Here's a precursor to the Smell of Reeves & Mortimer running gag about a father who begs for "booze for t'baby."  From Le Rire, 1908.

While looking up what a "wag-at-the-wa'" is, we encountered an article about how crossword puzzles would be affected by Scottish independence, which noted three words/phrases that would be lost:

CLAMJAMPHRIE [nonsense]

NIPPERTY-TIPPERTY [foppish]

WAG-AT-THE-WA’ [an uncased pendulum clock]

The difference between "portrait" and "landscape" orientation.  From Fliegende Blätter, 1940.

"I sank senseless upon the sand behind the protecting body of my dead horse."  From The Golden Lake by Carlton Dawe, 1891.

"Can you go where others go?"  From Ambition magazine, 1911.

"He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."  From Satan, His Origin, Work, and Destiny by Carlyle B. Haynes, 1920.   Speaking of which, what exactly are a snowball's chances in hell?  See A Snowball's Chance in Hell.

From Die Muskete, 1913.

"The 'ooray face and the ugh face," from The Sketch, 1910.

Non-circulating book.  See our artist’s statement here: https://www.oneletterwords.com/weblog/?c=NonCirculatingBooks.  (Individual cards are available from Zazzle, and deep discount bulk orders of 10 or more are available from Vistaprint.)

"Oh, you want me to have a shirt on you," from Pearson's, 1905.

"Stories unreasonable, unlikely, or uncomfortable."  From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1884.

"An unfortunate soul."  From A History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art by Thomas Wright, 1875.

A postcard from a ghost: "This is the berg where I spent most of my days."  From c. 1907.  Courtesy of the DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.

The three outpourings, from The Christian Creed by Charles Webster Leadbeater, 1904.

"Saturn devouring his child."  From A History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art by Thomas Wright, 1875.

"Among other things."  From Ambition magazine, 1911.

"A difficult trick."  From Popular Mechanics, 1910.

From Queen Mab's Fairy Realm, 1901.

From The Sketch, 1910.

A sentence with some erasures from American Medicine, 1912.

"He soon caught sight of the thing resting close to his hand, by the night-light, on the green table-cloth.  The wings quivered."  From Pearson's, 1905.

"Slap!  Bang!  Here we are again!"  From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1884.

From The Laughing Prince by Parker Fillmore and illustrated by Jay Van Everen, 1921.

From Wiener Revue, 1946.

Before the cordial actor Vin Diesel, there was the cordial liqueur Vin Désiles.

From a Sgt. Beef mystery:

***

She was, she now explained, glued to the spot. Her heart was going in a manner which she described as “fit to burst,” while at the same time, and rather confusingly, she didn’t know whether she was standing on her head or her heels. A feather, she assured us, would have been sufficient to send her prostrate. But it was fortunate that these metaphors, however mixed, had come into play, for they kept her there to see something else.

***

“It’s time,” announced Beef, “that we interviewed a parson.”

“A parson?” I repeated, with the air of surprise that is expected of me. “Why a parson?”

“Comic relief,” said Beef; “must have a parson. Wouldn’t be a case without a parson.”

“But you can’t just go off like that and interview a parson.”

“I don’t see why not,” said Beef. “I’ve noticed you enjoy writing about them.”

***

We drove to some offices in a street off High Holborn and saw the name Starling and Nicholson on the plate at the door. I was relieved to see that I should not have to produce that onerous form of humour at the expense of solicitors firms’ names, and that this one was content with a curt partnership instead of any form of repetition.

From Popular Mechanics, 1927.

Dental decor from Mocca, 1928.

From Die Muskete, 1933.

"The lion and the unicorn."  From A History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art by Thomas Wright, 1875.  This should be of interest: A Field Guide to Identifying Unicorns by Sound.

From Nature's Secrets by John H. Ruttley, 1875.

"Laughing gas."  From Ambition magazine, 1911.

"Attempted escape of the maniac."  From The Wild Witch of the Heath, or the Demon of the Glen by Wizard, 1841.

"She was much perplexed, for a new bead was added to the string."  From The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde and Other Stories by Mary de Morgan, 1880.

From Hearst's Magazine, 1913.

"The Screw-Up-Your-Courage Duel.  A piece of inch board is strapped over the heart of each combatant.  The braces are placed in position and when the signal is given, the man who gets through first wins."  From The Sketch, 1910.

"An umbrella with sponges to absorb the collected water and avoid dripping," from London Magazine, 1903.

"In the cold grey dawn of the morning after," from Pearson's, 1905.

You've seen faces drawn on the sun, but the trend goes all the way back.  From Le Rire, 1896.

The end, with a stomp on a serpent.  From Theosophy Or Christianity, Which? by Isaac Massey Haldeman, 1893.

It isn't a blue monkey with a pink tail.  From The Harvard Lampoon, 1878.

From an ad for a book on personal magnetism, from Popular Mechanics, 1927.

"My father is the dandiest daddy that ever lived!"  From Ambition magazine, 1911.

From Die Muskete, 1911.

"Great Scott, how you startled me!  I thought it was my wife!"  From The Sketch, 1903.

"The mechanical bedstead guaranteed to awaken the soundest sleeper," from London Magazine, 1903.

You've seen the innuendo of a train entering a tunnel.  Apparently, some folks take those "personal railroads" literally.  "This is a personal railroad matter between me and Mr. Gregory."  From Pearson's, 1910.