○  russell conwell : acres of diamonds  ○

d, for he had no money to buy lumber, and whittled those strong, unpainted hingham toys that were that were for so many years known all over the world. than man began to make those toys for his own children, and then made copies and sold them through the boot-and-shoe store next door. he began to make a little money, and then a little more, and mr. lawson, in is frenzied finance says that man is the richest man in old massachusetts, and i think it is the truth. and that man is worth a hundred millions of dollars to-day, and has been only thirty-four years making it on that one principle-that one must judge that what his own children like at home other people’s children would like in their homes, too; to judge the human heart by oneself, by one’s wife or by one’s children. it is the royal road to success in manufacturing.

“oh,” but you say, “didn’t he have any capital?” yes, a penknife, but i don’t know that he had paid for that.

i spoke thus to an audience in new britain, connecticut, and a lady four seats back went home and tried to take off her collar, and the collar-button stuck in the buttonhole. she threw it out and said, “i am going to get up something better than that to put on collars.” her husband said: “after what conwell said to-night, you see there is a need of an improved collar-fastener that is easier to handle. there is a human need; there is a great fortune. now, then, get up a collar-button and get rich.” he made fun of her, and consequently made fun of me, and that is one of the saddest things which comes over me like a deep cloud of midnight sometimes-although i have worked so hard for more than half a century, yet how little i have ever really done. notwithstanding the greatness and the handsomeness of your compliment to-night, i do not believe there is one in ten of you that is going to make a million of dollars because you are here to-night; but it is not my fault, it is yours. i say that sincerely. what is the use of my talking if

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