章节正文
where he went into the employ of the Superior
Copper Mining Company at $15 a week again,
but with the proviso in his contract that he should
have an interest in any mines he should discover
for the company. I don't believe he ever discovered
a mine, and if I am looking in the face of any
stockholder of that copper company you wish
he had discovered something or other. I have
friends who are not here because they could not
afford a ticket, who did have stock in that company
at the time this young man was employed
there. This young man went out there, and I
have not heard a word from him. I don't know
what became of him, and I don't know whether
he found any mines or not, but I don't believe
he ever did.
But I do know the other end of the line. He
had scarcely gotten out of the old homestead before
the succeeding owner went out to dig potatoes.
The potatoes were already growing in the ground
when he bought the farm, and as the old farmer
was bringing in a basket of potatoes it hugged
very tight between the ends of the stone fence.
You know in Massachusetts our farms are nearly
all stone wall. There you are obliged to be very
economical of front gateways in order to have
some place to put the stone. When that basket
hugged so tight he set it down on the ground,
and then dragged on one side, and pulled on the
other side, and as he was dragging that basket
through this farmer noticed in the upper and
outer corner of that stone wall, right next the
gate, a block of native silver eight inches square.
That professor of mines, mining, and mineralogy
who knew so much about the subject that he
would not work for $45 a week, when he sold
that homestead in Massachusetts sat right on
that silver to make the bargain. He was born
on that homestead, was brought up there, and
had gone back and forth rubbing the stone with
his sleeve until it reflected his countenance, and
seemed to say, ``Here is a hundred thousand
dollars right down here just for the taking.''
But he would not take it. It was in a home in
Newburyport, Massachusetts, and there was no
silver there, all away off--well, I don't know where,
and he did not, but somewhere else, and he was
a professor of mineralogy.
My friends, that mistake is very universally
made, and why should we even smile at him. I
often wonder what has become of him. I do not
know at all, but I will tell you what I ``guess''
as a Yankee. I guess that he sits out there by his
fireside to-night with his friends gathered around
him, and he is saying to them something like this:
``Do you know that man Conwell who lives in
Philadelphia?'' ``Oh yes, I have heard of him.''
``Do you know that man Jones that lives in
Philadelphia?'' ``Yes, I have heard of him, too.''
Then he begins to laugh, and shakes his sides
and says to his friends, ``Well, they have done
just the same thing I did, precisely''--and that
spoils the whole joke, for you and I have done
the same thing he did, and while we sit here and
laugh at him he has a better right to sit out there
and laugh at us. I know I have made the same
mistakes, but, of course, that does not make any
difference, because we don't expect the same man
to preach and practise, too.
As I come here to-night and look around this
audience I am seeing again what through these
fifty years I have continually seen-men that are
making precisely that same mistake. I often wish
I could see the younger people, and would that the
Academy had been filled to-night with our high-
school scholars and our grammar-school scholars,
that I could have them to talk to. While I would
have preferred such an audience as that, because
they are most susceptible, as they have not grown
up into their prejudices as we have, they have
not gotten into any custom that they cannot
break, they have not met with any failures as
we have; and while I could perhaps do such an
audience as that more good than I can do grown-
up people, yet I will do the best I can with the
material I have. I say to you that you have
``acres of diamonds'' in Philadelphia right where
you now live. ``Oh,'' but you will say, ``you
cannot know much about your city if you think
there are any `acres of diamonds' here.''
I was greatly interested in that account in the
newspaper of the young man who found that
diamond in North Carolina. It was one of the
purest diamonds that has ever been discovered,
and it has several predecessors near the same
locality. I went to a distinguished professor in
mineralogy and asked him where he thought those
diamonds came from. The professor secured the
map of the geologic formations of our continent,
and traced it. He said it went either through the
underlying carboniferous strata adapted for such
production, westward through Ohio and the
Mississippi, or in more probability came eastward
through Virginia and up the shore of the Atlantic
Ocean. It is a fact that the diamonds were there,
for they have been discovered and sold; and that
they were carried down there during the drift
period, from some northern locality. Now who
can say but some person going down with his
drill in Philadelphia will find some trace of a
diamond-mine yet down here? Oh, friends! you cannot
say that you are not over one of the greatest
diamond-mines in the world, for such a diamond
as that only comes from the most profitable mines
that are found on earth.
But it serves simply to illustrate my thought,
which I emphasize by saying if you do not have
the actual diamond-mines literally you have all
that they would be good for to you. Because
now that the Queen of England has given the
greatest compliment ever conferred upon American
woman for her attire because she did not appear
with any jewels at all at the late reception in
England, it has almost done away with the use
of diamonds anyhow. All you would care for
would be the few you would wear if you wish
to be modest, and the rest you would sell for
money.
