Out of the past 4/4/08

25 years ago: April 4, 1983

A new entry is added to the multipurpose building "site derby" with the announcement that Drury Development Corp. is offering to donate about 30 acres west of Interstate 55 as a possible location for the proposed new civic arena.

Another flood is on the way for the Cape Girardeau area, with the Mississippi River expected to crest at more than 41 feet here in a few days; today's river stage is 34 feet.

50 years ago: April 4, 1958

John Boss, 94, drops in at The Missourian office to pay his subscription; Boss has been making this payment since the newspaper was started in 1904 and believes he has never missed the quarterly event.

Before adjourning in the evening, the Missouri Legislature votes State College the go-ahead for its $2,740,000 construction program that will bring three new buildings to the campus; formal contracts can now be signed for work on the Science Building, Practical Arts Building and Women's Physical Education Building.

75 years ago: April 4, 1933

City health officer Henry Haman Jr. nails a quarantine sign on his own dwelling at 204 N. Henderson Ave.; his little daughter, Jean Ann, has measles, one of four cases in Cape Girardeau.

Brewery agents and beer wholesalers are having trouble finding local retailers; a man who has taken out a wholesale license, expecting to distribute beer for a foreign brewery, says that so far as he knows only two grocery stores and two drug stores will handle beer; it is rumored that "dry" supporters will boycott stores that sell beer.

100 years ago: April 4, 1908

Ed Albert is injured in a fire in a building occupied by the Good Hope Street Drug Store in Haarig; Albert, who is a boarder on the second floor of the building, receives his injury when he tries to take a reed organ down the back steps; weak from three days of illness, he loses his grip on the heavy instrument, and it falls against his head; the fire eats off the third floor of the building, before the flames can be extinguished.

Iva Jacobs, who has been at the telephone exchange for a considerable time, has resigned her position and leaves for her home at Tamaroa, Ill.

— Sharon K. Sanders