○  russell conwell : acres of diamonds  ○

people never do what i advise them to do? when her husband ridiculed her, she made up her mind she would make a better collar-button, and when a woman makes up her mind “she will,” and does not say anything about it, she does it. it was that new england woman who invented the snap button which you can find anywhere now. it was a collar-button with a spring cap attached to the outer side. any of you who wear modern waterproofs know the button that simply pushes together, and when you unbutton it you simply pull it apart. that is the button to which i refer, and which she invented. she afterward invented several other buttons, and then invested in more, and then was taken into partnership with great factories. now that woman goes over the sea every summer in her private steamship-yes, and takes her husband with her! if her husband were to die, she would have money enough to buy a foreign duke or count or some such title as that at the latest quotations.

now what is my lesson in that incident? it is this: i told her then, though i did not know her, what i say to you, “your wealth is too near to you. you are looking right over it”; and she had to look over it because it was right under her chin.

i have read in the newspaper that a woman never invented anything. well, that newspaper ought to begin again. of course, i do not refer to gossip-i refer to machines-and if i did i might better include the men. that newspaper could never appear if women had not invented something. friends, think. ye women, think! you say you cannot make a fortune because you are in some laundry, or running a sewing-machine it may be, or walking before some loom, and yet you can be a millionaire if you will but follow this almost infallible direction.

when you say a woman doesn’t invent anything, i ask, who invented the jacquard loom that wove every stitch you wear? mrs. jacquard. the printer’s roller, the printing press, were invented by farmers’ wives. who invented the cotton-

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