Out of the Past 12/7/08

25 years ago: Dec. 7, 1983

Five lots valued at $100,000 have been donated to Southeast Missouri State University by Cape Girardeau businessman Lionel Hastings; the lots are located in the Greater Cape Girardeau Commercial Center.

Dr. Shukuo Kinoshita, the president of the parent company of the Biokyowa firm, which is constructing a manufacturing plant here, paid a one-day trip to the Cape Girardeau facility yesterday.

50 years ago: Dec. 7, 1958

The new education building at General Baptist Church is dedicated in the afternoon with Dr. O.G. Chapman of Oakland City, Ind., as guest speaker; the building was completed about a year and a half ago, but other improvements, including the installation of air conditioning, a new organ and the equipping of a kitchen and recreational room have been completed for slightly more than a month.

A reception is held in the afternoon honoring the new pastor of the First Christian Church, the Rev. Donald Pelsue; Pelsue arrived Monday from St. Joseph, Mo., where he was the assistant pastor at First Christian Church.

75 years ago: Dec. 7, 1933

Tongue-lashing evil and everything that goes with it, Billy Sunday last night flayed everything from rum, bridge, crooked public officials, "sissy" preachers and gangsters; traveling from one end of the big platform in the Teachers College auditorium to another, the 71-year-old preacher emphasized with true Sunday gestures his hatred of evil and made a stirring appeal for "Cape Girardeau to get right with God."

The per-day cost of feeding county prisoners is raised from 50 cents to 75 cents; the County Court plans to feed the prisoners well and have them work on county roads in return.

100 years ago: Dec. 7, 1908

The Hoo Hoos will be in Cape Girardeau the evening of Dec. 12; the order of Hoo Hoo is an association of men engaged in the varied branches of the lumber business; their symbol is the black cat, with curved back and emphatic tail.

The Benton and Clio societies of the Normal School present their third annual play, "She Stoops to Conquer"; in the title roles are Annie Shane as Mrs. Hardcastle and Charles Himmelberger as Tony Lumpkin.

-- Sharon K. Sanders