"I saw Effie's wicked intentions and did my best to thwart them," from The Romance of Mary Sain by C. H. Cochran Patrick, 1897.

"The turquoise skull was on the table, and seated before it was my poor friend—dead!"  From The Dwarf's Chamber and Other Stories by Fergus Hume, 1896.

An illustration from Hawbuck Grange by Robert Smith Surtees (1892).  The caption reads: "Flesh and blood can't stand this!"

"Devil Posts": an illustration from Korean Sketches by James Scarth Gale (1898).

An illustration from Vikram and Vampire by Richard F. Burton (1893).  The caption reads: "He was playing upon a human skull with two shank bones."

An illustration from Stories from the Diary of a Doctor (1894).  The caption reads: "I am the wretched victim of a demon."

Illustration by F. Opper from Bill Nye's History of the United States (1894).  The caption reads: "The only thing Wayne was afraid of."

An illustration from Two Girls on a Barge by Cecil Cotes (1891).  The caption reads: "The awful black goat."

An illustration from Artful Anticks by Oliver Herford (1894).

An illustration from The Marvellous Adventures of Sir John Maundevile (1895).  The caption reads: "There fled out an head right hideous."

Things haven't changed much in the last 120 years. From Stories from the Diary of a Doctor (1894).  The caption reads: "The contents of the paper puzzled him."

An illustration from Vikram and Vampire by Charles F Burton (1893).  The caption reads: "There he found the Jogi."

The title page to Robert Greene's "Groundwork to Coney Catching," reproduced in The Highway of Letters by Thomas Archer (1893).

Here's a precursor to Augusten Burroughs' memoir Running with Scissors.  The caption reads: "Advancing absently, scissors in hand" (The Quiver, 1894).

Originally, the E of e-mail stood for eagle. From What Was the Gunpowder Plot by John Gerard (1897).  The caption reads: "The gallant Eagle, soaring up on high."

Here's a precursor to the Bonnie Tyler song 'If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man),' from Gryll Grange by Thomas Love Peacock (1896).  The caption reads: "If you were a bachelor, and I were a maid, I should not trust myself to be your aga—aga—."