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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031194032 
 
STAMMERING 
 ITS CAUSE AND CURE 
 
STAMMERING 
 
 ITS CAUSE AND CURE 
 
 BY 
 
 Benjamin Nathaniel Bogue 
 
 A Chronic Stammerer for Almost Twenty 
 Years; Originator of the Bogus Unit Method 
 of Bestoring Perfect Speech; Founder of the 
 Bogue Institute for Stammerers and Editor 
 of the "Emancipator," a monthly magazine 
 devoted to the interests of Perfect Speech 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 BENJAMIN NATHANIEL BOGUE 
 1920 
 
Copyright 1920 by 
 
 Benjamin Nathaniei, Bogue 
 
 Indianapolis, Ind, 
 
 HAMMOND PRESS 
 B. CONHEY COMPANY 
 CHICAGO 
 
TO MY MOTHER 
 
 That wonderful woman whose unflag- 
 ging courage held me to a task that I 
 never could have completed alone and 
 who when all others failed^ stood hy me, 
 encouraged me and pointed out the 
 heights where lay success — this volume 
 is dedicated 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Preface 11 
 
 PART I-MY LIFE AS A STAMMERER 
 
 I Starting Life Under a Handicap 15 
 
 II My First Attempt to Be Cured 19 
 
 III My Search Continues 27 
 
 IV A Stammerer Hunts a Job 36 
 
 V Further Futile Attempts to Be Cured 40 
 
 VI I Refuse to Be Discouraged 48 
 
 VII The Benefit of Many Failures 51 
 
 VIII Beginning Where Others Had Left Off .... 57 
 
 PART II- STAMMERING AND STUTTERING 
 
 The Causes, Peculiarities, Tendencies 
 and Effects 
 
 I Speech Disorders Defined 62 
 
 II The Causes of Stuttering and Stammering ... 72 
 
 III The Peculiarities of Stuttering and Stammering . 90 
 
 IV The Intermittent Tendency 97 
 
 V The Progressive Tendency 102 
 
 VI Can Stammering and Stuttering Be Outgrown? . 108 
 
 VII The Effect on the Mind 113 
 
 VIII The Effect on the Body 117 
 
 IX Defective Speech in Children 
 
 (1) The Pre-Speaking Period 120 
 
 X Defective Speech in Children 
 
 (2) The Formative Period 128 
 
10 STAMMERING 
 
 XI Defective Speech in Children 
 
 (3) The Speech-Setting Period . . . .136 
 
 XII The Speech Disorders of Youth 144 
 
 XIII Where Does Stammering Lead? 151 
 
 PART III- THE CURE OF STAMMERING 
 AND STUTTERING 
 
 I Can Stammering Really Be Cured? 160 
 
 11 Cases That "Cure Themselves" 164 
 
 III Cases That Cannot Be Cured 167 
 
 IV Can Stammering Be Cured By Mail? 177 
 
 V The Importance of Expert Diagnosis 181 
 
 VI The Secret of Curing Stuttering and Stammering 186 
 
 VII The Bogue Unit Method Described 196 
 
 VIII Some Cases I Have Met 208 
 
 PART IV- SETTING THE TONGUE FREE 
 
 I The Joy of Perfect Speech 230 
 
 II How to Determine Whether You Can Be Cured . 233 
 
 III The Bogue Guarantee and What It Means . . . 236 
 i/^Y The Cure Is Permanent 239 
 
 V A Priceless Gift— An Everlasting Investment . . 243 
 
 VI The Home of Perfect Speech .246 
 
 VII My Mother and The Home Life at the Institute . 255 
 
 t^VIII A Heart-to-Heart Talk With Parents 264 
 
 i/ IX The Dangers of Delay 269 
 
PREFACE 
 
 CONSIDERABLY more than a quarter of 
 a century has elapsed since I purchased my 
 first book on stammering. I still have that quaint 
 little book made up in its typically English style 
 with small pages, small type and yellow paper 
 back — the work of an Enghsh author whose ob- 
 tuse and half-baked theories certainly lent no 
 clarity to the stammerer's understanding of his 
 trouble. Since that first purchase my library of 
 books on stammering has grown until it is per- 
 haps the largest individual collection in the 
 world. I have read these books — ^many of them 
 several times, pondered over the obscurities in 
 some, smiled at the absurdities in others and 
 benefited by the truths in a few. Yet, with all 
 their profound explanations of theories and their 
 verbose defense of hopelessly imscientific meth- 
 ods, the stammerer would be disappointed in- 
 deed, should he attempt to find in the entire 
 collection apractical and understandable discus- 
 sion of his trouble. 
 
