Out of the past 9/23/11

25 years ago: Sept. 23, 1986

The Cape Girardeau County Commission has established the general revenue tax rate at zero for the fifth consecutive year, forgiving about $150,000 in taxes it could collect from 1986 tax bills.

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- After several delays, repair work on the Highway 77 railroad overpass between Chaffee and Blomeyer, Mo., is underway; a slurry mix is being pumped into the earthen overpass, where it will hold the soil together to prevent additional earth slides.

50 years ago: Sept. 23, 1961

Parents of Cape Girardeau schoolchildren this week received copies of a brochure prepared by the school board "so that you may know and understand our needs and the importance of immediate action" in passing the upcoming bond issue; the funds will provide for a new junior high school, 14 additional elementary classrooms, remodeling of the current junior high for a seventh-grade center, and for special and vocational education and to purchase school sites for the future.

Jack Tarter, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jess Tarter of Cape Girardeau, Thursday began boot training at Great Lakes Naval Training Station as the first Southeast Missouri man to pass an audition for entrance to the U.S. Naval School of Music at Washington, D.C.

75 years ago: Sept. 23, 1936

Pinball or marble amusement machines have bobbed up again and threaten to cause trouble; a complaint to Cape Girardeau police was made that schoolchildren are playing the machines, using money they can't afford to spend.

SIKESTON, Mo. -- One of the original Rust Bros. cotton-picking machines, which is designed to take the lint from cotton plants in rapid fashion, has been brought to the Grover Baker farm near here for a demonstration; it was demonstrated in the South earlier this season, attracting nationwide attention.

100 years ago: Sept. 23, 1911

The Republican is in receipt of a telegram from Capt. Thomas S. Baldwin, the famous aviator, sent from Cassopolis, Mich., stating his aeroplane is being shipped from that point, and that he will arrive here on time for his aerial demonstrations at the fair.

There are 100 head of beef cattle in stock pens waiting for the departure of the steamer Cape Girardeau this evening, to be taken to the St. Louis market.

-- Sharon K. Sanders