Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Parsing spam

She sat there until daylight, unwearied, and wishing in her heart that the night might prolong itself indefinitely. But time which has brought me age has also brought me leisure, and I have availed myself of it to write my recollections of so much of the war between the states in which my own immediate cavalry command took part. He is one who speaks good English, and wears gloves as if he were used to them.

I googled that graf and found three different sources. There must be a program that scrapes sentences from different web sites - but what's the criterion? These are obscure and literary sources ...

She sat there until daylight, unwearied, and wishing in her heart that the night might prolong itself indefinitely.

is from a short story by Nikolai Gogol;

But time which has brought me age has also brought me leisure, and I have availed myself of it to write my recollections of so much of the war between the states in which my own immediate cavalry command took part.

is from a Civil War memoir;


He is one who speaks good English, and wears gloves as if he were used to them.

is from German travel and adventure writer Karl May:


The context of the last is worth quoting at length:

"I suppose you know what a tenderfoot is. He is one who speaks good English, and wears gloves as if he were used to them. He also has a prejudice in favor of nice handkerchiefs and well-kept finger-nails; he may know a good deal about history, but he is liable to mistake turkey-tracks for bear-prints, and, though he has learned astronomy, he could never find his way by the stars. The tenderfoot sticks his bowie-knife into his belt in such a manner that it runs into his thigh when he bends; and when he builds a fire on the prairie he makes it so big that it flames as high as a tree, yet feels surprised that the Indians notice it." (from Winnetou, the Apache Knight)

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