The Story of Fifty-Seven Cents
By ROBERT SHACKLETON
The Story of the Sword
The Beginning at Old Lexington
The Story of Fifty-Seven Cents
His Power as a Preacher
Gift for Inspiring Others
VOLUME 6
NATIONAL
EXTENSION UNIVERSITY
597 Fifth Avenue, New York
Acres of Diamonds
Copyright, 1915, by Harper & Brothers
Printed in the United States of America
I
THE STORY OF THE SWORD[1]
I shall write of a remarkable man, an interesting man, a man of power,of initiative, of will, of persistence; a man who plans vastly and whorealizes his plans; a man who not only does things himself, but who,even more important than that, is the constant inspiration of others. Ishall write of Russell H. Conwell.
As a farmer's boy he was the leader of the boys of the rocky region thatwas his home; as a school-teacher he won devotion; as a newspapercorrespondent he gained fame; as a soldier in the Civil War he rose toimportant rank; as a lawyer he developed a large practice; as an authorhe wrote books that reached a mighty total of sales. He left the law forthe ministry and is the active head of a great church that he raisedfrom nothingness. He is the most popular lecturer in the world andyearly speaks to many thousands. He is, so to speak, the discoverer of"Acres of Diamonds," through which thousands of men and women have[Pg 64]achieved success out of failure. He is the head of two hospitals, oneof them founded by himself, that have cared for a host of patients, boththe poor and the rich, irrespective of race or creed. He is the founderand head of a university that has already had tens of thousands ofstudents. His home is in Philadelphia; but he is known in every cornerof every state in the Union, and everywhere he has hosts of friends. Allof his life he has helped and inspired others.
Quite by chance, and only yesterday, literally yesterday and by chance,and with no thought at the moment of Conwell although he had been muchin my mind for some time past, I picked up a thin little book ofdescription by William Dean Howells, and, turning the pages of a chapteron Lexington, old Lexington of the Revolution, written, so Howells hadset down, in 1882, I noticed, after he had written of the town itself,and of the long-past fight there, and of the present-day aspect, that hementioned the church life of the place and remarked on the strikingadvances made by the Baptists, who had lately, as he expressed it, beenreconstituted out of very perishing fragments and made strong andflourishing, under the ministrations of a lay preacher, formerly acolonel in the Union army. And it was only a few days before I chancedupon this description that Dr. Conwell, the former colonel and formerlay preacher, had told me of his experiences in that little oldRevolutionary town.
Howells went on to say that, so he was told, the colonel's success wasprincipally due to his making the church attractive to young people.Howells says no more of him; apparently he did not go to hear him; an