 This insufiiciency of existing books on stam- 
 
12 STAMMERING 
 
 mering has encouraged me to bring out the pres- 
 ent volume. It is needed. I know this — because 
 I spent abnost twenty years of my life in a well- 
 nigh futile search for the very knowledge herein 
 revealed. I haimted the libraries, was a famiUar 
 figure in book stores and a frequent visitor to the 
 second-hand dealer. Yet these efforts brought 
 me comparatively little — ^not one-tenth the infor- 
 mation that this book contains. 
 
 Perhaps it is but a colossal conceit that 
 prompts me to offer this volume to those who 
 stutter and stammer as I did. Yet, I cannot but 
 believe that almost twenty years' personal expe- 
 rience as a stammerer plus more than nineteen 
 years' experience in curing speech disorders has 
 supplied me with an intensely practical, valuable 
 and worth-while knowledge on which to base this 
 book. 
 
 After having stammered for twenty years you 
 have pretty well nm the whole gamut of mockery, 
 humiliation and failure. You understand the 
 stammerer's feelings, his mental processes and his 
 peculiarities. 
 
 And when you add to this the best part of an- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 13 
 
 other twenty years, every waking hour of which 
 has been spent in alleviating the stammerer's 
 difficulty — and successfully, too — ^you have a 
 ground-work of first-hand information that tends 
 toward facts instead of fiction and toward prac- 
 tice instead of theory. 
 
 These are my qualifications. 
 
 I have spent a life-time in studying stammer- 
 ing, stuttering and kindred speech defects. I 
 have written this book out of the fullness of that 
 experience — I might almost say out of my daily 
 work. I. have made no attempt at literary style 
 or rhetorical excellence and while the work may 
 be homely in expression the information it con- 
 tains is definite and positive — and what is more 
 important — ^it is authoritative. 
 
 I hope the reader wiU find the book useful — 
 yes, and helpful. I hope he will find in it the 
 way to Freedom of Speech — ^his birthright and 
 the birthright of every man. 
 
 Benjamin Nathaniel Bogue 
 
 Indianapolis 
 October, 1920 
 
STAMMERING 
 
 Its Cause and Cure 
 
 PART I 
 
 MY LIFE AS A STAMMERER 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 STARTING LIFE UNDER A HANDICAP 
 
 I WAS laughed at for nearly twenty years 
 because I stammered, I found school a bur- 
 den, college a practical impossibility and life a 
 misery because of my affliction. 
 
 I was born in Wabash county, Indiana, and as 
 far back as I can remember, there was never a 
 time when I did not starmner or stutter. So far 
 as I know, the halting utterance came with the 
 first word I spoke and for almost twenty years 
 this difficulty continued to dog me relentlessly. 
 
 When six years of age, I went to the little 
 school house down the road, little realizing what 
 I was to go through with there before I left. 
 
16 STAMMERING 
 
 Previous to the time I entered school, those 
 around me were my family, my relatives and my 
 friends — people who were very kind and con- 
 siderate, who never spoke of my difficulty in my 
 presence, and certainly never laughed at me. 
 
 At school, it was quite another matter. It was 
 fun for the other boys to hear me speak and it 
 was common pastime with them to get me to talk 
 whenever possible. They would jibe and jeer — 
 and then ask, "What did you say? Why don't 
 you learn to talk English?" Their best enter- 
 tainment was to tease and mock me until I 
 became angry, taunt me when I did, and ridicule 
 me at every turn. 
 
 It was not only in the school yard and going 
 to and from school that I suffered — ^but also in 
 class. When I got up to recite, what a spectacle 
 I made, hesitating over every other word, stvun- 
 bling along, gasping for breath, waiting while 
 speech returned to me. And how they laughed 
 at me — for then I was helpless to defend my- 
 self. True, my teachers tried to be kind to me, 
 but that did not make me talk normally like other 
 children, nor did it always prevent the others 
 from laughing at me. 
 
 The reader can imagine my state of mind dur- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 17 
 
 ing these school days. I fairly hated even to 
 start to school in the morning — ^not because I dis- 
 liked to go to school, but because I was sure to 
 meet some of my taunting comrades, sure to be 
 humiliated and laughed at because I stammered. 
 And having reached the school room I had to face 
 the prospect of failing every time I stood up on 
 my feet and tried to recite. 
 
 There were four things I looked forward to 
 with positive dread — the trip to school, the recita- 
 tions in class, recess in the school yard and the 
 trip home again. It makes me shudder even now 
 to think of those days — the dread with which I 
 left that home of mine every school day morn- 
 ing, the nervous strain, the torment and torture, 
 and the constant fear of failure which never left 
 me. Imagine my thoughts as I left parents and 
 friends to face the ribald laughter of those who 
 did not understand. I asked myself: "Well, 
 what new disgrace today? Whom will I meet 
 this morning? What will the teacher say when 
 I stumble? How shall I get through recess? 
 What is the" easiest way home? 
 
