Two Allied cruisers met tragic fates on February 14, 1916, as the naval war intensified. The British cruiser HMS Arethusa, which had distinguished herself in the famous Battle of Heligoland just 18 months earlier, struck a mine off England's east coast and became a total wreck, though only ten men were lost. Meanwhile, the French cruiser Admiral Charner was torpedoed by a German submarine patrolling the Syrian coast on February 8th—a raft bearing one survivor and four bodies was all that remained of the crew. On the Western Front, fierce trench warfare continued with both sides claiming gains. German forces reported capturing 700 yards of French positions northwest of Tahure, taking seven officers and 300 prisoners, while French forces exploded mines between Neuville and La Folie. Back in America, diplomatic tensions mounted as the U.S. found itself in a delicate position regarding Germany's announcement that armed merchant ships would be attacked without warning starting March 1st.

This Valentine's Day edition captures America teetering on the edge of World War I. President Wilson was desperately trying to maintain neutrality while navigating increasingly impossible diplomatic waters—Germany's submarine warfare was escalating, and the U.S. had already suggested that armed merchant ships might be treated as warships in American ports. The detailed coverage of naval losses and trench warfare reflected Americans' growing awareness that this European conflict might soon become their own. Meanwhile, domestic issues were brewing as Colorado's new prohibition law threw hundreds of saloon workers out of jobs—a preview of the national upheaval that would come with the 18th Amendment in 1920.

• A life insurance actuary warned that 'the man who treats, as well as the man who indulges in alcoholic drink is a bad risk'—even buying drinks for others shortened your life expectancy according to 1916 insurance data
• The HMS Arethusa had been in service less than 18 hours after leaving the shipyard when she fought in one of the war's most important North Sea battles, and it was actually her torpedo that helped sink the German cruiser Blücher
• A masked robber in Germantown, Colorado forced two store employees to open a safe at gunpoint, then shot and killed Warren Smith when they couldn't open the inner door—Theodore Jensen was wounded in the shoulder
• Seattle's Queen Anne Hill was literally sliding toward the sea, with the earth subsiding 'two inches to two feet' and apartment houses getting twisted, though the large buildings on the bluff remained safe
• Jean Crones, assistant chef at Chicago's University Club, was wanted for putting poison in soup served at a dinner for Archbishop Mundelein—police found 'empty poison bottles and wrappers' suggesting scientific calculations to murder every guest

• The Arethusa mentioned in today's headlines was a 3,500-ton light cruiser—ironically, she was named after a Greek nymph who transformed into a spring to escape unwanted attention, but couldn't escape the German mines
• That insurance actuary's warning about 'treating' being deadly was prescient—within four years, the 18th Amendment would make buying drinks for others illegal anyway
• The General Electric munitions plant fire in Schenectady was kept so secret that company officials 'withheld all information' and didn't even report it to city authorities—industrial espionage fears were rampant as America armed the Allies
• Colorado's prohibition law mentioned in today's paper made it the eighth dry state—by 1919, thirty-three states would be dry even before national Prohibition took effect
• Those 'hand grenade fights' reported from the Western Front were becoming a signature of trench warfare—soldiers were literally throwing explosives at each other across no-man's-land like a deadly game of catch