Out of the past: Feb. 25

1999

Members of the Cape Girardeau Board of Education favor many of the redistricting changes proposed by its Attendance Area Study Committee, but oppose any changes that would separate neighborhoods; the board likely will decide new school boundaries in April after receiving public input.

A leading telecommunications service company, which has requested anonymity, has expressed an interest in locating a center in Cape Girardeau if workers can be found to fill more than 250 position; Mitch Robinson, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association, says, even with a low unemployment rate in this county, "We have workers to fill the type of jobs offered by the tele-service company."

1974

"Operation Fill-Up," an intensive statewide recruiting campaign conducted Feb. 2-17 by the Missouri National Guard to enlist at least 700 new guardsmen and -women, was a success statewide, but fell short of its goal with one of Cape Girardeau's units; Headquarters Company of the 1140th Engineer Battalion at the Guard armory here interviewed 70 persons and enlisted 14 of these during the drive, but is still 16 persons short of its authorized strength of 214.

Andrew Allen Bollack, 80, one of the founders of Central Packing Co. here and active in civic and community affairs, died Sunday at the Lutheran Home after an illness of eight years; in 1937, Bollack, Arthur Hermann and the late Joseph A. Francis purchased and operated the Miles Packing House, which later became Central Packing Co. and is now Central Foods Inc. in South Cape Girardeau.

1949

Southeast Missourian archive

Deemed "indecent" and unfit for children to read, hundreds of comic books and magazines went up in flames yesterday afternoon during a ceremony at St. Mary's High School to inaugurate a city-wide campaign seeking ultimately to ban all such material; the campaign was initiated by Senior Troop 29 of the Girl Scouts and launched in St. Mary's High and Grade schools; as fire consumed the collection, the pupils took a pledge to neither read nor purchase objectionable publications and to stay away from retail establishments where such items are sold.

Professor A.C. Magill, chairman of the County School Board, spoke to the Optimist Club last night, giving reasons why it is necessary to reorganize the county's public schools; he noted that 11 districts are not operating schools; two have only two pupils enrolled and two others have only four pupils; 13 schools have from five to nine children enrolled; pupils in rural schools, when they finish the eighth grade, have had the equivalent of only a sixth-grade education, as compared to children in city schools.

1924

A new wage scale for union carpenters, plasterers, bricklayers and painters will go into effect in Cape Girardeau within the next two months, says a local union officer; a 25-cent increase on the hour for all union carpenters, giving them a scale of $1 an hour, is scheduled to go into effect here March 1; union plasterers will also get a quarter increase, placing their wage at $1.25 per hour, effective April 1; brick masons will see a 25-cent increase as well to $1.50 an hour; painters are reported ready to ask for an increase of 10 cents an hour, increasing their hourly wage from 75 to 85 cents.

Simon P. Loeb, newspaper man of Charleston and head of the Loeb Bill Posting Co., while in Cape Girardeau, declares he is preparing to erect 21 new sign boards here within the next few weeks; the boards, he says, will be used to a great extent by local businessmen; Loeb already has 55 billboards in Cape Girardeau.

-- Sharon K. Sanders