Out of the past 4/19/05

25 years ago: April 19, 1980

In a move designed to make more money available in the Cape Girardeau housing market, First Federal Savings and Loan has initiated a policy in which -- on assumed loans only -- the difference is divided between the present 16 percent interest rate and the interest rate of the loan being assumed.

Cape Girardeau County has the lowest poverty and unemployment rates in the eight-county area served by the East Missouri Action Agency; approximately 7 percent of the county's residents are living at the poverty level.; the county's unemployment rate is only 5.5 percent.

50 years ago: April 19, 1955

There will be no blooming roses in Ten Mile Garden this summer because of March's deep freeze; other shrubs, set back by the cold, are expected to leaf out, but will be later.

Mayor Narvol A. Randol expresses concern over the apathy being shown by Cape Girardeau voters in the citywide registration in the 12 new wards which started yesterday; only 341 people out of an estimated 16,800 eligible to vote in the city were registered on the first day of the program.

75 years ago: April 19, 1930

Condemnation cases arising from the government's construction of a setback levee for flood-control purposes in New Madrid and Mississippi counties will be heard by a jury, rules Judge Charles B. Faris in federal court; the ruling comes on the eve of the first trial of cases involving the construction of the levee under the national flood-control act.

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Oscar Hornberger, 34, night city marshal here, dies at a St. Louis, Mo., hospital from a shotgun wound in the abdomen inflicted accidentally by another officer during a liquor raid on a farm near Perryville last midnight.

100 years ago: April 19, 1905

William Gockel and wife of Jackson visit Cape Girardeau; Gockel, the brother of the county sheriff, is in town for the purpose of investigating the chances of starting a first-class bus service.

Andrew Gerau, who lived with his family in Cape Girardeau for many years, died yesterday at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Lydia Denk, in St. Louis, Mo.; he was 95 years old.

-- Sharon K. Sanders