APPENDIX No. 6.
The following tables show the statistics of the examinations in the three branches of the classified service. These considerations should be borne in mind in considering them:
1. That the ratio of those who fail to those who succeed is likely to be much less when the grade of questions shall be better understood; for the more incompetent will see they have little chance of succeeding. Besides, a better class has appeared at each succeeding examination.
2. It was necessary in the outset to examine a large number to make sure of having those competent to fill every variety of vacancy. Many appointments may be now made without further examinations. The excessive number examined from the District of Columbia was the result of conforming to a rule having an unanticipated effect, which has been since amended.
3. In regard to education, the records of the Commission are defective in not showing how long those who have been at an academy or college have remained at either, nor how many are graduates. If a person has been but a month at an academy or college, he is put under the head of those institutions. The habit of calling so many schools academies, and so many academies colleges, helps to make this unavoidable classification the more misleading.
TABLE
Showing numbers of examinations, number of those examined, passed, appointed, age, education, etc., in the Department Service, Washington.
| States, Territories, and Dist. of Columbia. | Number examined. | Male. | Female. | Average age. | Education. | Number passed at 65 per cent. or over. | Number appointed. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common School. | Academy. | College. | |||||||
| Alabama | 4 | 2 | 2 | 42 | 2 | 2 | .. | 2 | .. |
| Arizona Territory | 1 | .. | 1 | 33 | .. | 1 | .. | 1 | .. |
| California | 7 | 6 | 1 | 30 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| Colorado | 4 | 2 | 2 | 37 | 1 | 3 | .. | 2 | .. |
| Connecticut | 9 | 3 | 6 | 29 | 4 | 2 | .. | 3 | 1 |
| Dakota Territory | 2 | 1 | 1 | 29 | 1 | 1 | .. | 1 | .. |
| District of Columbia | 125 | 54 | 71 | 25 | 48 | 53 | 24 | 74 | 3 |
| Delaware | 1 | .. | 1 | 25 | 1 | .. | .. | 1 | .. |
| Florida | 2 | .. | 2 | 36 | .. | 1 | 1 | 1 | .. |
| Georgia | 3 | 2 | 1 | 25 | .. | 1 | 2 | .. | .. |
| Illinois | 24 | 16 | 8 | 31 | 4 | 6 | 14 | 15 | 4 |
| Indiana | 40 | 29 | 11 | 26 | 15 | 12 | 13 | 18 | 2 |
| Indian Territory | 1 | 1 | .. | 30 | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. |
| Iowa | 3 | 2 | 1 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Kansas | 15 | 13 | 2 | 32 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 2 |
| Kentucky | 21 | 16 | 5 | 28 | 4 | 7 | 10 | 13 | 2 |
| Louisiana | 6 | 3 | 3 | 34 | 2 | 4 | .. | 3 | .. |
| Maine | 14 | 10 | 4 | 26 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 11 | 2 |
| Maryland | 66 | 40 | 26 | 26 | 13 | 35 | 18 | 44 | 3 |
| Massachusetts | 36 | 27 | 9 | 30 | 6 | 17 | 13 | 26 | 1 |
| Michigan | 18 | 12 | 6 | 28 | 3 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 3 |
| Minnesota | 7 | 5 | 2 | 36 | 3 | .. | 4 | 4 | .. |
| Mississippi | 4 | 3 | 1 | 30 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .. |
| Missouri | 15 | 11 | 4 | 34 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 2 |
| Nebraska | 1 | .. | 1 | 25 | .. | 1 | .. | .. | .. |
| New Hampshire | 6 | 2 | 4 | 35 | .. | 6 | .. | 3 | 1 |
| New Jersey | 16 | 7 | 9 | 28 | 5 | 9 | 2 | 10 | 2 |
| New York | 94 | 65 | 29 | 26 | 20 | 54 | 20 | 50 | 5 |
| North Carolina | 38 | 26 | 12 | 27 | 2 | 24 | 12 | 19 | 1 |
| Ohio | 64 | 45 | 19 | 32 | 20 | 27 | 17 | 42 | 4 |
| Pennsylvania | 42 | 30 | 12 | 30 | 10 | 22 | 10 | 22 | 5 |
| Rhode Island | 6 | 4 | 2 | 42 | 5 | 1 | .. | 1 | 1 |
| South Carolina | 13 | 11 | 2 | 24 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 1 |
| Tennessee | 4 | 1 | 3 | 31 | 2 | 2 | .. | 2 | .. |
| Texas | 3 | 1 | 2 | 36 | .. | 3 | .. | 3 | .. |
| Vermont | 5 | 1 | 4 | 28 | 2 | 3 | .. | 4 | 1 |
| Virginia | 37 | 21 | 16 | 32 | 9 | 22 | 6 | 24 | 2 |
| Washington Territory | 1 | .. | 1 | 40 | .. | .. | 1 | 1 | .. |
| West Virginia | 19 | 13 | 6 | 30 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 1 |
| Wisconsin | 7 | 6 | 1 | 32 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
| Total | 784 | 491 | 293 | 32 | 217 | 366 | 201 | 459 | 53 |
Time was when Nature’s every mystic mood
Poured round my heart a flood of eager joy;
When pageantry of sunsets moved the boy
More than high ventures of the great and good;
When trellised shadows in the vernal wood,
And little peeping flowers, so sweet and coy,
Were simple happiness without alloy,
And whispered to me things I understood.
But now the strange sad weight of human woe,
And all the bitterness of human wrong,
Press on my saddened spirit as I go,
And stir the pulsings of a graver song:
Dread mysteries of life and death I scan,
And all my soul is only full of man.—W. W. Bedford.