 These and a hundred other questions, born of 
 nervousness and fear, I asked myself morning 
 after morning. And day after day, as the hours 
 
18 STAMMERING 
 
 dragged by, I would wonder, "Will this day 
 never end? Will I never get out of this? 
 
 Such was my life in school. And such is the 
 daily life of thousands of boys and hundreds of 
 girls — a, life of dread, of constant fear, of endless 
 worry and unceasing nervousness. 
 
 But, as I look back at the boys and girls who 
 helped to make life miserable for me in school, 
 I feel for them only kindness. I bear no mahce. 
 They did no more than their fathers and mothers, 
 many of them, would have done. They little 
 realized what they were doing. They had no in- 
 tention to do me personal injury, though there 
 is no question in my mind but that they made my 
 trouble worse. They did not know how terribly 
 they were punishing me. They saw in my afflic- 
 tion only fun, while I saw in it — only misery. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 MY FIRST ATTEMPT TO BE CUBED 
 
 I CAN remember very clearly the positive fear 
 which always accompanied a visit to our 
 friends or neighbors, or the advent of visitors at 
 my home. Many a time I did not have what I 
 desired to eat because I was afraid to ask for it. 
 When I did ask, every eye was turned on me, 
 and the looks of the strangers, with now and 
 then a half -suppressed smile, worked me up to a 
 nervous state that was almost hysterical, causing 
 me to stutter worse than at any other time. 
 
 At one time — I do not remember now what the 
 occasion was — a nimiber of people had come to 
 visit us. A large table had been set and loaded 
 with good things. We sat down, the many dishes 
 were passed around the table, as was the custom 
 at our home, and I said not a word. But before 
 long the first helping was gone — a hungry boy 
 soon cleans his plate — ^and I was about to ask for 
 more when I bethought niyself. "Please pass — " 
 I could never do it — "p" was one of the hard 
 sounds for me. "Please pass — " No, I couldn't 
 
20 STAMMERING 
 
 do it. So busying myself with the things that 
 were near at hand and helping myself to those 
 things which came my way, I made out the meal 
 — but I got up from the table hungry, and with 
 a deeper consciousness of the awfulness of my 
 affliction. Slowly it began to dawn on me that 
 as long as I stammered, I was doomed to do with- 
 out much of the world's goods. I began to see 
 that although I might for a time sit at the 
 World's Table of Good Things in Life, I could 
 hope to have little save that which someone 
 passed on to me gratuitously. 
 
 As long as I Avas at home with my parents, 
 life went along fairly well. They understood my 
 difficulty, they sympathized with me,- and they 
 looked at my trouble in the same light as myself 
 — as an affliction much to be regretted. At home 
 I was not required to do anything which would 
 embarrass me or cause me to become highly 
 excited because of my straining to talk, but on 
 the other hand I was permitted to do things 
 which I could do well, without talking to 
 any one. 
 
 The time was coming, however, when it would 
 be "Sink or Swim" for me, since it would not be 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 21 
 
 many years until a sense of duty, if nothing else, 
 would send me out to make my own way. This 
 time comes to all boys. It was soon to be my 
 task to face the world — ^to make a living for 
 myself. And this was a thing which, strangely 
 enough for a boy of my age, I began to think 
 about. I had some experience in meeting people 
 and in trying to transact some of the minor busi- 
 ness connected with our farm and I found out 
 that I had no chance along that line as long as 
 I stammered. 
 
 And yet it seemed as if I was to be compelled 
 to continue to stammer the rest of my life, for 
 my condition was getting worse every day. This 
 was very clear to me — and very plain to my 
 parents. They were anxious to do something for 
 me and do it quickly, so they called in a skilled 
 physician. They told him about my trouble. He 
 gave me a cursory examination and decided that 
 my stuttering was caused by nervousness, and 
 gave me some very distasteful medicine, which I 
 was compelled to take three times a day. This 
 medicine did me no good. I took it for five years, 
 but there was no progress made toward curing 
 my stuttering. The reason was simple. Stutter- 
 
22 STAMMERING 
 
 ing cannot be cured by bitter medicine. The 
 physician was using the wrong method. He was 
 treating the effect and not the cause. He was 
 of the opinion that it was the nervousness that 
 caused my stuttering, whereas the fact of the 
 matter was, it was my stuttering that caused the 
 nervousness. 
 
 I do not blame this physician in the least be- 
 cause of his failure, for he was not an expert on 
 the subject of speech defects. While he was a 
 medical man of known ability, he had not made 
 a study of speech disorders and knew practically 
 nothing about either the cause or cure of stam.- 
 mering or stuttering. Even today, prominent 
 medical men wiU tell you that their profession has 
 given little or no attention to defects of speech 
 and take httle interest in such cases. 
 
