Maine's front page on April Fool's Day 1926 is dominated by a brewing political scandal as Sheriff Henry F. Cummings faces removal hearings before Governor Ralph O. Brewster's executive council. State police chief Kenner H. Field and his officers, who brought charges of 'nonfeasance in office' against the Kennebec County sheriff, are set to testify when proceedings resume Friday. The defense is calling these very officers as witnesses in what promises to be a dramatic confrontation. Meanwhile, a bizarre marital triangle unfolds in Milwaukee, where a judge ruled that a married woman has the right to 'make love to her deceased husband' through séances. Mrs. Mary Czachorowskt's spiritualist devotion to her first husband's ghost became grounds for her second husband's divorce suit, but the judge sided with her supernatural romance. Elsewhere, Harvard Law School launches an ambitious $5 million fundraising campaign for legal research facilities, while Arctic explorers Captain George Hubert Wilkins and Lieutenant Carl Eielson take off from Fairbanks for Point Barrow with 3,000 pounds of supplies for their polar expedition.

This April 1926 front page captures America in transition during the height of the Roaring Twenties. The Maine sheriff scandal reflects the era's ongoing struggles with law enforcement and political corruption, while Prohibition enforcement remained a contentious issue nationwide. The spiritualism story from Milwaukee taps into the decade's fascination with the supernatural and changing social mores around marriage and personal freedom. The Harvard fundraising drive represents the 1920s boom in institutional expansion and faith in scientific progress, while the Arctic expedition embodies the era's spirit of exploration and technological advancement through aviation. These stories collectively show an America grappling with modernization, moral boundaries, and the expanding possibilities of the post-war world.

• A fisherman on the schooner Lark made $156 for just seven days' work on Georges Bank — that's over $22 per day when most workers earned far less, bringing in 42,000 pounds of haddock and 44,000 pounds of cod
• The Bath Iron Works, a $2 million shipbuilding plant, is going under the hammer on April 5-7, with hotels already booked by 'big figures in the industrial world' hoping to snap up the facility at 'almost objectionably low' prices
• University of Kansas chorus girls were ordered to cover their bare knees during a student production called 'Wango Pango,' but couldn't find stockings long enough, so performed anyway with gaps between their trunks and hosiery
• Editor John L. Fish of the Skowhegan Independent Reporter is leaving newspaper work after 15 years to open an antiques business with Frank York of Athens
• The newspaper costs just three cents, and a classified ad promises to 'deliver your message'

• Those Arctic explorers taking off for Point Barrow? Captain Wilkins would become the first person to fly across the Arctic Ocean just two years later, earning a knighthood from King George V
• The New Haven Railroad's reported $7.4 million profit sounds impressive, but President E. P. Pearson noted they were still $73.7 million short of fair returns over five years — highlighting the railroad industry's post-war struggles that would contribute to the Great Depression
• That Milwaukee spiritualism case reflects the 1920s' obsession with contacting the dead, sparked partly by World War I losses — by 1926, séances were so popular that Houdini was touring the country debunking fake mediums
• Harvard's $5 million law school fundraising campaign was massive for its time — equivalent to about $75 million today — showing how institutions were riding the economic boom to expand dramatically
• The mention of New York's prohibition modification referendum foreshadowed the wet vs. dry political battles that would intensify throughout the decade, with New York leading the charge against the 'noble experiment'