New Year's Day 1926 in Indianapolis brought both celebration and crime to the Circle City. While parents William and Mrs. Keough welcomed the city's first baby of 1926 at Methodist Hospital just after midnight, the streets told a different story. Multiple hold-ups and burglaries marked the year's violent beginning, including a Negro bandit who attacked grocer Charles Mack and his wife with a blunt instrument on Paris Avenue, sending Mack to the hospital. Motorcycle Officer Clifford Beeker fired three shots at close range at another hold-up man near Riverside Park but the criminal escaped into the night. Meanwhile, luxury and hardship sat side by side in the new year's economy. Wealthy Indianapolis residents paid an astronomical $2 to $2.50 per quart for Florida strawberries — nearly 5 cents per berry — to garnish their New Year's cocktails, while county officials celebrated a massive $791,649.70 increase in gasoline tax receipts, reflecting the booming automobile culture. The Big Four Railroad bid farewell to engineer Charles N. Zepp after an remarkable 56 years of service, as new Republican county commissioners took office and Marion County taxes climbed over $1.2 million from the previous year.

This front page captures America at the height of the Roaring Twenties' contradictions. The astronomical strawberry prices and cocktail culture reflect the era's unprecedented prosperity and conspicuous consumption, while Prohibition drove the creative use of 'fruit cocktails' that likely contained more than fruit. The surge in gasoline tax revenue tells the story of America's love affair with the automobile — by 1926, car ownership was transforming from luxury to necessity. Yet beneath the prosperity lurked the social tensions that would define the decade. The crime wave starting the new year hints at the urban problems accompanying rapid modernization, while the changing of political guard in Indianapolis reflects the broader Republican dominance that characterized the business-friendly 1920s.

• Florida strawberries sold for $2-$2.50 per quart in Indianapolis — with about fifty berries per box, that's nearly 5 cents per individual strawberry for New Year's cocktails
• A grocery store burglar at 2867 Central Avenue made off with exactly $1.80 in pennies — imagine lugging all those coins
• Charles N. Zepp started working for the Big Four Railroad at age 14 and became an engineer by 20, retiring after 56 years of service
• The final quarterly settlement by county courts collected $45,744.64, with deputy city clerk John Ambuhl writing 'Goodby' in red ink on the ledger for his final collection
• Marion County processed 75,951,906 gallons of gasoline in the final quarter of 1925 — an increase of 2,625,911 gallons over 1924

• That $2.50 strawberry splurge equals about $40 per quart today — proving wealthy Americans have always paid ridiculous prices for out-of-season fruit
• The 75+ million gallons of gasoline consumed in Marion County represents the explosion of car culture — Henry Ford's assembly line had made cars affordable, and by 1926 there was one car for every five Americans
• Schloss Brothers Clothing store was being replaced by a J.G. McCrory 5-and-10-cent store — part of the retail revolution that would eventually become modern discount chains like Walmart
• The Big Four Railroad that employed Charles Zepp for 56 years was formally known as the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway — it would be absorbed by the New York Central system within a decade
• Those municipal courts taking over operations were part of Progressive Era reforms to modernize city government and reduce corruption in local justice systems