Out of the past: Dec. 29

1995

A few more big checks in the mail could put the Cape Girardeau Salvation Army over the top of its $150,000 1995 Tree of Lights goal; as of Thursday, the local group was $10,200 short of this year’s goal, which was $25,000 higher than last year’s; the Tree of Lights campaign, slated to end Dec. 31, will be extended a week into January in hopes of collecting the remainder.

If they wait until the last minute to mail their county tax payments, taxpayers will find themselves delinquent; that’s because the Postal Service won’t cancel mail on the Dec. 31 deadline, which is a Sunday; County Collector Harold Kuehle said taxpayers need to mail their tax payments by Saturday.

1970

Plans for a 60-bed nursing home to serve Cape Girardeau and Perry counties and surrounding areas comes a step nearer to completion with the announcement of the signing of a contract with Drury Construction Co. of Cape Girardeau for the construction and equipping of the home; the home will be built through a non-profit corporation, the Lutheran Home for the Aged, along Bloomfield Road, one-half mile west of Highway 61.

PERRYVILLE, Mo. — The City of Perryville yesterday agreed to pay $54,000 in damages to a Perry County farmer who claimed 2,000 to 3,000 of his hogs died as a result of drinking from a stream allegedly polluted by waste from a Perryville sewer disposal plant; the city agreed to pay the sum in two installments after negotiating with Frederick A. Bergman in and out of court for nearly three years.

1945

Thieves, forcing a door and chipping through an 8-inch wall, took whiskey with a retail value of $11,076 in a pre-New Year’s burglary of the Moon Distributing Co. plant on Highway 61 last night; the burglary is discovered this morning; approximately 192 cases of liquor were trucked away during the night.

Two sturdy contenders, the rangy lads from Flat River High and the Preps of Cape Girardeau College High, will battle it out in Houck Field House tonight for the championship of the holiday basketball tournament, which started four days ago with 16 teams vying for top honors.

1920

On her birthday, observed a few days ago, Mrs. Isaac Austin Smith, 737 Themis St., received a personal letter from President-elect Warren G. Harding; it thanked her for sending him a four-line poem she had written and for the sentiment expressed in the verse.

It’s cleaning day at the city jail; chief W.J. Segraves cleans out all the lockers, burns trash that had accumulated and gave away much clothing that had been held there for about a year; a poor woman living on Broadway, whose husband deserted her some time ago with three small children, was given the clothing; a lot of old epidemic flags that are no longer used in the health and safety departments, are burned; cards are now used as a warning that contagious diseases prevail.

­— Sharon K. Sanders