 Some time later, after the physician had failed 
 to benefit me, a travehng medicine man came to 
 our community, set up his tent, and stayed for 
 a week. Of course, like all traveling medicine 
 men, his remedies were cure-alls. One night in 
 making his talk before the crowd, he mentioned 
 the fact that his wonderful concoction, taken 
 with the pamphlet that he would furnish, both 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 23 
 
 for the sum of one dollar, would cure stammer- 
 ing. I didn't have the dollar, so I did not buy. 
 But the next day I went back, and I took the dol- 
 lar along. He got my dollar, and I still have the 
 book. Of course, I received no benefit what- 
 ever. I later came to the conclusion that the 
 medicine man had been in the neighborhood 
 long enough to have pointed out to him "Ben 
 Bogue's Boy Who Stutters" (as I was known) 
 and had decided that when I was in his audience a 
 hint or two on the virtues of his wonderful remedy 
 in cases of stammering, would be sufficient to 
 extract a dollar from me for a tryout. 
 
 These experiences, however, were valuable to 
 me, even though they were costly, for they taught 
 me a badly-needed lesson, to wit: That drugs 
 and medicines are not a cure for stammering. 
 
 Many of the people who came in contact with 
 me, and those who talked the matter over with 
 my parents, said that I would outgrow the 
 trouble. "All that is necessary," remarked one 
 man, "is for him to forget that he stammers, and 
 the trouble will be gone." 
 
 This was a rather foolish suggestion and sim- 
 ply proved how little the man knew about the 
 
24 STAMMERING 
 
 subject. In the first place, a stammerer cannot 
 forget his difficulty — who can say that he would 
 be cured if he did? You might as well say to a 
 man holding a hot poker, "If you will only forget 
 that the poker is hot, it will be cool." It takes 
 something more than forgetfulness to cure 
 stammering. 
 
 The behef held by both my parents and myself 
 that I would outgrow my difficulty was one of 
 the gravest mistakes we ever made. Had I fol- 
 lowed the advice of others who believed in the 
 outgrowing theory it eventually would have 
 caused me to bcome a confirmed stammerer, 
 entirely beyond hope of cure. 
 
 Today, as a result of nineteen years' daily con- 
 tact with stammerers, I know that stammering 
 cannot be outgrown. The man who suggests that 
 it is possible to cure stammering by outgrowing 
 it is doing a great injustice to the stammerer, 
 because he is giving him a false hope — ^in fact the 
 most futile hope that any stammerer ever had. I 
 wish I could paint in the sky, in letters of fire, the 
 truth that "Stammering cannot be outgrown," 
 because this, of all things, is the most frequent 
 pitfall of the stammerer, his greatest delusion and 
 one of the most prolific causes of continued suffer- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 25 
 
 ing. I know whereof I speak, because I tried it 
 myself. I know how many different people held 
 up to me the hope that I would outgrow it. 
 
 My father offered me a valuable shotgun if I 
 would stop stammering. My mother offered me 
 money, a watch and a horse and buggy. These 
 inducements made me strain every nerve to stop 
 my imperfect utterance, but all to no avail. At 
 this time I knew nothing of the underlying prin- 
 ciples of speech and any effort which I made to 
 stop my stammering was merely a crude, misdi- 
 rected attempt which naturally had no chances 
 for success. 
 
 I learned that prizes will never cure stammer- 
 ing. I found out too, something I have never 
 since forgotten: that the man, woman or child 
 who stammers needs no inducement to cause him 
 to desire to be cured, because the change from 
 his condition as a stammerer to that of a non- 
 stammerer is of more inducement to the sufferer 
 than all the money you could offer him. I have 
 never yet seen a man, woman or child who wanted 
 to stammer or stutter. 
 
 The offer of prizes doing no good, I took long 
 trips to get my mind off the affliction. I did 
 
26 STAMMERING 
 
 everything in my power, worked almost day and 
 night, exerted every effort I could command — ^it 
 was all in vain. 
 
 The idea that I would finally outgrow my 
 difiiculty was strengthened in the minds of my 
 parents and friends by the fact that there were 
 times when my impediment seemed almost to dis- 
 appear, but to our surprise and disappointment, 
 it always came back again, each time in a more 
 aggravated form ; each time with a stronger hold 
 upon me than ever before. 
 
