se of "attorneys," "syndicates," and "corporations,
limited." Among these names was that of the X. Y. Z. Co. Within, one
side of Room 954 was partitioned off into many little alcoves. An
antique, though youthfully dressed, typist, by the railing near the door,
showed our friend to the X. Y. Z. Co., who was seated at a bleak-looking
desk in one of the little alcoves. The alcove contained, besides the
"Co." (a little whiskered man, wearing his hat and overcoat) and the
desk, an empty waste basket, and one unoccupied chair.

It was a "demonstrator" that was wanted, on a commission basis, for a
fluid to cleanse silver. This alcove, it developed, was merely one of
many thousand branch offices of the "Co." scattered across the country.
The "Co's." "factory," he said, was over in New Jersey, a very large
affair.

Mr. Bivens, that is the name of the gentleman of whom I have just been
speaking, was invited, too, this time in a letter politely beginning "My
Dear Sir," to call at the offices of a moving-picture "corporation."
Asking to see "M. T. Cummings," who had signed the letter, he was
presented to an efficient-looking person, evidently an elderly, retired
show-girl, who directly proved him wofully deficient in knowledge of "the
screen."

His next experience was with a portly, prosperous-looking gentleman who
had elaborate offices in a very swell skyscraper. This man wrote an
excellent business-like letter; he unfolded to H. T. (I always
affectionately call Bivens "H. T.") admiration-compelling plans for large
business enterprises, which included a project of taking five hundred
American business men on a trip through Europe after the war at a cost to
each one of only four dollars and a half, the balance of the expenses of
each to be paid for in local business co-operation.

Bivens was taken right into this energetic and enterprising man's
confidence. He did considerable outside work for his employer for ten
days. On the eleventh day, reporting at the office, he found the
promoter's secretary and office boy awaiting him, in company with his
office furniture, outside the locked door.

Bivens next answered an advertisement for a strike-breaker to light
street lamps, and for a person to distribute handbills at a pay of
seventy-five cents a day. But his luck had changed; he never got another
reply to any answer to a help-wanted "ad."

He thinks this is strange, because he believes (and I know this is true)
that he