WASHINGTON – An order has been issued by Postmaster General Meyer abrogating the regulation which was enforced by the Civil Service Commission, providing that applicants for positions as postal clerks should be 5 feet 4 inches in height and at least 125 pounds in weight. In the opinion of the postal officials, such regulation is unnecessary and some times embarrassing.

• The leap year ball held in the new Odd Fellows hall on Pleasant Street, Auburn, last evening was one of the leading social affairs of the season.

50 years ago, 1958

AMMAN, Jordan – Kings Hussein of Jordan and Faisal II of Iraq will retain their thrones when their countries unite under a single flag and foreign policy within the next 24 hours, authoritative sources said tonight. Hussein and Faisal, 22-year-old Hashemite cousins, plan to sign the proclamation tomorrow. The two Arab kingdoms reportedly will share single foreign, defense and economic ministries as well as one army.

• January precipitation in the Twin Cities was the heaviest in 84 years. The area received 8.7 inches of water in either snow or rain during the month. The previous record was 8.68 inches of precipitation in 1935.

• Gasoline tax income for the first 11 months of 1957 was almost $1 million more than was taken in 1956. The tax, which increased to 7 cents a gallon in 1955, yielded $19,199,728 in revenue during the similar period in 1956.

25 years ago, 1983

A fellow at the United Nations with a head for figures calculated the other day that the paperwork of his establishment covers 700 million printed pages annually. This was counting the space required to record the 252 resolutions adopted by the UN assembly in 1982, plus all the speeches leading up to those resolutions, as well as the 29,000 hours of conferences leading up to the speeches. In case you’re not bowled over by the mega-number of pages, our statistician computed what the words would add up to in weight: around 27,000 tons.

Copy the Story Link