Out of the past 2/13/05

25 years ago: Feb. 13, 1980

The extended subfreezing temperatures have made the Capaha Park lagoon safe for skating for the first time this year; the ice was measured yesterday at 5 inches, and the park department opened the lagoon to skaters at 4 p.m.

Despite pressures to eliminate laboratory schools in Missouri, including the one at Southeast Missouri State University, the state Coordinating Board for Higher Education has voted overwhelmingly that the future of such schools should be left to the discretion of the local university administrations.

50 years ago: Feb. 13, 1955

The Rev. and Mrs. R.C. Holliday will move tomorrow from the former parsonage to a new one at 816 North St.; the Centenary United Methodist Church congregation built the new brick parsonage last year and this winter; the old parsonage was at 1600 Bessie St.

Dr. N.J. Newell of Cape Girardeau has been elected to the board of the Missouri Osteopathic Surgical Society.

75 years ago: Feb. 13, 1930

A lease on a tract south of the Missouri Pacific terminals on property owned by the railroad in Cape Girardeau has been taken by the Goodwin poultry and egg company of Jackson; the site is being prepared for industrial usage by the railroad company by being excavated to a level with the terminal yards.

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- A grand jury investigation of the closing Jan. 3 of the Bank of Charleston, a depository for more than $500,000 of state, county and school district money, will be launched next week.

100 years ago: Feb. 13, 1905

Reports come from the community of the poor farm that Jeff Green, an employee at the institution, was recently attacked by a panther vicious with hunger; he was walking home late one night through a dense forest when the animal sprang at him; Green leaped to a sprint and made it out of the forest; the panther didn't follow him into the open.

The gamblers of Cape Girardeau are worried they'll soon be prosecuted; Prosecuting Attorney Charles Daues is rumored to be accumulating information sufficient to indict the local gaming fraternity.

-- Sharon K. Sanders