Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-04-24
ACRES OF DIAMONDS.

was greeted with large audience when
he lectured in the opera house Wednes-
day evening, under the auspices of the |
Y. M. c. A. His lecture might be SUBJ
lected to much analytical stndy. 1t
contained many truths; it also present
ed nice sounding solutions of many
problems, which if put to the test will
not bear out the speakers theories. At
the outset he explained bow he had
chosen ''Acres of Diamonds" as the
subject of his lecture, by telling a story
as related to him by an old Arab guide,'
while travelling in the far East. Il
dealt with an Arab who had sold his
farm and gone out into the world to
look for diamond fields, his search car
rying him TO poverty and finally death.
Later, one of the richest diamond mines
in the world was discovered on the
Arabs farm. 1t was from his field that
the famous Koh-i-noor was taken. The
speaker related many stories bearing
on men in this country who had gone
out in search of wealth, when wealth
lay right at their feet at home. Notably
among these was the man who sold the
farm on which the city of Titusville,
Pa, now stands. This man went up
into Canada to look for oil wells and
right on his own farm were discovered
oil wells which made other men mil
lionaires. The moral of these stories
as drawn by Mr. Conwell is that one
should stay at home to look Tor wealth.
The fact that 70 odd per cent. of Wau-
saus high school graduates leave home
to pursue their avocations, he said,
should not be true. They should be
kept at home, for there. is plenty of
wealth to be made right here. A large
per cent of the million aires of New
York, he said, made their fortunes in
towns of less than 5000 inhabitants,
and the wealthiest man jim this country
has never moved away from his birth
place, city of 5000 people.
Early in his lecture the speaker made
the statement that a very small per
cent. of the rich men of this country
are knaves or rogues, as they are for
the most part popularity supposed to be
that only very few made their money
dishonesty. He also said it is crime
to be poor, that every man ought to at
least own his own home With very
few exceptions, he said, the poor man
is not deserving of sym pathy, for SYM
pathy is the encouragement of poverty
Every man ought to be rich, for money
is power, and we want power. Condi
tions are just as favorable for the bust
ness man or laborer today as they were
fifty years ago. Queer statements, but
of course they were intended for the
young man who is wasting his time and
money, having no ambition, putting
forth no efforts or making any provi-
sion for the morrow. They had no sig
nificance with the tens of thousands of
aliens coming TO our shores every week
from pauper Europe, supplacing our
own labor, or with the enormous trusts
that are sitting small competitors and
sending men to the poor house or driv-
ing them to suicide. 1t was simply
picture, and pictures are drawn to
please those who look upon them
Mr.. Conwell said that if the people of
Wausau will take hold and boom this
city, get manufacturers to locate here,
it will soon be place of 100000 people,
drawing the best from radius of so or
100 miles. But the first thing to do is to
find out what to manufacture. A car
penter in Massachusetts, out of work,
was one day driven out of his house by
his wife, and having nothing else to do,
sat down and whitfield out a wooden
chain. A neighbor saw it and suggest
ed that he make wooden toys for chill
dren and place them on sale. "But,"
said the carpenter, 81 don't know what
to make" 'Ask your children what
they would like to have" said the
neighbor. He did so and from their
suggestions set to work whiting out
toys, and that man today has snug
fortune, his wife is better natured than
she was the day she forced him to 90
out and sit on the soft side of a rock,
and the hand made toys made by his
army of workmen are sold all over the
country.
A Scotch colony il Pennsylvania was
sending to Scotland for it's oatmeal,
although plenty of oats were raised in
the neighborhood. A man of thought
made it MS business to find out what
kind of oats the colony required, bor-
rowed 81, 200 of a Quaker and today is
worth millions from the sale of oatmeal.
His Quaker Oats can be found on nearly
every breakfast table in the land, and
he is buying all his oats in Wisconsin.
perhaps many raised not over a mile
from Wausau.
After we find out what is required,
what is most needed in the commercial
world, then we can set in manufacture
ing and grow. There is wealth to be
made here, but the man who stands in
his own light or who is not able to look
over his collar is a menace to the COM
munity.
Though we all ought to be rich, Mr..
Conwell says it is misfortune for
young man to come into wealth at his
birth. Statistics for the state of New
York, he says, show that only one rich
mans son in seventeen dies leaving
any considerable amount of his inner
tied money behind him.
Taken all in all it was very pleasing
lecture and one which made an impress
sion on the audience for, while the relj-
ability of some of Mr.. ConwelPs |
thoughts might be questioned, still
there was such a fund of common sense
manifested that his audience retired to |
bed that night in a thinking turn of |
mind. He is an adept at story telling |
and is possessed of such wit as to keep |