Now then, I say again that the opportunity
to get rich, to attain unto great wealth, is here
in Philadelphia now, within the reach of almost
every man and woman who hears me speak to-
night, and I mean just what I say. I have not
come to this platform even under these circumstances
to recite something to you. I have come
to tell you what in God's sight I believe to be the
truth, and if the years of life have been of any
value to me in the attainment of common sense,
I know I am right; that the men and women sitting
here, who found it difficult perhaps to buy
a ticket to this lecture or gathering to-night, have
within their reach ``acres of diamonds,'' opportunities
to get largely wealthy. There never was
a place on earth more adapted than the city of
Philadelphia to-day, and never in the history of
the world did a poor man without capital have
such an opportunity to get rich quickly and
honestly as he has now in our city. I say it is the
truth, and I want you to accept it as such; for
if you think I have come to simply recite something,
then I would better not be here. I have no
time to waste in any such talk, but to say the
things I believe, and unless some of you get
richer for what I am saying to-night my time is
wasted.
I say that you ought to get rich, and it is your
duty to get rich. How many of my pious brethren
say to me, ``Do you, a Christian minister, spend
your time going up and down the country advising
young people to get rich, to get money?'' ``Yes,
of course I do.'' They say, ``Isn't that awful!
Why don't you preach the gospel instead of
preaching about man's making money?'' ``Because
to make money honestly is to preach the
gospel.'' That is the reason. The men who get
rich may be the most honest men you find in the
community.
``Oh,'' but says some young man here to-night,
``I have been told all my life that if a person has
money he is very dishonest and dishonorable and
mean and contemptible. ``My friend, that is
the reason why you have none, because you have
that idea of people. The foundation of your faith
is altogether false. Let me say here clearly, and
say it briefly, though subject to discussion which
I have not time for here, ninety-eight out of one
hundred of the rich men of America are honest.
That is why they are rich. That is why they are
trusted with money. That is why they carry on
great enterprises and find plenty of people to
work with them. It is because they are honest men.
Says another young man, ``I hear sometimes
of men that get millions of dollars dishonestly.''
Yes, of course you do, and so do I. But they are
so rare a thing in fact that the newspapers talk
about them all the time as a matter of news until
you get the idea that all the other rich men got
rich dishonestly.
My friend, you take and drive me--if you furnish
the auto--out into the suburbs of Philadelphia,
and introduce me to the people who own
their homes around this great city, those beautiful
homes with gardens and flowers, those magnificent
homes so lovely in their art, and I will introduce
you to the very best people in character as well as
in enterprise in our city, and you know I will.
A man is not really a true man until he owns his
own home, and they that own their homes are
made more honorable and honest and pure, and
true and economical and careful, by owning the home.
For a man to have money, even in large sums,
Copper Mining Company at $15 a week again,
but with the proviso in his contract that he should
have an interest in any mines he should discover
for the company. I don't believe he ever discovered
a mine, and if I am looking in the face of any
stockholder of that copper company you wish
he had discovered something or other. I have
friends who are not here because they could not
afford a ticket, who did have stock in that company
at the time this young man was employed
there. This young man went out there, and I
have not heard a word from him. I don't know
what became of him, and I don't know whether
he found any mines or not, but I don't believe
he ever did.
But I do know the other end of the line. He
had scarcely gotten out of the old homestead before
the succeeding owner went out to dig potatoes.
The potatoes were already growing in the ground
when he bought the farm, and as the old farmer
was bringing in a basket of potatoes it hugged
very tight between the ends of the stone fence.
You know in Massachusetts our farms are nearly
all stone wall. There you are obliged to be very
economical of front gateways in order to have
some place to put the stone. When that basket
hugged so tight he set it down on the ground,
and then dragged on one side, and pulled on the
other side, and as he was dragging that basket
through this farmer noticed in the upper and
outer corner of that stone wall, right next the
gate, a block of native silver eight inches square.
That professor of mines, mining, and mineralogy
who knew so much about the subject that he
would not work for $45 a week, when he sold
that homestead in Massachusetts sat right on
that silver to make the bargain. He was born
on that homestead, was brought up there, and
had gone back and forth rubbing the stone with
his sleeve until it reflected his countenance, and
seemed to say, ``Here is a hundred thousand
dollars right down here just for the taking.''
But he would not take it. It was in a home in
Newburyport, Massachusetts, and there was no
silver there, all away off--well, I don't know where,
and he did not, but somewhere else, and he was
a professor of mineralogy.
My friends, that mistake is very universally
made, and why should we even smile at him. I
often wonder what has become of him. I do not
know at all, but I will tell you what I ``guess''
as a Yankee. I guess that he sits out there by his
fireside to-night with his friends gathered around
him, and he is saying to them something like this:
``Do you know that man Conwell who lives in
Philadelphia?'' ``Oh yes, I have heard of him.''
