The daily sentinel., 1909-02-03
ONE OF THE GREATEST MEN
IN AMERICA HERE THURSDAY


Every man and woman. i'm the
least familiar with American
life, know that Russell ii. Com
well, who comes to Grand juno
tion tomorrow to deliver one of
his magnificent lectures as IL
number of the lecture course, is
wonderful, remarkable man.
The story of his work is IA mar
velous revelation. Here is a
brief sketch:
Russell II. Conwell was born in the
town of Worthington, HAMPSHIRE
county. Massachusetts, February Is,
1S43, and spent his early DAYS upon
small farm, known as The Eagles
Nest" situated in the most sterile
and mountainous portion of that reg
ion. Very early in his boyhood ne
was compelled to earn his own living.
and, unassisted, secured the position
he now holds as a 'self-made man. -
He kept along with his classes in the
district school by studying evenings,
while working at manual labor dur
ing school hours, and earned by his
daily labor his meager supply of
food and clothing while at the Acad-
emy in Wilbraham, Mass. In 1860
he entered upon the law and academic
courses together at Yale college, the
latter Under tutor, so as to econ
omize his time and reduce his ex-
penses. But the war of the rebellion
interrupted his studies in 1859 and
took him TO the field as captain of
infantry. He afterward served in the
artillery branch of the service and as
Il staff officer.
At the close of the war he gradual
ed in the law department of the Al
han fttfH
sofa. where he began the practice of
law. In 1867 he represented the
state of Minnesota as its Emigration
Agent to Germany, and became the
foreign correspondent of his own
newspaper. In S6S he was engaged
as the correspondent of the New York
Tribune, and i'll the year following
as the travelling correspondent of the
Boston Traveller. In 1870 he was
sent to the different countries in
Asia by the New York Tribune and
Boston Traveller and made the entire
circuit of the globe, filling at that
time many important lecture engage
ments in India and England. He
afterwards visited England exclusive
ly on a lecture tour through the i'm
portant cities of that country. In
1870 he published his first book.
why and How the Chinese Emil
CRATE" 1t has been followed by many
others of historical and bio.yraph-
ical character. He was a friend and
travelling companion of Bayard Tay-
lor, and his biography of that poet
and traveller had very extended
sale His biography of Spurgeon
reached a sale of 125.0O0 copies in
four months.
For eight years he practIced law
in Boston and gained great pop
ularity as lecturer and writer. In
S19 he was ordained to the ministry.
IN 1882 he accepted call from Grace
Baptist church in Philadelphia, and
removed to that city. The church of
which he assumed charge at once en-
tered upon n career of extraordinary
prosperity and has become the larg-
est Baptist church in America. They
built Temple in 1891 on Broad
street Philadelphia, which will seat
comfortably over 5000 people and
has capacity of i.20O. Mr.. Con-
wells preaching draws such crowds
of listeners that for the past ten years
admission had been obtained by tick
cts, and thousands arc often turned
q way.
Mr.. Conwell has been in the lecture
field forty-eight years, during which
period he has delivered here and
abroad nearly seven thousand lee
lures. He was the intimate associate
with Cough, Beechcr Holmes. Long
fellow, Motley, Emerson. Everett.
Whittier, Wendell Phillips. Douglas.
Grant, Garfield, Burlingame. Sher-
man and other of Americas great
men. He is today one of America's
most popular speakers and among
the last of the stars who made the
platform brilliant in the DAYS of
Cough, Beecher and Chaplin.