_Messenger examination_.--This examination shall not include more
than the following subjects:

(_a_) Orthography.

(_b_) Copying.

(_c_) Penmanship.

(_d_) Arithmetic--fundamental rules.

(_e_) Physical tests.

This examination shall also be used to test fitness for the position of
piler, stamper, junior clerk, or other places the duties of which are
chiefly manual.

_Special examinations_.--These examinations shall test fitness for
positions requiring knowledge of a language other than the English
language, or special or technical knowledge or skill. Each special
examination shall include, in addition to the special subject upon which
the applicant is to be tested, so many of the subjects of the clerk
examination as the Commission may determine.

_Noncompetitive examinations_.--Such examinations may, with the
approval of the Commission, be held under conditions stated in General
Rule III, clause 2.

2. No person shall be examined for the position of clerk if under 18
years of age; and no person shall be examined for the position of
messenger, stamper, or junior clerk if under 16 or over 45 years of age;
and no person shall be examined for the position of carrier if under 21
or over 40 years of age. No person shall be examined for any other
position in the classified postal service if under 18 or over 45 years
of age.

3. Any person desiring examination for admission to the classified
postal service must make request, in his own handwriting, for a blank
form of application, which request, and also his application, shall be
addressed as directed by the Commission.

4. The date of reception and also of approval by the board of each of
such applications shall be noted on the application paper.

5. Exceptions from examinations in the classified postal service are
hereby made as follows:

(_a_) Assistant postmaster.

(_b_) One private secretary or one confidential clerk of the
postmaster.

(_c_) Cashier.

(_d_) Assistant cashier.

(_e_) Superintendents designated by the Post-Office Department and
reported as such to the Commission.

(_f_) Custodians of money, stamps, stamped envelopes, or postal
cards, designated as such by the Post-Office Department and so reported
to the Commission, for whose fidelity the postmaster is under official
bond.

6. No person appointed to a place under any exception to examinatio