``Do you know that man Jones that lives in
Philadelphia?'' ``Yes, I have heard of him, too.''
Then he begins to laugh, and shakes his sides
and says to his friends, ``Well, they have done
just the same thing I did, precisely''--and that
spoils the whole joke, for you and I have done
the same thing he did, and while we sit here and
laugh at him he has a better right to sit out there
and laugh at us. I know I have made the same
mistakes, but, of course, that does not make any
difference, because we don't expect the same man
to preach and practise, too.
As I come here to-night and look around this
audience I am seeing again what through these
fifty years I have continually seen-men that are
making precisely that same mistake. I often wish
I could see the younger people, and would that the
Academy had been filled to-night with our high-
school scholars and our grammar-school scholars,
that I could have them to talk to. While I would
have preferred such an audience as that, because
they are most susceptible, as they have not grown
up into their prejudices as we have, they have
not gotten into any custom that they cannot
break, they have not met with any failures as
we have; and while I could perhaps do such an
audience as that more good than I can do grown-
up people, yet I will do the best I can with the
material I have. I say to you that you have
``acres of diamonds'' in Philadelphia right where
you now live. ``Oh,'' but you will say, ``you
cannot know much about your city if you think
there are any `acres of diamonds' here.''
I was greatly interested in that account in the
newspaper of the young man who found that
diamond in North Carolina. It was one of the
purest diamonds that has ever been discovered,
and it has several predecessors near the same
locality. I went to a distinguished professor in
mineralogy and asked him where he thought those
diamonds came from. The professor secured the
map of the geologic formations of our continent,
and traced it. He said it went either through the
underlying carboniferous strata adapted for such
production, westward through Ohio and the
Mississippi, or in more probability came eastward
through Virginia and up the shore of the Atlantic
Ocean. It is a fact that the diamonds were there,
for they have been discovered and sold; and that
they were carried down there during the drift
period, from some northern locality. Now who
can say but some person going down with his
drill in Philadelphia will find some trace of a
diamond-mine yet down here? Oh, friends! you cannot
say that you are not over one of the greatest
diamond-mines in the world, for such a diamond
as that only comes from the most profitable mines
that are found on earth.
But it serves simply to illustrate my thought,
which I emphasize by saying if you do not have
the actual diamond-mines literally you have all
that they would be good for to you. Because
now that the Queen of England has given the
greatest compliment ever conferred upon American
woman for her attire because she did not appear
with any jewels at all at the late reception in
England, it has almost done away with the use
of diamonds anyhow. All you would care for
would be the few you would wear if you wish
to be modest, and the rest you would sell for
money.
Now then, I say again that the opportunity
to get rich, to attain unto great wealth, is here
in Philadelphia now, within the reach of almost
every man and woman who hears me speak to-
night, and I mean just what I say. I have not
come to this platform even under these circumstances
to recite something to you. I have come
to tell you what in God's sight I believe to be the
truth, and if the years of life have been of any
value to me in the attainment of common sense,
I know I am right; that the men and women sitting
here, who found it difficult perhaps to buy
a ticket to this lecture or gathering to-night, have
within their reach ``acres of diamonds,'' opportunities
to get largely wealthy. There never was
a place on earth more adapted than the city of
Philadelphia to-day, and never in the history of
the world did a poor man without capital have
such an opportunity to get rich quickly and
honestly as he has now in our city. I say it is the
truth, and I want you to accept it as such; for
if you think I have come to simply recite something,
then I would better not be here. I have no
time to waste in any such talk, but to say the
things I believe, and unless some of you get
richer for what I am saying to-night my time is
wasted.
I say that you ought to get rich, and it is your
duty to get rich. How many of my pious brethren
say to me, ``Do you, a Christian minister, spend
your time going up and down the country advising
young people to get rich, to get money?'' ``Yes,
of course I do.'' They say, ``Isn't that awful!
Why don't you preach the gospel instead of
preaching about man's making money?'' ``Because
to make money honestly is to preach the
gospel.'' That is the reason. The men who get
rich may be the most honest men you find in the
community.
``Oh,'' but says some young man here to-night,
``I have been told all my life that if a person has
money he is very dishonest and dishonorable and
mean and contemptible. ``My friend, that is
the reason why you have none, because you have
that idea of people. The foundation of your faith
is altogether false. Let me say here clearly, and
say it briefly, though subject to discussion which
I have not time for here, ninety-eight out of one
hundred of the rich men of America are honest.
That is why they are rich. That is why they are
trusted with money. That is why they carry on
great enterprises and find plenty of people to
work with them. It is because they are honest men.
Says another young man, ``I hear sometimes
of men that get millions of dollars dishonestly.''
