A devastating accident aboard the USS Kearsarge near Cuba has killed six naval personnel, including Lieutenant J.M. Hudgins of Washington, during what should have been routine target practice. Three sections of a 13-inch gun charge ignited in the forward turret while powder was being loaded below, suffocating or burning the men trapped inside. Lieutenant Joseph W. Graeme, serving as gun umpire, suffered injuries so severe his recovery remains doubtful. Captain Herbert Winslow's dispatch to the Navy Department reveals the cause remains unknown, though investigators suspect smoldering powder from a previous shot may have triggered the disaster. Meanwhile, Russian revolutionary author Maxim Gorky finds himself persona non grata in New York hotels after newspapers revealed his traveling companion isn't actually his wife, but actress Mile Andriera. First kicked out of the Hotel Belleclaire, then refused service at the Hotel Lafayette Brevoort, Gorky and his party ended up taking rooms at 12 Fifth Avenue. The author issued a defiant statement calling the scandal 'dirt inspired by friends of the Russian Government,' insisting 'my wife is my wife' regardless of legal formalities.

These stories capture America in 1906 grappling with its emerging role as a global naval power while maintaining strict Victorian moral codes. The Kearsarge tragedy reflects the dangerous realities of the Navy's aggressive modernization under Theodore Roosevelt, as the Great White Fleet prepared to demonstrate American strength worldwide. Meanwhile, Gorky's hotel troubles reveal the collision between America's growing sympathy for foreign revolutionaries and its deeply conservative social values—even prominent Americans who supported Russian freedom fighters drew the line at unmarried cohabitation.

• The newspaper costs just 5 cents but runs a hefty 42 pages—that's less than $1.50 in today's money for what would be a premium Sunday edition
• A municipal ferryboat's whistle got stuck while crossing to Staten Island, blowing continuously and confusing other boat captains who couldn't tell which direction the Richmond was turning
• Auto racer Barney Oldfield remarried just two days after his divorce was finalized, showing up in Houston with a 'good looking' blonde second wife
• The paper advertises California round-trip train tickets for just $75—roughly $2,400 today for a cross-country journey on the 'Black Diamond Express'

• Lieutenant Hudgins killed in the Kearsarge disaster had served at the American Embassy in London and was conducting wireless telegraph tests—the Navy was just beginning to adopt radio technology that would revolutionize naval warfare
• The accident occurred exactly two years after the USS Missouri's turret explosion killed 30 sailors, making April 13-15 a particularly cursed period for Navy gunnery practice
• Gorky's hotel scandal foreshadowed America's complex relationship with Russian revolutionaries—within months, the same moral authorities would be debating whether to support or suppress labor radicals at home
• That $75 California train ticket was being advertised just days after the San Francisco earthquake (April 18, 1906)—though the paper didn't know it yet, those trains would soon be carrying relief supplies instead of tourists
• The Kearsarge's target practice was part of Roosevelt's massive naval buildup—by 1907, America would have the world's second-largest navy, trailing only Britain