In some offices a person records his name and pays $2, for which he has the privileges of the office one year. The boarding-house keeper pays a percentage to the agent in proportion to the rate of board, without regard to the length of time the boarders remain. One agency charges $2 for registering a name, and fifty cents for each boarder it secures. Some agents in New York have purchased articles of every kind on commission for Southerners, receiving a commission from both parties. Southern ladies have always preferred New York goods, but we suppose they will now wish to patronize their own people. =314. Literary, Book, and Newspaper Agents.= By literary agents we mean those that are willing to take the compositions of others, review, correct, prune, polish, mend, and present them for publication. We suppose there are not a great many ladies, in our country, of sufficient experience in this way to be prepared for the business, and probably a smaller number that would wish to undertake it. Yet, we think, to a competent and reliable lady, it might yield a handsome profit. We know there are a few gentlemen so engaged. Proof readers are sometimes employed by authors for this purpose, or some literary friend of ability does it as an accommodation. Ladies have been agents more for magazines than standard works. Indeed, only new books claim the privilege of having their merits set forth by agents. In towns and cities, ladies could act as agents without any difficulty. The business, of course, requires one to be on her feet a great deal. In sparsely settled portions of the country, it could not be so easily done. Yet we were told in New York of an educated lady that wished to earn a livelihood, and, not seeing any other way open, she became a book agent. She got a horse and buggy, and rode through the country, and was very successful. She met with a young lady who was very anxious to join her. They made a great deal of money, and wrote a book of their travels. There are said to be many book and paper agents in New York city--both men and women--and they are paid the same percentage. The time of work is confined to daylight. If newspaper advertisements for book agents can be relied on, we suppose the business would pay well. We can scarcely glance over the columns of a newspaper without finding a call for agents to present the merits of some new work, with the promise that, if active and diligent, the individual will clear from $30 to $100 per month. It requires judgment, taste, and a knowledge of what is popular in the book market. I was told by the editor of a ladies' magazine, that he pays his agents fifty cents on the dollar, and would be glad to secure the services of more lady agents. He stated that one of his lady agents in Brooklyn obtained in two weeks twenty subscribers, so making $12.50. Some sell books on subscription, but if the books are printed, the surest and most speedy way is to deliver the book and receive the money,