=313. General Agents.= "The walks of business become more manifold and extended as the luxuries of civilization and the skill of human inventions become more multiplied and more widely displayed. Every description of commercial, mechanical, and executive business excited and created by the new wants and new imaginations of advancing society, will call for the creation and extension of new agencies to accomplish the labor which they must demand. Thus the variety and number of business agencies of every kind must spread out in a constant increase." We think there is great imposition practised by some people who secure lady agents, and we would advise ladies who can undertake an agency to learn something of the parties who would employ, and the character of the article, before they engage in any undertaking of the kind. A conscientious agent is likely to have her interests suffer by a want of honor in those whom she represents. With a liberal discount on the retail price of most goods, agents might be enabled to make a handsome return for their services. I saw a man that manufactures indelible ink, and employs agents to sell it and stencil plates. He allows them half they receive. One lady in Boston, he said, made $20 one day. I think it probable it was in a large school. Ladies, he says, will not stay long at it, because it tires them very much to go up stairs a great deal. An agent should be one that can talk well and has tact and judgment. She should select those parts of a city where she will be most likely to meet with success. If her article is something for ladies' use, let her go where the best dwellings are. If it is something for universal use, if she selects but part of a city, the largest quantity will probably be sold in those parts most densely populated. A manufacturer of fancy soaps and perfumery told me he has employed ladies as agents to go around selling those articles. Some have cleared $2 a day. He allows one hundred percentage. C., of Boston, manufacturer of needle threaders, wick pullers, and pencil sharpeners, offers a liberal discount to agents; but we presume it would require some Yankee tact to make the sales amount to much. He states that some of their agents make from $200 to $300 a month. A stencil cutter in New Haven writes: "I have made tools for ladies to do the work of making embroidery stencils. It is necessary to travel to sell them. One lady may make the work at home, and another sell it. One young man, whom I furnished with tools, told me that he sold $14 worth of plates in five hours." Dr. B. employs twenty ladies making shoulder braces, and pays them from $3 to $4 a week. The sewing is done by hand. He allows lady agents to have the braces at $1 a pair, which can be retailed at $2 a pair. Boarding agencies have become common in some of the large cities. Some agents charge the keepers of boarding houses a percentage for every boarder sent them, but do not charge the applicant.