The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-07-15

The Rev. Albert Hatcher Smith D.
D.. who has recently been installed
pastor of the Providence Baptist
church, is not only a pulpit orator of
great ability. but a writer whose fame
has gone far to make his name famil-
lar in the homes of the nation. Among
the most notable works from DR..
Smiths pen, is the biography of Rus
sell II. Conwell one of the most en-
tirely fascinating stories of mems
lives which ever somes under the eye
of the critic. The work is published
by Silver, Burdett e. CO., and while It
is entitled The Life of Russell II.
Conwell," 1t also contains his great
lecture, Acres of Diamonds" and his
oration, Let There BE Light"
AS it is written, the book reads like
a fairy tale. The diction Is beautiful,
the composition most interesting. The
writer who could thus make such pic
lures of mans life surely has ma
teral in his brain for other work which
will add to his fame as an author.
The one chapter alone. the second in
the book, contains possibilities from
which a novelist would construct a
powerful story, so dramatic are the
situations, so tender the pathos, so
fine the climax.
The book starts off with an explna-
tion or why it is written, in the fol-
lowing interesting facts:
Russell II. Conwell, the lecturer,
is the most sought after of any man
on the lecture platform today. OF
his thirty lecture, one, Acres of Dia-
monds." has been delivered $500 times
in tWenty-nine years. His lecture en-
gagemonts average 200 nights year
and from his lecture fees he has con-
tributed toward the education of poor
students more than half million dol
lars. Russell II Conwell. the preacher
prcsides over the largest Protestant
congregation in America. The net in
crease of his church during the seven
teen years of his pastorate has been
$500 members. Russell II. Conwell,
the author, has written nineteen
books, a number of which have had a
sale exceeding 100000 each. Russell H.
Conwell, the philanthropist, is foun-
der and president of a college of 5000
students, which in addition to a large
day department, adapts itself to the
too busy and too poor to attend Har-
ward, Yale or Princeton, but who re-
ceive at Temple college during their
evenings and in times of cessation
from customary toll, inspiration and
instruction. He is founder and pro-
moter of The Samaritan hospital and
an orphanage."
DR.. Smith has wrought a living,
. Al,I Iii
est orators of our times. and so we'll
constructed is the story that it should
be in every library.
Until The Tribune, last Saturday,
told of the undermining process that
is going on in the electric lighting
system of Scranton, few indeed, if
any. other than those directly inter-
ested had given the matter more than
passing thought or a possible COM
ment on the new kind of lamp that
was being used. There was some
what general surprise expressed at
the announcement that an almost COM
plete renovation of the city's lighting
system had taken place. The i'm
mensity of the undertaking, the ex-
penditure involved and the brains
that directed it We're possibly never
given a thought
To +. NJ. Stack, the secretary and
guiding genius of the allied COM
panies, is attributable no small share
of the improvements noted He is
one of those men who are not content
to stand still. Anything he takes hold
of must progress. TO him, standing
still is equivalent to going backwards
1t would have been just as cheap
probably, to put up with the old sys-
TEN of lighting and trust to the good
ness" of councils to preserve the COM
pany from any serious kind of COM
petition. But this was not Mr. Stacks
method of doing business. The mo-
ment he took hold of the work of di-
recting the operations of the allied
companies, he set about the task of
making their system as thoughly up
to-date as the patronage would war
rant, with good measure for the pos
sibilities of the future. The conse-
quence is that Scranton has not only
an electric lighting system every way
in keeping with it's dimensions, but
one that is just a bit in advance of it
in every way one looks at the propo-
sition. Scranton and the electric light
companies are fortunate in the posses
sion of Mr.. Stack.
That Is not always the talkative
ones who accomplish the most, is at
tested by the career of one of Scran-
tons veteran school controllers. Henry
j. ONalley, of the Third ward. Mr..
O'Malley has been often dubbed "the
oh, hut
one has as yet been rash enough TO
characterize him as an inactive mem-
Der. 1t is to Se read as one runs by
any one who has kept an eye on school
affairs, that the quiet, inoffensiye
gentleman from the Third" has sue
ceeded almost every year in having
the board appropriate to his ward
about twenty-five per cent. more
taxes than is realized from the assess
ment for school purposes on the prop
erty OF that ward.
Mr.. O'Malley lays low and iumps at
the right time. 1t is yet to be re-
corded of him that he has not been
with the winning side at reorganlza-
ton, or on such good terms with the
dominant faction, shortly after reor-
ganization that he could have pretty
much all that is coming to him and
a little more. He is one of those men
who, while not able to say the Greek
alphabet backwards with any degree
of rapidity, can yet think good solid
wearable thinks and look forward
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