 I found out, then, one of the fundamental 
 characteristics of stammering — its intermittent 
 tendency. In other words, I discovered that a 
 partial relief from the difficulty was one of the 
 true symptoms of the malady. And I learned 
 further that this relief is only temporary and not 
 what we first thought it to be, viz: a sign that the 
 disorder was leaving. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 MY SEARCH CONTINUES 
 
 MY parents' efforts to have me cured, how- 
 ever, did not cease with my visit to the 
 medicine man. We were still looking for some- 
 thing that would bring relief. My teacher. Miss 
 Cora Critchlow, handed me an advertisement one 
 day, telling me of a man who claimed to be able 
 to cure stammering by mail. In the hope that I 
 would get some good from the treatment, my 
 parents sent this mail order man a large sum of 
 money. In return for this I was furnished with 
 instructions to do a number of useless things, such 
 as holding toothpicks between my teeth, talking 
 through my nose, whistling before I spoke a 
 word, and many other foolish things. It was at 
 this time that I learned once and for all, the 
 imprudence of throwing money away on these 
 mail order "cures," so-called, and I made up my 
 mind to bother no more with this man and his 
 kind. 
 
 So far as the mail order instructions were con- 
 cerned, they were crude and imscientific — ^merely 
 
28 STAMMERING 
 
 a hodge-podge of pseudo-technical phraseology 
 and crass ignorance — a meaningless jargon 
 scarcely intelligible to the most highly educated, 
 and practically impossible of interpretation by 
 the average stammerer who was supposed to fol- 
 low the course. Even after I had, by persistent 
 effort, interpreted the instructions and followed 
 them closely for many months, there was not a 
 sign of the slightest relief from my trouble. It 
 was evident to me even then that I could never 
 cure myself by following a mail cure. 
 
 Today, after nineteen years of experience in 
 the cure of stammering, I can say with full 
 authority, that stammering cannot be successfully 
 treated by mail. The very nature of the diffi- 
 culty, as well as the method of treatment, make 
 it impossible to put the instructions into print or 
 to have the stammerer follow out the method 
 from a printed sheet. 
 
 As I approached manhood, my impediment 
 began to get worse. My stuttering changed to 
 stammering. Instead of rapidly repeating words, 
 I was unable to begin a word. I stood trans- 
 fixed, my limbs drawing themselves into all kinds 
 of unnatural positions. There were violent spas- 
 modic movements of the head, and contractions 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 29 
 
 of my whole body. The muscles of my throat 
 would swell, affecting the respiratory organs, 
 and causing a curious barking sound. When I 
 finally got started, I would utter the first part of 
 the sentence slowly, gradually increase the speed, 
 and make a rush toward the end. 
 
 At other times, when attempting to speak, my 
 lips would pucker up, firmly set together, and 
 I would be unable to separate them, until my 
 breath was exhausted. Then I would gasp for 
 more breath, struggling with the words I desired 
 to speak, until the veins of my forehead would 
 swell, my face would become red, and I would 
 sink back, wholly unable to express myself, and 
 usually being obhged to resort to writing. 
 
 These paroxysms left me extremely nervous 
 and in a seriously weakened condition. After 
 one of these attacks, the cold perspiration would 
 break out on my forehead in great beads and I 
 would sink into the nearest chair, where I would 
 be compelled to remain until I had regained my 
 strength. 
 
 My affliction was taking all my energy, sap- 
 ping my strength, deadening my mental facul- 
 ties, and placing me at a hopeless disadvantage 
 in every way. I could do nothing that other 
 
30 STAMMERING 
 
 people did. I appeared unnatural. I was nerv- 
 ous, irritable, despondent. This despondency 
 now brought about a peculiar condition. I began 
 to believe that everyone was more or less an 
 enemy of mine. And still worse, I came to 
 beheve that I was an enemy of myself, which 
 f eehng threw me into despair, the depths of which 
 I do not wish to recall, even now. 
 
 I was not only miserably unhappy myself, 
 I made everyone else around me unhappy, 
 although I did it, not intentionally, but because 
 my affliction had caused me to lose control of 
 myself. 
 
 In this condition, my nerves were strained to 
 the breaking point all day long, and many a night 
 I can remember crying myself to sleep — rcrying 
 purely to relieve that stored-up nervous tension, 
 and falling off to sleep as a result of exhaustion. 
 
 As I said before, there were periods of grace 
 when the trouble seemed almost to vanish and I 
 would be delighted to believe that perhaps it was 
 gone forever — happy hope! But it was but a 
 delusion, a mirage in the distance, a new road to 
 lead me astray. The affliction always returned, 
 as every stammerer knows — returned worse than 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 31 
 
 before. All the hopes that I would outgrow my 
 trouble, were found to be false hopes. For me, 
 there was no such thing as outgrowing it and I 
 have since discovered that after the age of six 
 only one-fifth of one per cent ever outgrow the 
 trouble. 
 
 Another thing which I always thought peculiar 
 when I was a stammerer was the fact that I had 
 practically no difficulty in talking to animals 
 when I was alone with them. I remember very 
 well that we had a large bulldog called Jim, 
 which I was very fond of, I used to believe that 
 Jim understood my troubles better than any 
 friend I had, unless it was Old Sol, our family 
 driving horse. 
 