Yes, of course you do, and so do I. But they are
so rare a thing in fact that the newspapers talk
about them all the time as a matter of news until
you get the idea that all the other rich men got
rich dishonestly.
My friend, you take and drive me--if you furnish
the auto--out into the suburbs of Philadelphia,
and introduce me to the people who own
their homes around this great city, those beautiful
homes with gardens and flowers, those magnificent
homes so lovely in their art, and I will introduce
you to the very best people in character as well as
in enterprise in our city, and you know I will.
A man is not really a true man until he owns his
own home, and they that own their homes are
made more honorable and honest and pure, and
true and economical and careful, by owning the home.
For a man to have money, even in large sums,
- copper [´kɔpə]
n.铜 a.铜制的 (初中英语单词) - bargain [´bɑ:gin] n.买卖合同 v.议(价) (初中英语单词)
- sleeve [sli:v] n.袖子；袖套 (初中英语单词)
- countenance [´kauntinəns] n.面部表情；脸色；面容 (初中英语单词)
- yankee [´jæŋki] n.美国佬；美国公民 (初中英语单词)
- preach [pri:tʃ] v.宣扬；鼓吹 n.训诫 (初中英语单词)
- practise [´præktis] v.实践(行，施)；提倡 (初中英语单词)
- audience [´ɔ:diəns] n.听众；观众；接见 (初中英语单词)
- account [ə´kaunt] vi.说明 vt.认为 n.帐目 (初中英语单词)
- virginia [və´dʒinjə] n.佛吉尼亚(州) (初中英语单词)
- illustrate [´iləstreit] vt.加插图；举例说明 (初中英语单词)
- actual [´æktʃuəl] a.现实的；实际的 (初中英语单词)
- modest [´mɔdist] a.谦虚的；朴素的 (初中英语单词)
- attain [ə´tein] v.取得；到达；成为 (初中英语单词)
- wealth [welθ] n.财富，财产 (初中英语单词)
- platform [´plætfɔ:m] n.(平)台；讲台；站台 (初中英语单词)
- recite [ri´sait] v.背诵；叙述 (初中英语单词)
- wealthy [´welθi] a.富有的；丰富的 (初中英语单词)
- minister [´ministə] n.部长；大臣 v.伺候 (初中英语单词)
- honestly [´ɔnistli] ad.诚实地，老实地 (初中英语单词)
- foundation [faun´deiʃən] n.建立；基金；地基 (初中英语单词)
- altogether [,ɔ:ltə´geðə] ad.完全；总而言之 (初中英语单词)
- briefly [´bri:fli] ad.简短地；简略地 (初中英语单词)
- discussion [di´skʌʃən] n.讨论；辩论 (初中英语单词)
- character [´kæriktə] n.特性；性质；人物；字 (初中英语单词)
- enterprise [´entəpraiz] n.企业；雄心；胆识 (初中英语单词)
- mining [´mainiŋ] n.采矿；矿业 (高中英语单词)
- saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- continually [kən´tinjuəli] ad.不断地，频繁地 (高中英语单词)
- precisely [pri´saisli] ad.精确地；刻板地 (高中英语单词)
- distinguished [di´stiŋgwiʃt] a.卓越的，著名的 (高中英语单词)
- westward [´westwəd] a.向西的 n.西方；西部 (高中英语单词)
- probability [,prɔbə´biliti] n.或有；可能性 (高中英语单词)
- locality [ləu´kæliti] n.位置，地区，发生地 (高中英语单词)
- profitable [´prɔfitəbəl] a.有益的；有用的 (高中英语单词)
- emphasize [´emfəsaiz] vt.强调 (高中英语单词)
- literally [´litərəli] ad.逐字地；实际上 (高中英语单词)
- compliment [´kɔmplimənt] n.敬意 vt.赞美；祝贺 (高中英语单词)
- attire [ə´taiə] vt.装饰；穿 n.衣服 (高中英语单词)
- reception [ri´sepʃən] n.接待；欢迎；招待会 (高中英语单词)
- gospel [´gɔspəl] n.福音；信条；真理 (高中英语单词)
- gotten [´gɔtn] get的过去分词 (英语四级单词)
- homestead [´həumsted] n.家宅，宅基 (英语四级单词)
- gathering [´gæðəriŋ] n.集会，聚集 (英语四级单词)
- economical [,i:kə´nɔmikəl] a.节俭的；经济的 (英语四级单词)
- susceptible [sə´septəbəl] a.敏感的；易受影响的 (英语六级单词)
- attainment [ə´teinmənt] n.达到；得到；造诣 (英语六级单词)
- dishonest [dis´ɔnist] a.不诚实的 (英语六级单词)
- contemptible [kən´temptəbəl] a.可鄙的；可轻视的 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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