LibriVox

[lavishluau]

Acres of Diamonds by Russell H. Conwell (February 15, 1843 – December 6, 1925) .
Click here to be notified by email when this book is complete!

[mim@can]

I would be able to proof listen this if you like!

[smijen]

Hi Scott, I can MC this one for you. While I'm setting it up, could you please edit your top post to include your file naming scheme and your ID3 tags? Thanks!

[lavishluau]

I have updated the MP3 tags. Dividing the sections was a little tricky because the speech encompasses about half of the book so it had to be split somewhat arbitrarily. The numbered chapters start after the speech. I read the chapter number as it were just part of the text because chapter one is actually like "part 5" and finally the last section of the book did not include a chapter number, so it was just simpler to call it "part 13."

[smijen]

Yep - good plan. Here is your MW. Go forth and upload!

[lavishluau]

Hello,

All of the sections are uploaded. For some reason it won;t let me post them in the magic window the files are easy to find though... http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/sj/acresofdiamonds##conwell.mp3

just replace ## with the section number 01-13 and there they are.

Thanks to Min for stepping up to PL, saving me the hassle of posting a note in the Proof Listeners Wanted forum.

[mim@can]

I can't find the sections to listen to just now, that link comes up as a File not found! I am looking forward to listening soon though!

[smijen]

They are there - You just need to replace ## with the section number you want; e.g.,
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/sj/acresofdiamonds01conwell.mp3
http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/sj/acresofdiamonds02conwell.mp3
(no underscores)

Don't have time to do more at the moment. Thanks to you both. Will be back to help later.

[smijen]

OK I am going to rename the files to match our standard.
Mim - if you happen to be downloading at present, wait a few moments.

[smijen]

Files have been renamed.

Scott - I see your problem. You need to put the URL in the "Listen URL" column, rather than the Notes column. I've moved them all for you.

Now you'll just need to add the section titles and file durations. I'll do the first couple to get you going.

[smijen]

OK - did the first 3 so you can follow an example.
You are doing great, Scott. This may be the fastest first solo ever!

[mim@can]

Part 1

@ 2:20 He said that Ali Hafed owned a very large farm, that he had orchids, grain-fields, and gardens; that he had money at interest, and was a wealthy and contented man.
Should read
He said that Ali Hafed owned a very large farm, that he had orchards, grain-fields, and gardens; that he had money at interest, and was a wealthy and contented man.


@ 5:55 and at last when his money was all spent and he was in rags, wretchedness, and poverty, he stood on the shore of what that bay at Barcelona, in Spain,
should read and at last when his money was all spent and he was in rags, wretchedness, and poverty, he stood on the shore of that bay at Barcelona, in Spain,
Slight stumble here might be able to edit out easily

@ 14:08 The purpose of that plank was at that sharp angle across the brook was to throw over to the other bank a dreadful-looking scum through which the cattle would not put their noses. Here can you edit out the extra was

@ 14:29 and thus that man who had gone to Canada had been himself damming back for twenty years a flood of coal-oil which the state geologists of Pennsylvania declared to us ten years earlier was even then worth a hundred millions of dollars to our state, should read
and thus that man who had gone to Canada had been himself damming back for twenty-three years a flood of coal-oil which the state geologists of Pennsylvania declared to us ten years later was even then worth a hundred millions of dollars to our state,

@ 16:21 Let's go out in California and stake out gold-mines and silver-mines, and be immediately rich." Should read
Let's go out in California and stake out gold-mines and silver-mines, and be immensely rich."


@ 17:53 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. Missed the words of potatoes



@ 18:42 to the end Here you have missed out the highlighted section!! Oops!

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.

You have a very comfortable voice to listen to and a nice pace for me! Some of the things I have pointed out are pretty minor, you will have to decide and let me know where you want to make changes and then I will re listen!

[mim@can]

Part 2

@ 3:08 My friend, that is the reason why you have none, because you have the idea that people. Should read

My friend, that is the reason why you have none, because you have that idea of people.

@ 4:37 For a man to have money, even in large sums, is an inconsistent thing. Should read For a man to have money, even in large sums, is not an inconsistent thing.

@ 4:58 that Christians get the idea that when they stand in the pulpit we believe it is wicked for any man to have money
should read that Christians get the idea that when we stand in the pulpit we believe it is wicked for any man to have money

@ 8:09 He earns all the money that comes into that house, and he smokes a part of that on the veranda. Should read She earns all the money that comes into that house, and he smokes a part of that on the veranda.

@ 9:20 that you thought it was an honorable ambition for a young man to desire to have wealth, and that you thought him temperate, made him anxious to have a good name, and made him industrious.
Should read
that you thought it was an honorable ambition for a young man to desire to have wealth, and that you thought it made him temperate, made him anxious to have a good name, and made him industrious.

@ 10:28 You are taught in the theological school, however, that emphasizes is exegesis.
Should read You are taught in the theological school, however, that emphasis is exegesis.
And next sentence Now, will you take that Bible and read it yourself, and give it the proper emphasis to it?" should read
Now, will you take that Bible and read it yourself, and give the proper emphasis to it?"

@ 11:18 He tries to attain unto it too quickly, or dishonestly, will fail into many snares, no doubt about that. Should read
He who tries to attain unto it too quickly, or dishonestly, will fall into many snares, no doubt about that.

@ 11:58 that man who hugs the dollar until the eagle squeals has in him the root of all evil Here the word has has been omitted
@ 12:18 Some old gentleman gets up there in back and says, "Mr. Conwell, have you lived in Philadelphia for forty-one years and you don't know that the time has gone by when you can make anything in this city?" should read

Some old gentleman gets up back there and says, "Mr. Conwell, have you lived in Philadelphia for thirty-one years and don't know that the time has gone by when you can make anything in this city?"

@ 16:03 You cannot trust a man with your money who cannot take care of his own.

Part of this sentence has been omitted and then right following

You cannot trust a man in your family who is not true to his own wife. You cannot trust a man in the world who does not begin with his own heart, his own character, and his own life.
Should read You cannot trust a man in your family that is not true to his own wife. You cannot trust a man in the world that does not begin with his own heart, his own character, and his own life.
It would have been my duty to have furnished a jack-knife to the third man, or the second, and to have sold it to him and actually profited myself. I have no more right to sell goods without making a profit on them than I would have to overcharge him dishonestly beyond what they are worth. But I should so sell each bill of goods that the person to whom I sell shall make as much as possible as I make.

@ 17:16 Oh, yes, I am paid over a hundredfold to-night for dividing as I have tried to do in some measure as I went along through the years. I ought not speak that way, it sounds agnostic but I am old enough now to be excused for that.
Oh, yes, I am paid over and over a hundredfold to-night for dividing as I have tried to do in some measure as I went along through the years. I ought not speak that way, it sounds egotistic, but I am old enough now to be excused for that.

@ 18:29 I suppose I go unto your store to-morrow morning and say, "Do you know neighbor A, who lives one square away, at house No. 1240?"

should read Suppose I go into your store to-morrow morning and ask, "Do you know neighbor A, who lives one square away, at house No. 1240?"

@ 20:14 The moment a young man or woman gets more money than he or she has grown to by practical experience, the moment he has gotten a curse. Should read The moment a young man or woman gets more money than he or she has grown to by practical experience, that moment he has gotten a curse.