Out of the past 10/29/04

25 years ago: Oct. 29, 1979

Library materials valued at $7,318.28 haven't been returned to the Cape Girardeau Public Library by patrons during the year; November will be amnesty month, when overdue items may be returned without penalty.

Although the rate of serious crimes in Cape Girardeau in seven major categories was well below the state and national rates in most areas according to the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report, the actual number of major crimes here was up slightly in 1978 from 1977's record levels.

50 years ago: Oct. 29, 1954

According to state Sen. Albert M. Spradling Jr., a system of psychiatric teams to visit Missouri and help combat mental health problems will be proposed in the next legislative session; Spradling, chairman of a special Senate committee on mental health, is holding a two-day meeting at Kansas City.

The time-honored practice of collecting fines on the installment plan is abolished; says chief of Police Kenneth Cruse, "The police department has gone out of the lending business"; at the end of September, there were $2,134.20 in unpaid fines on the department's books.

75 years ago: Oct. 29, 1929

Congressman Dewey J. Short of this district is in Cape Girardeau investigating a condition along the Mississippi River which has been complained of to him by farmers living north of the city, in the Bainbridge community; the federal government has constructed a rock dike out into the river on the Illinois side of the stream, which has caused the current to cut away Missouri soil, destroying much valuable farm land.

Fourteen cases of smallpox in Jackson and environs have been reported to the Jackson Board of Health, and six families have been placed under quarantine; the Lutheran school and the public elementary school have been dismissed until Thursday, when pupils must present certificates of recent vaccination.

100 years ago: Oct. 29, 1904

An effort is being made to organize a county medical association; representatives of the state medical association are in Cape Girardeau conferring with local physicians; the movement would do away with the Southeast Missouri Medical Association, which is made up of about 25 counties, and organize county associations instead.

The steamer Chester, when it started for St. Louis last evening, carried away about 2,500 chickens, turkeys and ducks; most are destined to be the main course for Thanksgiving dinners.

-- Sharon K. Sanders