By a confederacy with some experienced dry goods dealer, the proprietor of one of those agencies for procuring situations for young men, _victims_ of misplaced confidence are put through at five to ten dollars each, somewhat after this fashion: Sharp, the keeper of the Agency, advertises for two good clerks, one book-keeper, five salesmen, ten waiters, &c., &c.; and, of course, as every steamboat, car and stage, running into New York, brings in a fresh importation of young men from the country, all fitted out in the knowledge box for salesmen, book-keepers and clerk-ships,--every morning, a new set are offered to be taken in and done for. Sharp demands a fee of five or ten dollars for obtaining a situation; victim forks over the amount, and is sent to Sharp number two, who keeps the dry goods shop; he has got through with a victim of yesterday, and is now ready for the fresh victim of to-day; for he makes it a point to put them through such a gamut of labor, vexatious man[oe]uvres and insolence, that not one out of fifty come back next day, and if they do--_he don't want them!_ If the unsuspecting victim returns to the "Agency," he is lectured roundly for his incapacity or want of _energy!_--and advised to return to the country and recuperate. Jeremiah Bumps having graduated with all the honors of Sniffensville Academy, and having many unmistakable longings for becoming a Merchant Prince, and seeing sights in a city; and having read an account of the great fortunes piled up in course of a few years, by poor, friendless country boys, like Abbot Lawrence, John Jacob Astor, he up and came right straight to Boston, having read it in the papers that clerks, salesmen, book-keepers, and so on, were wanted, dreadfully--"young men from the country preferred"--so he called on the _suffering_ agent for the public, and paying down his _fee_, was sent off to an _Importing House_, on ---- street, where a clerk and salesman were wanted. Jeremiah found his idea of an _Importing House_ knocked into a disarranged chapeau, by finding the one in the "present case," a large and luminous _store_, filled up with paper boxes and sham bundles; while gaudily festooned, were any quantity of calicoes, cheap shawls, ribbons, tapes, and innumerable other tuppenny affairs. Nebuchadnezzar Cheatum, the proprietor of this importing and jobbing house, was a keen, little, slick-as-a-whistle, heavy-bearded, shaved and starched genus, of six-and-thirty, more or less; and received Jeremiah with a rather patronizing survey _personelle_, and opened the engagement with a few remarks. "From the country, are you?" "Sniffensville, sir," said Jeremiah; "County of Scrub-oak, State of New Hampshire."