1. Vacancies in the classified service of a post-office, unless among
the places excepted from examination, if not filled by either transfer
or promotion, shall be rilled in the following manner:
(_a_) The postmaster at a post-office in which a vacancy may exist
shall, in form and manner to be prescribed by the Commission, request
the board of examiners to certify to him the names of either males or
females eligible to the vacant place.
(_b_) If fitness for the place to be filled is tested by
competitive examination, the board of examiners shall certify the names
of three males or three females, these names to be those of the
eligibles who, standing higher in grade than any other three eligibles
of the same sex on the register from which certification is to be made,
have not been certified three times from said register: _Provided_,
That if upon said register there are the names of eligibles who, under
section 1754 of the Revised Statutes, have claim of preference in civil
appointments, the names of such eligibles shall be certified before the
names of other eligibles higher in grade. The Commission shall make
regulations that will secure to each of such preference-claiming
eligibles, in the order of his grade among other preference claimants,
opportunity to have his claim of preference considered and determined by
the appointing officer.
(_c_) Each name on any register of eligibles may be certified only
three times.
2. Of the three names certified to him the postmaster must select one;
and if at the time of making this selection there are more vacancies
than one, he may select more than one name. Each person thus designated
for appointment shall be notified, and upon reporting in person to the
postmaster shall be appointed for a probational period of six months, at
the end of which period, if his conduct and capacity be satisfactory to
the postmaster, he shall receive absolute appointment; but if his
conduct and capacity be not satisfactory to said officer, he shall be
notified that he will not receive absolute appointment, and this
notification shall discharge him from the service.
3. The postmaster of each classified post-office shall require the
superintendent of each division of his office to carefully observe and
report in writing the services rendered by and the character and
qualifications of each probationer serving under him. These reports
shall be preserved on file, and the Commission may prescribe the form
and manner in which they shall be made.