I also designate W.A. De Caindry as the secretary of said board. Done at the city of Washington, this 13th day of May, 1884, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and eighth. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. By the President: FREDK. T. FRELINGHUYSEN, _Secretary of State_. EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, May 26, 1884_. Under the provisions of section 4 of the act approved March 3, 1883, it is hereby ordered that the several Executive Departments, the Department of Agriculture, and the Government Printing Office be closed on Friday, the 30th instant, to enable the employees to participate in the decoration of the graves of the soldiers who fell during the rebellion. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. In the exercise of the power vested in the President by the Constitution, and by virtue of the seventeen hundred and fifty-third section of the Revised Statutes and of the civil-service act approved January 16, 1883, the following special rule for the regulation and improvement of the executive civil service is hereby promulgated: SPECIAL RULE. Any person who was employed on or before the 16th day of January, 1883, in any Executive Department at Washington in a position not included in the classified service in said Department, but who was at that date exclusively engaged in the duties of a clerk or copyist, and who has since been continuously so engaged, may, in the discretion of the head of the Department, be treated as within the classified service in the Department in a grade corresponding to such duties, provided such person has either already passed an examination under the civil-service rules or shall pass an appropriate competitive or noncompetitive examination thereunder at a grade of 65 per cent or upward. Approved, June 12, 1884. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. EXECUTIVE MANSION, _July 8, 1884_. In order to carry out the provisions of that portion of the act entitled "An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1885, and for other purposes," approved July 7, 1884, which contemplates the participation of the several Executive Departments, the Department of Agriculture, and the Smithsonian Institution in the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition of 1884-85, the board heretofore appointed by Executive order to take charge of the articles and materials to be exhibited by these Departments, the Department of Agriculture, and the Smithsonian Institution is hereby continued under the following regulations and distribution of duties, viz: The funds appropriated for such participation will be drawn from the Treasury upon the requisition of the president of the board, and will be disbursed and accounted for as are other public moneys under the existing laws and regulations relating to disbursing officers.