○  russell conwell : acres of diamonds  ○

o get one of these german audiences in pennsylvania, and fire that at them, and i enjoy it tonight. there was a man living in pennsylvania, not unlike some pennsylvanians you have seen, who owned a farm, and he did with that farm just what i should do with a farm if i owned one in pennsylvania- he sold it. but before he sold it he decided to secure employment collecting coal-oil for his cousin, who was in the business in canada, where they first discovered oil on this continent. they dipped it from the running streams at that early time. so this pennsylvania farmer wrote to his cousin asking for employment. you see, friends, this farmer was not altogether a foolish man. no, he was not. he did not leave his farm until he had something else to do. of all the simpletons the stars shine on i don’t know of a worse one than the man who leaves one job before he has gotten another. that has especial reference to my profession, and has no reference whatever to a man seeking a divorce. when he wrote to his cousin for employment, his cousin replied, “i cannot engage you because you know nothing about the oil business.”  well, then the old farmer said, “i will know,” and with most commendable zeal (characteristic of the students of temple university) he sat himself at the study of the whole subject. he began away back at the second day of god’s creation when this world was covered thick and deep with that rich vegetation which since has turned to the primitive beds of coal. he studied the subject until he found that the drainings really of those rich beds of coal furnished the coal-oil that was worth pumping, and then he found how it came up with the living springs. he studied until he knew what it looked like, smelled like, tasted like, and how to refine it. now said he in his letter to his cousin, “i understand the oil business.” his cousin answered, “all right, come on.”

so he sold his farm, according to the county record, for $833 (even money, “no cents”). he had

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