Out of the past: May 27

1994

John Mehner and Ma Zhong speak the same language when it comes to economic development; Zhong, secretary-general of Shaoxing, China, visited Cape Girardeau this week as part of a four-member delegation of officials from Cape Girardeau's new sister city.

Two men bought over $400 worth of baby formula from the Cape Girardeau National Food store yesterday, illustrating a problem local grocers have been experiencing; out-of-town shoppers apparently are buying baby formula by the caseload for resale elsewhere; the mass purchases leave retailers here without enough infant formula to cover their regular customers.

1969

CAIRO, Ill. -- Mayor Lee P. Stenzel appoints a police chief after more incidents of violence and a demand by 200 residents for better law enforcement in the strife-ridden town; William Peterson, former police chief at Alton, Illinois, will take over Cairo's force June 15; Carl J. Clutts is resigning that day.

Mayor Ivan Irvin calls upon officials of department stores and supermarkets here to "search their consciences" before staying open on Memorial Day, as local veterans' groups also voice disapproval of the announced plan; Irvin says he thinks it "is a shame when the dollar gets more important than the purpose and meaning given holidays and retail merchants, as a general rule, begin staying open on these days."

1944

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Emmet McBride, a veteran of the World War, is in the veterans' hospital at Marion, Illinois, having suffered a poisonous snake bite yesterday afternoon while fishing in the Little River Diversion Channel near his Blomeyer home; it is believed he will survive the bite of what may have been a cotton-mouth moccasin.

The Excelsior Furniture and Music Co., has purchased the adjoining building at the corner of Broadway and Frederick Street, occupied on the first floor by the Singer Sewing Machine Co. and on the second and third floors by apartments, from E.G. Gramling; no changes will be made in the occupancy of the building at the present time.

1919

BOSTON -- Fourteen days after leaving German soil, the 314th Engineers of the 89th Division landed here yesterday aboard the battleship Montana; the soldiers will bet taken to Camp Grant at Rockford, Illinois, for discharge; many from Cape Girardeau County and other Southeast Missouri counties are in the 314th Engineers.

The school children of St. Vincent's Young Ladies Academy give a program in the afternoon honoring Mother Placide; among the girls taking part are Hazel Huhn, Rosebud Ralph, Helen Bogey, Genevieve Harkness, Genevieve Diebold, Lucille Howard, Roberta Crutcher, Josephine Tyler, Mary Holland, Elizabeth Roberson, Ida Mae Farris, Muriel Farrell, Cora Crisel, Fannie Flautt, Hilda Palmer, Marion Bogey, Leona Ralph, Elode Medley and Ruth Ross

-- Sharon K. Sanders