Editor’s note: Every day, The Denver Gazette reprints some of the best front pages of the Rocky Mountain News as pulled from its 100-plus-year archives.

Although the extortion plot that leads the page is interesting, don’t miss the downpage tidbit:

“The father of nine children brought marital discord to his home when he adopted four more and today his wife was suing for separation before he fulfilled his plan to adopt 20 additional children.

“Mrs. Stella H. Holden charged in her suit that her husband, a descendent of Roger Williams, believed in two things — big families and Spartan simplicity. For years, she said, Holden subsisted almost entirely on prunes, wheat biscuits and milk and sought to impose that diet on the entire family.”

She charged nonsupport while Holden was worth $500,000 (more than $11 million in today’s dollars.)