Acres of Diamonds | Page 3

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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