 Jim used to go with me on all my jaunts — I 
 could talk to him by the hour and never stammer 
 a word. And Old Sol — ^well, when everything 
 seemed to be going against me, I used to go out 
 and talk things over with Old Sol. Somehow 
 he seemed to imderstand — ^he used to whinney 
 softly and rub his nose against my shoulder as 
 if to says "I understand, Bennie, I understand!" 
 
 Somehow my father had discovered this pe- 
 culiarity of my affliction — that is, my ability to 
 talk to animals or when alone. Something sug- 
 
32 STAMMERING 
 
 gested to him that my stammering could be 
 cured, if I could be kept by myself for several 
 weeks. With this thought in mind, he suggested 
 that I go on a hunting and fishing trip in the 
 wilds of the northwest, taking no guide, no com- 
 panion of any sort, so that there would be no 
 necessity of my speaking to any human being 
 while I was gone. 
 
 My father's idea was that if my vocal organs 
 had a complete rest, I would be restored to per- 
 fect speech. As I afterwards proved to my own 
 satisfaction by actual trial, this idea was entirely 
 wrong. You can not hope to restore the proper 
 action of your vocal organs by ceasing to use 
 them. The proper functioning of any bodily 
 organ is the result, not of ceasing to use it at all, 
 but rather of using it correctly. 
 
 This can be very easily proven to the satisfac- 
 tion of any one. Take the case of the small boy 
 who boasts of his muscle. He is conscious of an 
 increasing strength in the muscles of his arm not 
 because he has failed to use these muscles but 
 because he has used them continually, causing a 
 faster-than-ordinary development. 
 
 You can readily imagine that I looked forward 
 to my "vacation" with keen anticipation, for I 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 33 
 
 had never been up in the northwest and I was 
 full of stories I had read and ideas I had formed 
 of its wonders. 
 
 The trip, lasting two weeks, did me scarcely 
 any good at all. The most I can say for it is 
 that it quieted my nerves and put me in some- 
 what better physical condition, which a couple of 
 weeks in the outdoor country would do for any 
 growing boy. 
 
 But this trip did not cure my stammering, nor 
 did it tend to alleviate the intensity of the trouble 
 in the least, save through a lessened nervous state 
 for a few days. Today, after nineteen years' 
 experience, I know that it would be just as 
 sensible to say that a wagon stuck in the soft mud 
 would get out by "resting" there as it is to say 
 that stammering can be eradicated by allowing 
 the vocal organs to rest through disuse. 
 
 Shortly after my return from the trip to the 
 northwest, my father died, with the result that 
 our household was, for a time, very much broken 
 up. For a while, at least, my stammering, though 
 not forgotten, did not receive a great deal of 
 attention, for there were many other things to 
 think about. 
 
 The summer following my father's death, how- 
 
34 STAMMERING 
 
 ever, I began again my so-far fruitless search for 
 a cure for my stammering, this time placing 
 myself under the care and instruction of a man 
 claiming to be "The World's Greatest Specialist 
 in the Cure of Stammering." He may have been 
 the world's greatest specialist, but not in the cure 
 of stammering. He did succeed, however, by the 
 use of his absurd methods, in putting me through 
 a course that resulted in the membrane and lining 
 of my throat and vocal organs becoming irritated 
 and inflamed to such an extent that I was com- 
 pelled to undergo treatment for a throat affec- 
 tion that thi'eatened to be as serious as the stam- 
 mering itseK, 
 
 I tried everything that came to my attention — 
 first one thing and then another — but without 
 results. Still I refused to be discouraged. I kept 
 on and on, my mother constantly encouraging 
 and reassuring me. And you will later see that 
 I foxmd a method that cured me. 
 
 There are always those who stand idly about 
 and say, "It can't be done!" Such people as 
 these laughed at Ftilton with his steamboat, they 
 laughed at Stephenson and his steam locomotive, 
 they laughed at Wright and the airplane. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 35 
 
 They say, "It can't be done" — but it is done, 
 nevertheless. 
 
 I turned a deaf ear to the people who tried to 
 convince me that it couldn't be done. I had a 
 firm behef in that old adage, "Where there is a 
 will there is a way," and I made another of my 
 own, which said, "I will find a way or make one !" 
 
 And I did! 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 A STAMMEEEB HUNTS A JOB 
 
 AFTER recovering from my sad experiment 
 with the "Wonderful Speciahst," I did not 
 want to go home and listen to the Anvil Chorus 
 of "It Can't Be Done!" and "I Told You So!" 
 I had no desire to be the object of laughter as 
 well as pity. So I tried to get a job in that same 
 city. I went from office to office — ^but nobody 
 had a job for a man who stammered. 
 
