ELATION, ANGER FOLLOW OUTCOME; `PRAISE THE LORD,' EXULT OPPONENTS

On the riverfront and at the West Park Mall Tuesday night, the reaction to the defeat of the riverboat gambling issue was surprise, elation and anger.

"Praise the Lord" were the first words out of the mouths of two gambling opponents when told the outcome of the election.

One of them was Angie Brown, who was downtown at the river with members of her family.

"I feel it would rape the community," she said.

She was concerned that the riverboat would have preyed on the poor and lower middle class.

"It would have sold the soul of Cape Girardeau," she said.

Some gambling proponents seemed angered by the outcome.

"I was surprised there were that many narrow-minded people in town that could hold a city hostage," said Don Greenwood, a Cape Girardeau artist.

"I wouldn't expect that of any business that would bring that many jobs to town."

Mike Stites, who works at the Cape Girardeau Country Club, echoed the theme of a missed economic opportunity.

"I can't believe people would turn down a free lunch. The same people who voted `no' on this are the same people who voted against Proposition B," he said.

Donna Palmer, a Southeast Missouri Hospital employee who was downtown for a walk, was pleased and surprised to hear the gambling issue had failed.

"I was concerned it was going to ruin the downtown," she said.

"I figured the merchants might pull (the election) off."

Stan Zielinski, a St. Louisan who attended school here 10 years ago, also was disappointed to hear the election results.

He was in Carbondale on business and came to Cape Girardeau for the evening. "The river always brings me back to Cape Girardeau," he said.

He was surprised by what he saw downtown. "It looks so dead here. All the neat businesses seem to have moved to the mall," he said.

Walking at the mall, 50-year-old Tom Ward was pleased to hear gambling was defeated. Ward, a barber, was concerned that drugs and prostitution would follow the boat.

"I thought, `We've got a nice town,' and wanted to keep it that way."

Workers in the shops, however, generally had different views. Darlene Park described her reaction as "sad."

"It seemed like the city as a whole was so positive about it," she said.

Capt. Elmer Trapp of the Salvation Army was gladdened by the outcome, and said Cape Girardeau's population of born-again Christians differentiates it from other parts of the country.

"You have to work at a quality of life like this," he said. "It just doesn't happen."

Trapp said he did not preach against the gambling boat. "People know at the Salvation Army that riverboat gambling is wrong," he said.

Earl Brock, a retiree from Cape Girardeau, didn't vote on the issue. "It didn't matter to me," he said. But Brock predicts that riverboat gambling will resurface somewhere in the vicinity.

"You'll see one going in on the other side in East Cape," he said.