New Year's Address of the Carriers of the Providence Daily Evening Press. January 1, 1866 [caption title]

[Providence: Hiram H. Thomas and Co., late December, 1865. Good plus.. Letterpress broadside, 17.5 x 12 inches, printed in double columns, with decorative floral border. Old folds, two folds neatly strengthened on verso, other folds tender, bottom third darkened. A rare newspaper carrier's address closing out the fateful year of 1865 and looking forward to the transition of the next year. The author personifies the year 1865 as "bent and wrinkled and gray" but also "in excellent health for his age." The end of the Civil War is recounted: "Then thought we how, during the mild reign of Spring, The wrong gave no check to the arms of the free, But only with 'Vict'ry' we made the streets ring, Till so wildly we cried, 'The Surrender of Lee!'" The text also mentions Sherman, Grant, and the assassination of President Lincoln. The tone is celebratory, as the author continues: "'To God give the praise!' for our nation is free! No longer a slave is contained by its shore! No longer the carnage of battle we see! We can hear the deep groan of the wounded no more!" In the end, the author quietly anticipates and looks forward to "The new year Sixty-Six, who succeeds to Time's crown." OCLC reports just two copies, at Harvard and Brown.