It's a bizarre and wonderful phenomenon that whenever you see rows of asterisks in a book, they invariably illustrate the text either following or preceding them.  Here's a great example, in which the asterisks are sparkling stars in a cloudy sky, from The Will-o'-the-Wisp by Marie Petersen, 1874.

No matter how empty the room, no matter how desolate one's life, a balloon bouquet can make all the difference.  From the State Teacher's College, Farmville, Virginia's 1940 yearbook.

A mermaid and a sea horse.  From The Great Sea Horse by Isabel Anderson, 1909.

The land of lost balloons.  From The Wonderful Land of Up by Olive Roberts Barton and illustrated by Neely McCoy, 1918.

From the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's 1909 yearbook.

From Cine-Mundial, 1935.

The devil's dentist.  From Fliegende Blätter, 1923.

It's no fun being a century ahead of the times.  From The Master Key by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by F. Y. Cory, 1901.

"Amulet with head of the goddess Athor."  From The Word, 1914. 

From Punch Magazine (1888).

"Art.  Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life."  Illustration by Eunice Baccich, for Tulane's 1918 yearbook.

"I swear it's not too late."  From the Evansville yearbook of 1970.

Dancing the jitterbug, we presume, but this was over 30 years before Cab Calloway's song "Jitterbug."  

From the State Female Normal School, Farmville, Va.'s 1902 yearbook.

From The Mayans, 1936.

A combination piano and stove, for when the mood of a composition is con fuoco (with fire).  From Le Charivari, 1890.