An illustration from an 1890 issue of The Home-Maker magazine.  The caption reads: "'The Sky!' gasped Esmeé."

An illustration from a 1908 issue of Putnam's magazine.  The caption reads: "What did she mean when she said 'Do we Pivot?'"

An illustration from an 1865 issue of Mrs. Grundy magazine.  The caption reads:

One Puff, to mean: "Fellow-Citizens"—or "Hail Coumbia"
Two Puffs: "I am no speaker"—or, "Westward the star of empire takes its way."
Thee Puffs: "This is the proudest moment of my life"—or, "Long may it wave."
Four Puffs: "Good-Night."

Too few pick up a cornet, and fewer still seize it.  "Norman seized his cornet": To-Day magazine, 1873.

An illustration from an 1885 issue of Frank Leslie's Sunday magazine.  The caption reads: "Through the white streets, while the pitiless storm raged around her."

An illustration from a 1908 issue of Putnam's magazine.  The caption reads: "A mysterious influence emanates from those wonderful columns.  Not only the sight of them as you approach from London, but the queer, almost uncanny way in which they permeate the whole place.  They follow you through the station, and into the train, and not for many miles can you get out from under the presence of those perfect shapes."

Nearly seventy years before Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, we find "Death on the rail" in Mrs. Grundy, 1865.

An illustration from an 1874 issue of London Society Illustrated magazine.  The caption reads: "They held the door partly open, and peered out into the dark night."

An illustration from a 1909 issue of Putnam's magazine.  The caption reads: "Jail is the most fashionable resort of the London smart set."

Dykwynkyn is the pseudonym of theatrical maskmaker Richard Wynne Keene 1825 1887.  From an 1870 issue of London Society Illustrated magazine.

THE INNER LIFE

Thoughts of mine, so wildly pressing
Through the mystery of my soul,
While my calm face, unconfessing,
Keeps the solemn secret whole.
          Oft I ponder,
          With vague wonder,
Whence ye come—and what ye mean;
Visions of my world unseen!

(London Society, Jan. 1864)

An illustration from an 1884 issue of Penny Post magazine.

An illustration from a 1909 issue of Putnam's magazine.  The caption reads: "What is a mollusk, Mr. Hardin?"

"Open Sesame!"  An illustration from an 1874 issue of London Society Illustrated magazine.

Here's a precursor by many decades to the useless information craze, from a 1909 issue of Puck magazine.  The caption reads: "Piffle's Cyclopedia of Useless Information."

An illustration from an 1887 issue of Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly magazine.  The caption reads: "In exchange for a Soul."

A vaudeville comedy tragedy mask, from a 1909 issue of Puck magazine.