There were hungry people in want
of professed cooks; divers demands for chamber-maids, black or white;
special inquiries for waiters and footmen, in which the same disregard of
colour was observable; advertisements for partners in all sorts of
businesses, and for journeymen in every department of mechanical
operations; then there were milliners wanted, sempstresses, and even
theatrical assistants, but nowhere in the long columns could he discover:
"Wanted, a boy." Charlie searched them over and over, but the stubborn fact
stared him in the face--there evidently were no boys wanted; and he at
length concluded that he either belonged to a very useless class, or that
there was an unaccountable prejudice existing in the city against the
rising generation.
Charlie folded up the papers with a despairing sigh, and walked to the
post-office to mail a letter to Mrs. Bird that he had written the previous
evening. Having noticed a number of young men examining some written
notices that were posted up, he joined the group, and finding it was a list
of wants he eagerly read them over.
To his great delight he found there was one individual at least, who
thought boys could be rendered useful to society, and who had written as
follows: "Wanted, a youth of about thirteen years of age who writes a good
hand, and is willing to make himself useful in an office.
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