FOR 40 YEARS, TROLLEYS WERE WAY TO TRAVEL THROUGH TOWN

Clang, clang, clang went the trolley, right through the heart of Cape Girardeau.

For some 40 years from 1893 through 1934, trolley cars made their way through the city, taking passengers to work, to market or out for an evening's enjoyment.

Russel Faust, 83, was born and raised in Cape Girardeau and remembers trolley cars passing in front of his home on Broadway.

"Back in those days, just a few people had cars," Faust said. "The shoe factory only had about a dozen parking spaces."

People either walked, rode the streetcars or traveled by horse and buggy.

"We used to ride the street car to go to market or to the shoe factory," he recalled.

Bob Koeppel, 70, and Harold Ellis, 69, fondly remember the streetcar system from their youth. Passengers of the system might not remember them so fondly.

"We used to trip the trolley (the electric line above the tracks that powered the system)," said Koeppel, with a grin. "The lights would go out and my mom would yell at me.

"On Halloween we would soap the tracks on Broadway hill and watch the wheels sit and grind."

Ellis said he recalled treating the tracks with axle grease for similar results.

Koeppel said his mother rode the streetcar to work at the shoe factory.

"It cost 2 cents," he said. "But some weeks, by Friday, she didn't have 2 cents and would have to walk."

Riding the street cars was fun. "It was fun going around the corners. Everyone would lean as it went around the curves," said Bettie Gunn.

She rode the street car to classes at Broadway School from her home at Spanish and Independence. But she said folks often took a ride on the trolley cars for enjoyment.

Years before the electric streetcar system was introduced, Cape Girardeau had its first mass transit a trolley car system, of sorts. Cars were pulled by a pair of smallish mules, similar in size to those used at coal mines.

Started most likely in 1893, the system was also known as drayline coaches. The small cars operated on 16-pound rail that had been brought from Cairo, Ill. The operational headquarters for the service and its fleet of 28 mules was a barn in Haarig.

Riding the Muley Cars was an adventure. Sometimes passengers fell off. Sometimes the mules fell down.

A local historian, Lee L. Albert wrote: "The Broadway hill always gave them trouble. It was hard pulling going up and hard to keep the cars from going too fast downhill. One rainy day, one of the cars started down the hill and, because of the brakes and the tracks being wet, mules, car and all landed in Botts and Chenue's store doors at the corner of Broadway and Main. That accident caused the management to reverse their course and go west on Broadway."

The introduction of electricity, brought an electric trolley system named "The Cape Girardeau & Jackson Interurban Street Railway Company" in 1905. Despite its name, the line never expanded to Jackson.

The cars originally ran on a single track the same route as the Muley Cars, Broadway to Sprigg to Good Hope to Spanish and back.

The line was later extended to Capaha Park, the old Florsheim Shoe Factory on North Main, and along part of West End Boulevard.

Brakes were hand operated. The lights were oil and the power came from an overhead trolley line. There were two sets of streetcars, those used in summer and those used in winter. The winter cars were enclosed and heated by a small stove.

The summer cars had straw seats and the backs were reversible. A step, resembling the running boards on autos, ran the length of the cars. Passengers could board where convenient and disembark the same way. The fare was 5 cents.

In summer, the streetcars attracted large crowds. A ride around the city on the trolley car was a favorite pastime on hot evenings.

In fact, an advertisement for the Interurban Railway Company read: "Get cool and keep cool evenings. Take a trolley car ride on the summer car, which will run on the belt line after 6 o'clock each evening; give the children an outing."

During June 1922, 37,393 people rode the system.

New street cars with hydrobrakes were ordered in 1920, but automobiles were becoming more and more popular. The orange streetcars stopped operating in 1934.

Gunn misses the streetcars of her youth. "I think the city ought to bring the trolleys back, maybe on wheels instead of tracks. They were such a lot of fun. I think people would really enjoy it today."