a better and brighter life for all beneath the flag surely
will be achieved. Those who now scoff soon will pray. Those who now
doubt soon will believe.

Soon the night will pass; and when, to the Sentinel on the ramparts of
Liberty the anxious ask: "Watchman, what of the night?" his answer will
be "Lo, the morn appeareth."

Knowing the price we must pay, the sacrifice we must make, the burdens
we must carry, the assaults we must endure--knowing full well the
cost--yet we enlist, and we enlist for the war. For we know the justice
of our cause, and we know, too, its certain triumph.

Not reluctantly then, but eagerly, not with faint hearts but strong, do
we now advance upon the enemies of the people. For the call that comes
to us is the call that came to our fathers. As they responded so shall
we.

"He hath sounded forth a trumpet that shall never call retreat,
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat.
Oh, be swift our souls to answer Him, be jubilant our feet,
Our God is marching on."

_RUSSELL CONWELL_

ACRES OF DIAMONDS[40]

I am astonished that so many people should care to hear this story over
again. Indeed, this lecture has become a study in psychology; it often
breaks all rules of oratory, departs from the precepts of rhetoric, and
yet remains the most popular of any lecture I have delivered in the
forty-four years of my public life. I have sometimes studied for a year
upon a lecture and made careful research, and then presented the lecture
just once--never delivered it again. I put too much work on it. But this
had no work on it--thrown together perfectly at random, spoken offhand
without any special preparation, and it succeeds when the thing we
study, work over, adjust to a plan, is an entire failure.

The "Acres of Diamonds" which I have mentioned through so many years are
to be found in Philadelphia, and you are to find them. Many have found
them. And what man has done, man can do. I could not find anything
better to illustrate my thought than a story I have told over and over
again, and which is now found in books in nearly every library.

In 1870 we went down the Tigris River. We hired a guide at Bagdad to
show us Persepolis, Nineveh and Babylon, and the ancient countries of
Assyria as far as the Arabian Gulf. He was well acquainted with the
land, but he was one of those guides who love to entertain their
patrons; he was like a barber that tel