|
ACRES
OF DIAMONDS
BY
RUSSELL H. CONWELL
FOUNDER OF TEMPLE UNIVERSITY
PHILADELPHIA
_HIS LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS
BY
ROBERT SHACKLETON_
With an Autobiographical Note
ACRES OF DIAMONDS
CONTENTS
ACRES OF DIAMONDS
HIS LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS
I. THE STORY OF THE SWORD
II. THE BEGINNING AT OLD LEXINGTON
III. STORY OF THE FIFTY-SEVEN CENTS
IV. HIS POWER AS ORATOR AND PREACHER
V. GIFT FOR INSPIRING OTHERS
VI. MILLIONS OF HEARERS
VII. HOW A UNIVERSITY WAS FOUNDED
VIII. HIS SPLENDID EFFICIENCY
IX. THE STORY OF ``ACRES OF DIAMONDS''
FIFTY YEARS ON THE LECTURE PLATFORM
AN APPRECIATION
THOUGH Russell H. Conwell's Acres of Diamonds
have been spread all over the United States,
time and care have made them more valuable,
and now that they have been reset in black and
white by their discoverer, they are to be laid in the
hands of a multitude for their enrichment.
In the same case with these gems there is a
fascinating story of the Master Jeweler's life-work
which splendidly illustrates the ultimate unit of
power by showing what one man can do in one
day and what one life is worth to the world.
As his neighbor and intimate friend in
Philadelphia for thirty years, I am free to say that
Russell H. Conwell's tall, manly figure stands
out in the state of Pennsylvania as its first citizen
and ``The Big Brother'' of its seven millions of
people.
From the beginning of his career he has been a
credible witness in the Court of Public Works to
the truth of the strong language of the New
Testament Parable where it says, ``If ye have
faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto
this mountain, `Remove hence to yonder place,'
AND IT SHALL REMOVE AND NOTHING SHALL BE
IMPOSSIBLE UNTO YOU.
As a student, schoolmaster, lawyer, preacher,
organizer, thinker and writer, lecturer, educator,
diplomat, and leader of men, he has made his
mark on his city and state and the times in which
he has lived. A man dies, but his good work lives.
His ideas, ideals, and enthusiasms have inspired
tens of thousands of lives. A book full of the
energetics of a master workman is just what every
young man cares for.
1915.
{signature}
ACRES OF DIAMONDS
_Friends_.--This lecture has been delivered under these
circumstances: I visit a town or city, and try to arrive there
early
enough to see the postmaster, the barber, the keeper of the
hotel,
the principal of the schools, and the ministers of some of the
churches, and then go into some of the factories and stores, and
talk with the people, and get into sympathy with the local
conditions of that town or city and see what has been their
history,
what opportunities they had, and what they had failed to do--
and every town fails to do something--and then go to the lecture
and talk to those people about the subjects which applied to
their locality. ``Acres of Diamonds''--the idea--has
continuously
been precisely the same. The idea is that in this country
of ours every man has the opportunity to make more of himself
than he does in his own environment, with his own skill, with
his own energy, and with his own friends.
RUSSELL H. CONWELL.
ACRES OF DIAMONDS
[1]
This is the most recent and complete form of the lecture.
It happened to be delivered in Philadelphia, Dr. Conwell's
home city. When he says ``right here in Philadelphia,'' he means
the home city, town, or village of every reader of this book,
just
as he would use the name of it if delivering the lecture there,
instead of doing it through the pages which follow.
WHEN going down the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers many years ago with a party of
English travelers I found myself under the direction
of an old Arab guide whom we hired up at
Bagdad, and I have often thought how that guide
resembled our barbers in certain mental
characteristics. He thought that it was not only his
|
|
