One extraneous value may attach to these sketches. They are copies from the kaleidoscope of the hour. They are one man's imprint from parts of the world's doings at one place and time. New York, and what interested it in the middle of the nineteenth century, will be a chapter for History to which this volume will contribute. The author, long ago, made up his mind that the unreal world was overworked-that the Past and Future were overvalued-and that the Immediate and Present, and what one saw occurring, and could truthfully describe, were as well worth the care and pains of authorship as what one could only imagine or take from hearsay. He has written, therefore, upon topics as the Hour presented them; and though his impressions and opinions might have been modified by keeping and re-considering, they have the value, as he hopes they will be allowed the apology, of hurry-graphs from life as it went by.