Year: 1867

General Brisbn recently attended meet
ing of freedmen in Kentucky, and talked to
them in q manner that was we'll adapted to
the capacity of his auditors. He said,
among other things:


'..Now, do net know what else you could
read with so much advantage to yourself as
a newspaper Every family should take
one and pay for it. The long winter eve
nings are coming on, and, as you sit by your
fresides, you will need something to keep
thinking about. If you can't read yourself,
get the children to read for you. or neigh
Dor will come in and read, and the discus
sions over what you hear will pass the some
times long and dreary nights pleasantly
away. What is a newspaper? 1t Is book,
containing every sort Of information-a hive,
with every kind of honey in it. Every paper
is worth ten times what it costs to buy it,
and | doubt if any money which father
spends is 80 well invested as that which he
puts into good family newspaper. l have
in my ocket paper for which L paid to-day
only five cents-one-third the price of glass
of bad rum you black mea buy too often
Let US see what this paper contains. First.
we have the news from Washington; then
kilograms from all parts of Ohio, where
an eloquent man of your own color from this
city is now on the stump. Next we have
news from every State in the Union, and all
about what went on yesterday in Europe
Here is lot of conundrums. jokes, anec-
dotes, and IL letter from the funny man.
Nasby. Now we have a pretty story about
a King, a tale of miser who lived in rags
and boarded his gold and then we read an
account of one of the great battles Of the
war.


/" Here is a speech made by colored man
in Tennessee, letters from General Butler,
Charles Sumner, the Presidents proclama-
ton, a speech by Senator Wade, how to
raise chickens potatoes, corn and all kinds
of vegetables; the price of everything we
eat drink, and wear in Cincinnati; all
about the murder over at DanvIlle and the
horse races last week here, which it would
have cost you five dollars to have gone to
see. Then we read story of good boy,
fairy tale for children, something about the
Indians, a battle in South America, a history
Of Mexico and all this on two r ages OF the
paper, and there are eight in it all this and
four times as much for five cents. The
grocery man at the corner will give me a
cent for the paper when | have read it, and
then | shall have had all this information
for the paltry sum of four cents. Books are
very useful, and have nothing to say
against them; but they are so dear few
are only able to buy them we are all, how
ever, rich enough to buy paper, OCCASION
ally. There are over a thousand members
in the colored societies in this city. and not
a single reading room among them.


Presently Congress will be in session,
and then you will want to know what goes
on, especially when they take up the suffrage
question for Kentucky. l advise you to at
once establish reading rooms, and detail from
your societies readers who will 60 there
every evening and read aloud for two or
three hours, so that all who cannot read can
come there and hear the news. As many
of you as can read, or have children who
can, should take paper, and have it read in
the family every night. 1t will keep you at
home, it will post you up. and teach you and
the children to read well and it will furnish
rest and food for the minds of you who have
to labor all day long with your hands"