Out of the past: Aug. 15

1994

A tome containing 1,400 pages of complex health care reform is more than U.S. Sens. Kit Bond, R-Missouri, and Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, can stomach; neither senator will endorse the Clinton-Mitchell health care reform package because, they say, it gives too much power to Washington while it takes decision-making away from the American public; Bond and Mitchell were in Cape Girardeau on Sunday for a press conference at Saint Francis Medical Center.

Cape Girardeau will soon have a new billiards hall: Broadway Billiards will open next week at 731 Broadway. Owner Craig Horky hopes to attract serious pool players.

1969

The Mississippi River bridge here is taking on a multi-colored look as painting continues; many automobiles traveling across it are taking on new colors as well; the workers from Clark Painting Co., of Bridgeton, Missouri, are applying an aluminum paint (silver) to the span, covering over the bright orange base coat; numerous travelers have complained about paint falling on their cars.

The new Ramada Inn, Interstate 55 and Gordonville Road, though weeks away from final completion, did finish out 48 rooms along its north wing and made these available to guests last night, easing the guest housing in the city; the inn’s first guests were Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Freed, who operate a 600-acre farm near Lexington, Illinois.

1944

Master Baking Co. of Mt. Vernon, Illinois, has purchased the Bauer Baking Co., 700 Broadway, which has been in continuous operation in one location here for 45 years; ownership of the building was retained by Chris Bauer, with the new firm taking a seven-year lease on the structure; the name of the firm will change to Master Baking Co.

The city of Cape Girardeau is informed in a letter by the lands division of the Department of Justice that an appeal will be taken by the federal government in Cape Girardeau post office site case; defendant Iska W. Carmack won in Federal Court, contending the city was without authority to transfer a site in Courthouse Park to the government on which to build a new structure.

1919

A barn belonging to W.G. Polack on North Fountain Street was destroyed by fire yesterday afternoon; the top of an Overland automobile, which was stored in the barn, was ruined, but the rest of the car was uninjured.

Yesterday’s announcement in The Missourian that the free toll over the phone lines between Jackson and Cape Girardeau has been abolished by the State Utilities Commission has created a stir in Jackson; it is argued that henceforth it will be useless for any city to make any sort of contract with a corporation, if the commission has a right to eliminate any condition of such contract.

­— Sharon K. Sanders