Out of the past: Aug. 16

1990

Speaking out against a proposed union, a group of employees from Blair Industries says the union wouldn't be to their advantage; the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union is working to unionize the plant, and a vote will be taken Aug. 24.

Randall Warren, a native of Southeast Missouri and graduate of Kelly High School, is one of about 3,000 Americans who are being kept from leaving Iraq and Kuwait, the small nation Iraq invaded two weeks ago; Warren, a veteran construction worker, left the U.S. in May to return to Kuwait, where he has been working most of the past seven or eight years.

1965

Cause of the fire that destroyed the Jim Wilson Co. warehouse early Saturday -- called the worst single blaze here in terms of dollar loss in 29 years -- remains unknown; the company, a wholesale distributor of automotive parts and tires, is moving back into its former quarters at 224 N. Spanish St.; a new warehouse will be built on the site of the destroyed one, at Spring and Themis streets.

Male Girardeans are paying 25 cents more for haircuts today, but few think they're getting clipped; barbers say their customers are making a few cutting remarks about the price hike to $1.75, but most feel the rate boost is justified.

1940

Robert L. Taylor, 94, a resident of Cape Girardeau County 88 years, died at his home on Themis Street yesterday; formerly a merchant here, he also supervised operation of his farm 7 miles north of the city until his health began to fail; Taylor was a descendant of American pioneers, his family first settling in Virginia and later moving to Tennessee.

An office of the Cape Girardeau District Fair opens at the Arena Building at the new city park, where the fair will be held Sept. 24 through 29.

1915

Cape Girardeau doesn't have a hoodlum wagon to haul miscreants to jail, but the police force here is a modern affair; instead of walking those inebriated on too much bug juice to the calaboose, officers are now walking them up Broadway to Black's garage; there, they hire an automobile to chauffeur officer and drunk to the jail house.

S.D. McFarland, formerly superintendent of the shoe factory here, comes down from St. Louis in the morning to spend time with friends; his oldest daughter, Grace, came down a week ago to visit her aunt, Mrs. Burrette Oliver; father and daughter leave together in the afternoon.

-- Sharon K. Sanders