The newspaper shows the poem "The Conqueror Worm" by Edgar Allen Poe, which was published in 1843, and also mentions the Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company which was established in 1886 and by the late 1890s became a platform for socialism. This is clearly an accurate indicator of the time this story takes place.
Edit: also, the Berliner Volks-Zeitung didn't enter circulation until 1904, so the events of this story are clearly a part of the powder keg that led to WW1.