 Finally I did land a job, however, such as it 
 was. My duties were to operate the elevator in 
 a hotel. How I managed to get that job, I often 
 wonder now, for nobody on whom I called had 
 any place for a boy or man who stammered. I 
 thought it would be easy to find a job where I 
 wouldn't need to talk, but when I started out to 
 look for this job, I found it wasn't so easy after 
 all. Almost any job requires a man who can 
 talk. This I had learned in my own search for a 
 place. But somehow or other, I managed to get 
 that job as elevator boy in a hotel. 
 
 For the work as elevator boy I was paid three 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 37 
 
 dollars a week. Wasn't that great pay for a man 
 grown? But that's what I got._ 
 
 That is, I got it for a little while, until I lost 
 my job. For lose it I did before very long. I 
 found out that I couldn't do much with even an 
 elevator boy's job at three dollars a week unless 
 I could talk. My employer found it out, too, and 
 then he found somebody who could take my place 
 — a boy who could answer when spoken to. 
 
 Well, here I was out of a job again. I am 
 afraid I came pretty near being discouraged 
 about that time. Things looked pretty hopeless 
 for me — it was mighty hard work to get a job 
 and the place didn't last long after I had 
 gotten it. 
 
 But, nevertheless, the only thing to do was to 
 try again. I started the search all over again. 
 I tried first one place and then another. One 
 man wanted me to start out as a salesman. He 
 showed me how I could make more money than 
 I had ever made in my life — convinced me that I 
 could make it. Then I started to tell my part of 
 the story — but I didn't get very far before he 
 discovered that I was a stammerer. That was 
 enough for him — -with a gesture of hopelessness, 
 he turned to his desk. "You'll never do, young 
 
38 STAMMERING 
 
 man, you'll- never do. You can't even talk!!" 
 And the worst of it was that he was right. 
 
 I once thought I had landed a job as stock 
 chaser in a factory, but here, too, stammering 
 barred the way, for they told me that even the 
 stock chaser had to be able to deliver verbal mes- 
 sages from one foreman to another. I didn't 
 dare to try that. 
 
 Eventually, I drifted around to the Union 
 News Company. They wanted a boy to sell 
 newspapers on trains running out over the Grand 
 Trunk Railway. I took the job — ^the last job in 
 the world I should have expected to hold, because 
 of all the places a newsboy's job is one where you 
 need to have a voice and the ability to talk. 
 
 I hope no stanmierer ever has a position that 
 causes him as much humiliation and suffering as 
 that job caused me. You can imagine what it 
 meant to me to go up and down the aisles of the 
 train, calling papers and every few moments 
 finding out that I couldn't say what I started out 
 to say and then go gasping and grunting down 
 the aisle making all sorts of facial grimaces. 
 
 How the passengers laughed at me ! And how 
 they made fun of me and asked me all sorts of 
 questions just to hear me try to talk. It almost 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUKE 39 
 
 made me wish I could never see a human being 
 again, so keen was the suffering and so tense were 
 my nerves as a result of this work. 
 
 I don't believe I ever did anything that kept 
 me in a more frenzied mental state than this 
 work of trying to sell newspapers — and it wasn't 
 very long (as I had expected) until the manager 
 found out my situation and gently let me out. 
 
 Then I gave up, all at once. Was I discour- 
 aged? Well, perhaps. But not exactly discour- 
 aged. Rather I saw the plain hopelessness of 
 trying to get or hold a job in my condition. So 
 I prepared to go home. I didn't want to do it, 
 because I knew the neighbors and friends roimd 
 about would be ready for me with, "I told you 
 so" and "I knew it couldn't be done" and a lot 
 of gratuitous information hke that. 
 
 But I gave up, nevertheless, deeply disap- 
 pointed to think that once again I had failed to 
 be cured of stammering, yet all the while resolv- 
 ing just as firmly as ever that I would try again 
 and that I would never give up hope as long as 
 there remained anything for me to do. 
 
 And this rule I followed out, month after 
 month and year after year, until in the end I was 
 richly rewarded for my patience and persistence. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 FURTHER FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO BE CURED 
 
 THE next summer I decided to visit eastern 
 institutions for the cure of stammering and 
 determine if these could do any more for me than 
 had already been done — which as the reader has 
 seen, was practically nothing. I bought a ticket 
 for Philadelphia, where I remained for some 
 time, and where I gained more information of 
 value than in all of my previous efforts combined. 
 I found in the Quaker City an old man who 
 had made speech defects almost a life study. He 
 knew more about the true principles of speech 
 and the underlying fundamentals in the produc- 
 tion of voice than all of the rest put together. 
 He taught me these things, and gave me a solid 
 foundation on which to build. True, he did not 
 cure my stammering. But that was not because 
 he failed to understand its cause, but merely be- 
 cause he had not worked out the correct method 
 of removing the cause. 
 
