an entertainment for the diversion of the children of the principal
families in the capital, who on such occasions assemble in the gallery.
Ali himself always attends, to encourage and assist their gaiety; and,
while reclining on this cumbrous seat, distributes to them, as they are
successively presented to him, baskets of sweetmeats, and such other
tokens of regard as are suited to their respective ages and
condition.--_Narrative of an Excursion from Corfu to Smyrna_.

* * * * *


POLICE OFFICES AND POLICE REPORTS.


The police reports are frequently the most amusing part of the daily
press: they let the reader into many of the secrets of low, and, now and
then, of high life; they are redolent of the phraseology of the vulgar;
they often tickle our fancies by their humour, and sometimes touch our
sympathies by their pathos. As anecdotes of real life; daily catalogues
of droll and dismal occurrences among our fellow-citizens; pictures of
what is passing in the streets while we, who are sober sort of folks,
are dreaming in our beds; sketches of manners, and records of the
habits, feelings, and minor as well as major delinquencies of those who
breathe the same air with us; they could not fail to be interesting to
us all, were we not aware that, like the novels which are said to be
"founded on fact," their most rich and racy parts are frequently
fiction.

Let not the non-gnostic portion of our readers imagine, that if they
haunt the justice-seat of Birnie and his judicial co-mates, that they