Out of the past 10/1/10

25 years ago: Oct. 1, 1985

Arson is suspected in yesterday's fire that damaged a duplex at 526 Good Hope St.; firefighters were called to the home just after 4 p.m. and found fire in a bedroom; a strong odor of fuel oil or a similar substance was detected in the bed clothing on a mattress there.

Deposits in the night depository of Cape Mercantile Bank's drive-up facility at North Kingshighway and Kurre Lane were stolen when the depository chute was removed by thieves over the weekend.

50 years ago: Oct. 1, 1960

The jog in newly paved Clark Avenue near Independence Street isn't the result of an error; it was planned that way in order to save the fine old trees there.

The problem of drunkenness, in Cape Girardeau as elsewhere, is growing each year; statistics show that of 800 nontraffic arrests here in 1959, 44 percent listed the charge as intoxication; in 1958 it was 38 percent and 30 percent in 1957.

75 years ago: Oct. 1, 1935

A kitchen room the Cape Girardeau Fire Department personnel built from funds raised in a carnival has been completed; it is on the ground floor of the department's headquarters, and firefighters will be near the trucks when eating.

Jess Willard, the former heavyweight champion, is in Cape Girardeau in the afternoon in the interests of an amateur boxing tournament he is sponsoring at Marion, Ill., this month.

100 years ago: Oct. 1, 1910

A large crowd attends the demonstration given at Brinkopf's Broadway furniture store of the new Moore range; every woman present expresses her belief that a way has at last been provided for cooking a dinner under the most pleasant circumstances.

Henry Leyhe, general manager of Eagle Packet Co. in St. Louis, has returned home from Jeffersonville, Ind., where he awarded a contract with the Howard ship yards for a boat to run in the St. Louis and Alton, Ill., trade; Leyhe also instructed the ship yards to prepare plans for a steamer for the St. Louis and Cape Girardeau trade to take the place of the steamer Cape Girardeau, which sank in June.

-- Sharon K. Sanders