Out of the past: May 25

1993

If Cape Girardeau voters approve riverboat gambling June 8, city officials will have to decide the best use of local revenue from riverboat proceeds; Councilman Al Spradling III says two projects would top his list: The resurrection or demolition of the old Saint Francis Hospital building and the Marquette Hotel.

A Burlington Northern Railroad work crew has reopened the Sloan's Creek floodgate; it had been closed since April 16 because of the rising level of the Mississippi River.

1968

High above Frederick street, Boyd Hobbs, Cape Girardeau steeplejack, cleans a clock face on the tower of Trinity Lutheran Church.

Boyd Hobbs, a Cape Girardeau steeplejack, cleans the clock faces on the tower of Trinity Lutheran Church; Hobbs' contract includes cleaning the bronze numerals and hands and the background of the four-sided clock, and to repaint the wood both above and below the clock faces; Hobbs dangles in a bosun's chair 150 feet above the street to accomplish his labors.

A new dimension has been added to the field of driver education at Cape Girardeau Central High School with the purchase of a 12-unit driver simulator; the trainers are designed to bridge the gap between classroom and behind-the-wheel training.

1943

The Mississippi River continues to spread over thousands of additional acres of fertile Southern Illinois farm lands, whose protective dikes it smashed Sunday night, as it rolls on toward a projected crest between 41 and 41.6 feet Thursday at Cape Girardeau; the river here is at 40.4 feet; south of Cape Girardeau, members of the military and civilian staffs at Harris Field, the Army Air Forces training center, are using boats to reach the airfield; motorboats are doing ferry service on Highway 61 along the inundated half-mile stretch.

Forced by the flood to suspend operations, the Cape Girardeau plant of the Marquette Cement Co. is being ringed about by a huge levee to keep out the water; working in shifts, from 150 to 200 men are building the sandbag levee and manning pumping equipment in a united effort to keep the flood out of the quarries.

1918

The water company here is having more trouble; a big pipe which leads from one settling basin to another broke the other night; it was necessary to drain the basins to make repairs, which has taken two days; during this time, the water had to be pumped direct from the river.

The women of the Civic Improvement Association give a social in the evening at Courthouse Park, which will benefit the local Red Cross chapter; the ladies service ice cream and strawberries, the latter being donated by Frank Lawler; a chorus of 80 voices performs.

-- Sharon K. Sanders