Out of the past 8/2/09

25 years ago: Aug. 2, 1984

Area farmers tour the Biokyowa plant on Nash Road in the morning during the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce business-farm tour.

Interviewing of hourly worker applicants for employment at the new Venture store in West Park mall will continue through tomorrow, says store manager Stanley Schmidt; the interviews are being conducted at the Arena Building; thus far, about 1,200 people have made application for employment.

50 years ago: Aug. 2, 1959

Attorney General John M. Dalton of Kennett, Mo., addressed 162 summer graduates of State College at ceremonies yesterday evening on the campus of Academic Hall; Dalton spoke from a platform erected on the steps of Academic Hall, facing the graduates seated in folding chairs on the lawn.

The familiar whistle of the early morning Cotton Belt passenger train isn't heard by Illmo residents; a derailment at Marmaduke, Ark., delays the train until the afternoon.

75 years ago: Aug. 2, 1934

Cape Girardeau County's problem of helping the unemployed get work is being solved to a degree with construction projects, a portion of them dotting Cape Girardeau; work relief jobs, city street building and private tasks are providing unemployed heads of families with something to do; while the weekly time limit is 15 hours in most instances, 325 men and women are earning small incomes where there had been little or no money earned a few months ago.

A delegation of 100 citizens of Chester, Ill., traveling in 25 automobiles, is expected in Cape Girardeau late this afternoon on a good will tour; a 30-mile scenic tour of the city awaits the guests.

100 years ago: Aug. 2, 1909

It begins to look as though the few property owners on Main Street who aren't in favor of paving will enjoin the Cape Girardeau City Council from proceeding with the work; most who oppose the work object to paying for paving between the street car tracks.

The Cape Girardeau City Council, on a vote of 5 to 3, decides to buy the gasoline street roller which has been having a test trial on the streets of the city for the past 18 days; cost of the machine is $2,500.

-- Sharon K. Sanders