Russell H. Conwell - Acres of Diamonds & The Magic Story

Acres of Diamonds

by

Russell H. Conwell

plus

The Magic Story

by

Frederick Van Rensselaer Dey

This edition prepared for

Trans4mind eBooks

www.trans4mind.com

ISBN: 978-0-9806595-8-0

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Contents

Acres of Diamonds

The Magic Story

Acres of Diamonds

by Russell H. Conwell

Acres of Diamonds was originally given to the public as a lecture.

It was delivered by the author over 5,000 times between 1900 and 1925.

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 doand every town fails to do somethingand then go to the lecture and talk to those people about the subjects which applied to their locality. ``Acres of Diamonds''the ideahas continuously been precisely the same. The idea is that every man has the opportunity to make more of himself than he doesin his own environment, with his own skill, with his own energy, and with his own friends.

Russell H. Conwell.

THOUGH Russell H. Conwells 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 Jewelers 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. Conwells 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.

by Robert Shackleton

CONSIDERING everything, the most remarkable thing in Russell Conwells remarkable life is his lecture, Acres of Diamonds . That is, the lecture itself, the number of times he has delivered it, what a source of inspiration it has been to myriads, the money that he has made and is making, and, still more, the purpose to which he directs the money. In the circumstances surrounding Acres of Diamonds , in its tremendous success, in the attitude of mind revealed by the lecture itself and by what Dr. Conwell does with it, it is illuminative of his character, his aims, his ability.

The lecture is vibrant with his energy. It flashes with his hopefulness. It is full of his enthusiasm. It is packed full of his intensity. It stands for the possibilities of success in every one. He has delivered it over five thousand times. The demand for it never diminishes. The success grows never less.

There is a time in Russell Conwells youth of which it is pain for him to think. He told me of it one evening, and his voice sank lower and lower as he went far back into the past. It was of his days at Yale that he spoke, for they were days of suffering. For he had not money for Yale, and in working for more he endured bitter humiliation. It was not that the work was hard, for Russell Conwell has always been ready for hard work. It was not that there were privations and difficulties, for he has always found difficulties only things to overcome, and endured privations with cheerful fortitude. But it was the humiliations that he metthe personal humiliations that after more than half a century make him suffer in remembering themyet out of those humiliations came a marvelous result.

I determined, he says, that whatever I could do to make the way easier at college for other young men working their way I would do.

And so, many years ago, he began to devote every dollar that he made from Acres of Diamonds to this definite purpose. He has what may be termed a waiting-list. On that list are very few cases he has looked into personally. Infinitely busy man that he is, he cannot do extensive personal investigation. A large proportion of his names come to him from college presidents who know of students in their own colleges in need of such a helping hand.

Every night, he said, when I asked him to tell me about it, when my lecture is over and the check is in my hand, I sit down in my room in the hotelwhat a lonely picture, toolI sit down in my room in the hotel and subtract from the total sum received my actual expenses for that place, and make out a check for the difference and send it to some young man on my list. And I always send with the check a letter of advice and helpfulness, expressing my hope that it will be of some service to him and telling him that he is to feel under no obligation except to his Lord. I feel strongly, and I try to make every young man feel, that there must be no sense of obligation to me personally. And I tell them that I am hoping to leave behind me men who will do more work than I have done. Dont think that I put in too much advice, he added, with a smile, for I only try to let them know that a friend is trying to help them.

His face lighted as he spoke. There is such a fascination in it! he exclaimed. It is just like a gamble! And as soon as I have sent the letter and crossed a name off my list, I am aiming for the next one!

And after a pause he added: I do not attempt to send any young man enough for all his expenses. But I want to save him from bitterness, and each check will help. And, too, he concluded, naively, in the vernacular, I dont want them to lay down on me!

He told me that he made it clear that he did not wish to get returns or reports from this branch of his life-work, for it would take a great deal of time in watching and thinking and in the reading and writing of letters. But it is mainly, he went on, that I do not wish to hold over their heads the sense of obligation.

When I suggested that this was surely an example of bread cast upon the waters that could not return, he was silent for a little and then said, thoughtfully: As one gets on in years there is satisfaction in doing a thing for the sake of doing it. The bread returns in the sense of effort made.

On a recent trip through Minnesota he was positively upset, so his secretary told me, through being recognized on a train by a young man who had been helped through Acres of Diamonds , and who, finding that this was really Dr. Conwell, eagerly brought his wife to join him in most fervent thanks for his assistance. Both the husband and his wife were so emotionally overcome that it quite overcame Dr. Conwell himself.