Out of the past 9/25/05

25 years ago: Sept. 25, 1980

For the first time in the university's history, the enrollment at Southeast Missouri State University has topped the 9,000 mark according to official enrollment figures for the current semester presented to the school's board of regents; registrar Alton Bray reports there are 9,135 full-time and part-time graduate and undergraduate students on campus, 476 more students than last fall.

Somewhere in the Cape Girardeau area, amidst the green foliage, there lurks an exotic South American bird that was being tested for a deadly, contagious disease that affects poultry and fowl.

50 years ago: Sept. 25, 1955

A common sight in years gone by, but rare in recent times, a river steamer ties up at the Cape Girardeau wharf, attracting considerable attention; the steamer, the Delta Queen out of Cincinnati, Ohio, is en route there after a cruise to St. Paul, Minn., with more than 100 passengers; the stop here is for passengers to attend church services.

In a special school election yesterday, voters of the Millersville School District passed an $80,000 bond issue to build a school; voters also chose the site for the new school -- a six-acre tract east of Millersville.

75 years ago: Sept. 25, 1930

James T. Blair of Jefferson City, Mo., president of the Missouri Bar Association, who is in Cape Girardeau making arrangements for the annual convention in this city, will referee the Teachers College opening football game Oct. 3 with Carbondale (Ill.) College, when the new stadium is dedicated.

While scores of men, aided by bloodhounds brought from Cape Girardeau, search the neighborhood of Whitewater for 14-year-old Raymond Rhodes, the youth returns home; Rhodes, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Rhodes, disappeared late Wednesday without telling his parents his plans; upon his return, he reveals he had spent the night in a railroad boxcar at Laflin, Mo.

100 years ago: Sept. 25, 1905

Cape Girardeau has suffered a commercial loss; merchants of the city, probably without realizing it, have allowed a responsible concern to discontinue business for lack of patronage, and the fruit commission firm of Catern & Haas retires from business.

The Rev. Olin Boggess, pastor of the local Methodist Episcopal Church South, has been transferred to Sikeston, Mo.

-- Sharon K. Sanders