Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-07-06
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.
The BEGINNING of the New Plan In
Vcrmont-The First Examination Oh
OHlcc-Aeekcrs

vcrmont-The First EXAMINATION VI
Omcc-Aeekcrs,
The first competitive examination oil ap-
plican,s for positions in the Government SER
vice under the new Civil Service rules was
held in this city, yesterday, under the per-
sonal supervision of Hon. Dorman u. Eaton,
chairman of the Board of Civil Service Com
missioners. On May 23rd last MIR. Eaton
visited this city and az pointed the following
gentlemen to act as Examining Board Tor tlns
State under the Civil Service act, John a.
Arthur of the custom house in this CITY D.
Il. Dickerman, customs officer at Newport,
and j. Il. Richardson, customs officer al OF
Albaus, and these gentlemen conducted the
examinations yesterday, Henccforth all ON.
GERS recommended for promotion and all
applicants for positions in the customs as
trct of Vermont will be examined by thls
Board, in accordance with the requirements
of the Civil Service act. Tho examinations,
we may premise, are competitive and open
to all citizens of Vermont between IL and 40
years of age. They are limited to the following
subjects: 1. Orhography, penmanship, and
copying. .. Observation-Disclosures, rules,
fractions, and percentage. 3. Interest, dis
count and elements of bookkeeping and nc
counts. 4. Elements of the English Ian
guage, lctter-writing and the proper con
struclon OF sentences. .. Elements oil the
geography, history and government OF the
United States. The third, fourth and fifth
points are omitted in examination for the
lower grades of the service. A regular sys-
TEN OF marking is followed, 100 being per-
feet and the applicant whose general aver
age is below G5 can not be admitted to the
service. The questions under the general
III I,l.a to, Ian "
the examining board. But no one can be
examined, even, who does not give informa-
ton under oath sto himself on these points;
/. Full name, residence and postoilicc ad-
dress. 9. Citizenship. 3. Age. 4. Place
Of birth. 8. Health and physical capacity
for the public service g. Right Of prefer
cnce by reason of military or naval service.
7. Previous employment in the public SER
vice. 8. Business or employment and resi-
dcnce for the previous five years. D. Edu-
cation Besides all this the applicant must
be temperate and have certificate of good
moral character. Blank applications may be
obtained of the collector; and the examining
board will give timely notice OF coming cX-
animation to all applicants.
The examinations of applicants for posi-
tons having been completed, the names OF
the four persons passing the most satlsiaclo.
y
lcctor and he is to name one of them for the
vacancy.
Such, briefly stated, are the outlines of the
new system.
At Yesterdays Examination
seven applicants presented themselves. They
were furnished with printed copies of the
questions (prepared at Washington and pro-
Al -, N
arduous task of answering them. AS the ques-
tions are to be hereafter used at several
places, we of course can not print them.
But we may say that they are OF the most
rudimentary character, aud such as almost
any school boy ought to be able to ans .er.
But there are good many people in this
world who don't know as much as the
average school boy. Thus, at an eXamina-
ton in New York, some time since, one can
didate made the somewhat startling an
nouncement that the Emancipation procla-
nation was document issued by Jefferson
Davis when he started for uarpei's Ferry to
free the slaves. Another candidate in dli-
fercnt city confessed that he didn't know the
difference between Congress and the Supreme
Court. The Vermont candidates, Yesterday,
appeared to be very fair lot however, and
their answers seemed 10 us to be on the
whole quite credtable. The thing had its
comic aspects, too, for the candidates as
they sat at their tables presented an irresis-
tible likeness to Mr.. Weller writing his
historic valentine, and most of them seemed
to be painfully concious of being 'undcr the
harrow" All proper encouragement and as
sistance was given, however, by Mr.. Eaton
and the custom house officers, and all the
candidi, 5 survived the ordeal. The mark
ings will be announced to day, Of the seven
persons examined, four are candidates for
positions in Washington and three for local
appointments
civil Service Examinations
have now been held in about twenty five
places and are yet to be held in six or seven
more. 1t is not part of the duty OF MIR.
Eaton and his associate commissioners To SUI
pcrvisc tho examinations. but they were very
anxious that all the examinations should be
conducted with uniformity, and hence they
personally attend them.