Police corruption exploded into the headlines as two New York cops were caught red-handed in an elaborate sting operation. Commissioner Mathot and District Attorney Murphy orchestrated a trap using Patrolman Donoghue as bait after Daily News reporter Price allegedly demanded $200 to use his influence for police promotions. The dramatic bust unfolded across the street from Police Headquarters, with Mathot watching from Deputy Commissioner Waldo's window as marked $50 bills changed hands. When officers stormed Price's room, he threw money under a table while Patrolman Bryan bolted down the stairs and into the subway, hurling evidence onto the tracks as Mathot pursued him. Meanwhile, another corruption scandal erupted as 17-year police veteran William Sheehan was arrested for allegedly concealing evidence in a murder case. In a separate sting, detectives gave Mrs. Parron marked bills to pay Sheehan for his silence about statements a victim made before her death. The front page also featured President Roosevelt writing to a Democratic woman in Texas, dismissing party politics as 'mighty small importance' compared to being 'good Americans,' and Brooklyn discovering that private water companies had been secretly siphoning thousands of gallons daily from city pipes.

These corruption scandals reflect the broader Progressive Era battle against urban political machines and graft that defined early 20th-century American cities. Police departments nationwide were riddled with corruption, taking bribes from gambling houses, saloons, and anyone needing favors. Roosevelt's letter exemplifies his presidency's emphasis on civic virtue over partisan politics—a theme that would define his 1912 Bull Moose campaign just six years later. The water theft story illustrates the chaotic infrastructure of rapidly growing cities, where private utilities often operated with minimal oversight. Brooklyn's population had exploded from 566,000 to over 1.3 million in just three decades, straining services and creating opportunities for the kind of systematic theft described here.

• The police corruption sting was timed during a police parade when 'there would be nobody around Headquarters' - the irony of cops getting busted while their colleagues marched in formation
• Commissioner Mathot withdrew four $50 bills from his own bank account to mark as evidence - that's roughly $6,400 in today's money for the sting operation
• A subway porter, thinking Patrolman Bryan might jump onto the tracks to escape, 'hurried over from the southbound side and put a red light on the north local track'
• Brooklyn was losing an estimated 50,000 gallons of water daily to theft - residents of Ridgewood Heights were 'compelled at times to melt ice to get water even for drinking purposes'
• The house where Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox was 'carefully torn down several years ago' for the St. Louis World's Fair, but the timbers and bricks just sat on the ground while 'relic hunters' carried off pieces

• That $200 bribe Price demanded would be worth about $6,400 today - a hefty sum for a police promotion that shows how lucrative corruption had become
• The marked $50 bills used in the sting were enormous money in 1906 - equivalent to about $1,600 each today, when the average worker made $500 per year
• President Roosevelt's letter dismissing party politics as 'mighty small importance' foreshadowed his 1912 break from the Republican Party to form the Progressive 'Bull Moose' Party
• Chicago's gnat swarm was so bad that a butcher 'swatted at a pack of gnats and smashed a glass panel in an icebox' - these periodic insect invasions were a regular feature of Great Lakes summers
• The Appomattox surrender house preservation effort with just $500 capital would fail - the historic building's remains were eventually lost to souvenir hunters and decay