrown," from By-Roads and Battle-Fields in Picardy by George Musgrave, 1861.

"Everybody had an excuse," from A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain, 1897.

"From these strange essences of life / May crystallize the white pearl which I seek!"  From Symphonie Symbolique by Edmund John and illustrated by Stella Langdale, 1919.

The sphinx, drawn from memory (apparently).  From Lehrbuch der Geschichte der alten Welt by Emylie Doering, 1880.