Out of the past: Sept. 18

1998

The grandstand was sold out last night for Willie Nelson's performance at the SEMO District Fair, with only empty seats in the bleachers; Nelson, 65, and his band played nearly 2 1/2 hours and covered almost all of his hits in a 44-song set that began with "Whiskey River" and ended with "I Saw the Light"; Kenny Chesney plays in front of the grandstand tonight.

A five-unit apartment complex was destroyed by fire yesterday afternoon on a county road north of Cape Girardeau; no one was injured; firefighters from East County and the Fruitland fire districts, along with the city of Cape Girardeau, responded to the fire at 1112 County Road 735 shortly after 4 p.m.; with no hydrants in the area, the rural firefighters had to transport water to the scene from a nearby pond in tanker trucks.

1973

Lt. Gov. William C. Phelps yesterday continued his running battle of words with Sen. William J. Carson, president pro tem of the Missouri Senate, over who has the right to preside over the upper house of the Legislature; speaking to the Cape Girardeau Rotary Club, a forum Carson also used a few weeks ago, Phelps said the matter is constitutional, not political, in nature, and he expects the Supreme Court to rule in his favor.

Two masked men armed with shotguns enter Cape La Croix Manor, a nursing home on Boutin Lane, just after 1 a.m. and force the night nurse to give them an undetermined amount of drugs.

1948

Hailed as the best in its long history, the SEMO District Fair nears an end, with indications that another large crowd will be on hand this afternoon and tonight at Arena Park; this morning, one of the final attractions of regional interest was the 4-H Club baby beef auction sale; this afternoon will be a concert by the Perryville (Missouri) High School Band, followed by the final horse racing card.

The three-week registration of men 18 through 25 years of age for possible military service will be concluded at 5 this afternoon with the final figure expected to show approximately 2,500 men registering in Cape Girardeau County; Chief Clerk Robert Altenthal of the Cape Girardeau County Selective Service Board reminds men that hereafter they must report to draft headquarters in the Buckner-Ragsdale Building at Main Street and Broadway to register when they reach their 18th birthday or within five days thereafter.

1923

A brief shower greets fairgoers in the morning, settling the dust on the midway and the race track on the opening day of the Cape Fair; cattle, hogs and other stock are being groomed for the judging tomorrow; the big Nat Reiss carnival, covering the entire south section of Fairground Park, got underway last night, a day ahead of schedule; tomorrow, Cape Day, will feature the arrival of the big Army dirigible TC-3 in the morning; after circling the city, it will land in the race track in front of the grandstand.

A change in the plans for the last link of the outlet pipe for the West End sewer, necessitating an extra expenditure of nearly $900, was approved by the Cape Girardeau City Council yesterday; instead of a 21-inch concrete pipe originally used, the change calls for the installation of nearly 100 feet of 16-inch cast iron pipe in the last link of the outlet sewer, where it empties into the Mississippi River one mile southeast of town; the switch was made because the river was "eating out" the concrete pipe, eroding away the soil under the pipe and causing it to settle and collapse.

-- Sharon K. Sanders