Out of the past: April 23

1998

JEFFERSON CITY -- The Missouri House yesterday restored $1.5 million in funding for construction of a vocational-technical school in Cape Girardeau; on a voice vote, the House added the money to the $150,000 that the Budget Committee had earmarked for the project; the funding was restored as part of action on a capital projects spending bill.

Students at St. Mary Cathedral School took a walk around the world Wednesday, when the St. Louis Science Center's Big Map came to the school; the exhibit was brought to St. Mary's to celebrate the Model School designation received last month by the schools' Reading Recovery program; the Big Map, a 70-by-35-foot map of the world, was displayed on the school's gymnasium floor, and students were allowed to take off their shoes and literally walk across mountain ranges and island hop as they learned about Earth's geographical features and cultural diversity.

1973

An around-the clock flood fight is once again underway throughout the area as the rain-swollen Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau rises toward another record crest, forcing hundreds of flood-weary persons from their homes, many for the second time within three weeks; at Kaskaskia, Island, the situation is worsening, and the Army Corps of Engineers fears the severely wavewashed levee at the north end of the island may not hold; all of the island's 150 inhabitants were evacuated Monday, along with belongings, livestock and farm machinery.

Only local traffic is being allowed to cross the Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau; Illinois Highway 146, about a quarter of a mile from the bridge, is flooded as are other sections of the highway; the closing of Highway 146 and Highway 3, both north and south of the 146-3 junction, virtually ends transient traffic across the bridge here.

1948

The body of T-4 Everett S. Stallings, killed in action in France July 27, 1944, is scheduled to arrive here Monday afternoon from the Memphis (Tennessee) Distribution Center; a prayer service will be held Tuesday afternoon at the Haman Funeral Home; military services will be conducted at Memorial Park by the Lloyd Dale Clippard Veterans of Foreign War Post and the National Guard.

Observers are making their best estimates on how much honey might be stored by an industrious swarm of bees, which for a year has inhabited a walled-in window of the old Opera House building, Broadway and Lorimier Street; last spring, the bees chose a tiny entrance in the brick-enclosed frame and have since used it as a hive; evidently behind the bricks in the old window casing a considerable store of honey has been manufactured.

1923

The steamer Aliquippa, towing three wooden barges loaded with steel for St. Louis delivery, tied up in Cape Girardeau a short time yesterday, leaving late in the afternoon to arrive in St. Louis tomorrow; the boat, towing the barges from Pittsburgh, marked the restoration of water transportation on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, according to St. Louis river men; business men with interests on freight shipments by water believe the trip is destined to be an opening wedge for more complete restoration of service between the two cities.

One hundred and twenty-five persons, representing various towns in Southeast Missouri, have enrolled for work in the Standard Training School for Religious Education and will attend the nightly sessions to be held at Cape Girardeau Central High School.

-- Sharon K. Sanders