She could have recited the Twenty-Third Psalm and made it indecent

The lyrics of Marie [Lloyd]’s songs were never crude, but they were sufficiently suggestive to encourage the mind to wander. She could, said on impresario, have recited the Twenty-Third Psalm and made it indecent

J. Major, My Old Man: a personal history of music hall (2012), 121

It was low born but irresistable

In its formative years, the vulgarity and sentimentality of music hall attracted a largely working-class audience, but its appeal was far wider. It took root in England only a few years after there had been a real fear of revolution, and helped turn sour resentment into a patriotic roar of joy. It was low-born but irresistible. Its songs have become the folk songs of a nation.

J. Major, My Old Man: a personal history of music hall (2012), 3

Suitable for those sons (and a few daughters) of wealthy men whose academic abilities were limited

Modern History was the most popular school in Oxford, regarded as a soft option, suitable for those sons (and a few daughters) of wealthy men whose academic abilities were limited.

A. Sisman, Hugh Trevor - Roper: the biography (2010), 35

The casualties at Antietam numbered for times the total suffered by American soldiers at the Normandy beaches

The casualties at Antietam numbered four times the total suffered by American soldiers at the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944. More than twice as many Americans lost their lives in one day at Sharpsburg as fell in combat in the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the Spanish-American war combined.

J. M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (1988), 544

The United states has usually prepared for its wars after getting into them

The United states has usually prepared for its wars after getting into them. Never was this more true than the Civil War. the country was less ready for what proved to be its biggest war than for ant other war in history. In early 1861 most of the tiny 16,000-man army was scattered n seventy-nine outposts west of the Mississippi.

J. M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (1988), 312-13

The only way to make everybody listen was to start a fire in the middle of the room and then identify the location of all the emergency exits

You never got everyone's attention, not if you were the Pope saying mass in St. Peter's Square or Renee Fleming in recital at Carnegie Hall or Czeslaw Milosz reading his poetry in Polish for the very last time. The only way to make everybody listen was to start a fire in the middle of the room and then identify the location of all the emergency exits. Even then, if you took the time to notice, there would always be someone running frantically in the opposite direction. Doyle knew this. Jesse Jackson knew this. But Teddy and Tip, at the ages of twenty and twenty-one respectively, each believed he was the only person there who had drifted off to other things.

A. Patchett, Run, (2007), 37

The beer had been far too inadequate to make them drunk; it made them only moody and reflective

One of the infrequent rations of beer was given out the same night, and the men finished their three cans quickly, and sat around without saying very much,. The beer had been far too inadequate to make them drunk; it made them only moody and reflective, it opened the gate to all their memories, and left them sad, hungering for things they could not name.

N. Mailer, The naked and the dead (1948), 258