Directions for making an ogre's head or beast's head, from Fairy Tale Plays and How to Act Them by Mrs. Hugh Bell, 1896.

"Satan excites the passions of men, women and children by the dramatization of vice and crime."  From Satan, His Origin, Work, and Destiny by Carlyle B. Haynes, 1920.

"Flaxman Low took up the metal calf from the table as he spoke."  From "Real Ghost Stories" in Pearson's, 1898.

Here's the Krikketekrakkle from Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1878.

From Jugend, 1896.

From Wiener Revue, 1945. 

Rolling dice by airplane.  From Popular Mechanics, 1923.

This is typical of the "New Inquisition" mindset behind vintage Popular Mechanics: "Poison gas guards 'health' of art treasures."  If only Big Science could gas all the arts, this toxic sentiment suggests.  It's an example of why Robert Anton Wilson called Big Science the New Inquistion.  The headline is a variation of the old witch test -- if she sinks, she's not a witch, and if the art survives the poison gas, it's "healthy."  Yikes.  From 1932.

"Do nothing rash, my daughter.  Leave the rope alone."  From Twenty-two Goblins by Arthur W. Rider, 1917.

You may recall that our very own Minimalist Coloring Book (2007) contains 89 images of white things, printed on white paper, inviting one to either fill in these images with a white crayon or let go of the crayon and practice the Taoist concept of wu-wei (actionless action).  Nine years later, hilarious cartoonist Oslo Davis offers an empty ice cube tray to color, part of This Annoying Life, A Mindless Coloring Book for the Highly Stressed (2016).

Here's an emergency tip for writers.  If your confidence is ebbing, mention a better novel in your first sentence and note how a famous author would have handled your story better.  Yes, this is the actual opening to Plain Speaking by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, 1882.

A spirit slate message from a ghost who'll be back in two hours.  From Medical Pickwick, 1921.

A prediction of New York from 1926, Popular Mechanics.