 It was this man who first brought home to me 
 the fact that principles of speech are constant, 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUKE 41 
 
 that they never change and that every person 
 who talks normally follows out the same princi- 
 ples of speech, while every person who stutters 
 or stammers violates these principles of speech. 
 That is the basis of sound procedure for the cure 
 of stammering and I must acknowledge my in- 
 debtedness to this sincere old gentleman who did 
 so much for me in the way of knowledge, even 
 though he did but little for me in the way of 
 results. 
 
 After leaving Philadelphia, I visited Pitts- 
 burgh, Baltimore, Washington, New York, Bos- 
 ton and other eastern cities, searching for a cure, 
 but did not find it. I was benefited very httle. 
 These experiences, however, all possessed a cer- 
 tain value, although I did not know it at the time. 
 They taught me the things which would not work 
 and by a simple process of elimination I later 
 found the things which would. 
 
 Finally, however, having become disgusted 
 with my eastern trip, I bought a ticket for home 
 and boarded the train more nearly convinced 
 than ever that I had an incurable case of stam- 
 mering. 
 
 Some time after trying my experiment with 
 the eastern schools, I saw the advertisement of 
 
42 STAMMERING 
 
 a professor from Chicago saying that he would 
 be at Fort Wayne, Indiana, (which was 40 miles 
 from my home) , for a week. 
 
 He was there. So was I. But to my sorrow. 
 I paid him twenty dollars for which he taught me 
 a few simple breathing and vocal exercises, most 
 of which I already knew by heart, having been 
 drilled in them time and again. This fellow was 
 like so many others who claimed to cure stam- 
 mering — he was in the business just because 
 there were stammerers to cure, and not because 
 he knew anything about it. He treated the ef- 
 fects of the trouble and did not attempt to re- 
 move the cause. The fact of the matter is, I 
 doubt whether he knew anything about the cause. 
 
 Then one Sunday while reading a Cincinnati 
 Simday newspaper, I ran across an advertise- 
 ment of a School of Elocution, in which was the 
 statement, "Stammering Positively Cured!" 
 Whenever I saw a sign "Vocal Culture" I be- 
 came interested, so I clipped the advertisement, 
 corresponded with the school and not many Sun- 
 days later, being able to secure excursion rates to 
 Cincinnati, I made the trip and prepared to begin 
 my work. 
 
 The cost of the course was only fifty dollars 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 43 
 
 and I thought I would be getting cured mighty 
 cheap if I succeeded. So I gave this school a 
 "whirl" with the idea of going back home in a 
 short time cured — ^to the surprise of my family 
 and friends. But I was doomed to disappoint- 
 ment. I took the twenty lessons, but went home 
 stammering as badly as ever. You can imagine 
 how I felt as the Big Four train whistled at 
 the Wabash river just before pulling into the 
 Wabash station, where I was to get off. 
 
 Here was another failure that could be checked 
 up against the instructor who knew nothing 
 whatever about the cause of stammering. The 
 whole idea of the course was to cultivate voice 
 and make me an orator. That was very fine and 
 would, no doubt, have done me a great deal of 
 good, but it was of no use to try to cultivate a 
 fine voice until I could use that voice in the 
 normal way. The finest voice in the world is of 
 no use if you stammer, and cannot use it. The 
 school of elocution went the same way as all the 
 rest — it was a total failure so far as curing my 
 stammering was concerned. 
 
 By this time, my effort to be cured of stam- 
 mering had become a habit, just as eating and 
 sleeping are habits. I was determined to be 
 
4!4! STAMMERING 
 
 cured. I made up my mind I would never give 
 up. True, I often said to myself, "I may never 
 be cured," but in the same breath I resolved that 
 if I was not, it could never be said that it was 
 because I was a "quitter." 
 
 My next experiment was with a man who 
 claimed he could cure my stammering in one hour. 
 Think of it. Here I had been, spending weeks 
 and months trying out just one way of cure 
 and here was a man who could do the whole job 
 in one hour. Wonderful power he must possess, 
 I thought. Of course, I did not believe he could 
 do it. I could not believe it. It was not believ- 
 able. But nevertheless, in my effort to be cured, 
 I had resolved to leave no stone unturned. I 
 made up my mind that the only way to be sure 
 that I was not missing the successful method was 
 to try them all. 
 
 So I put myself under this man's hand. He 
 was a hypnotist. He felt able to restore speech 
 with a hypnotic sleep and the proper hypnotic 
 suggestion while I was in the trance. But like 
 all the fake fol-de-rol with which I had come in 
 contact, he did not even make an impression. 
 
 I will say in behalf of this hypnotic stammer 
 doctor, however, that he was following distin- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 45 
 
 guished precedent in attempting to cure stam- 
 mering by hypnotism. German professors in 
 particular have been especially zealous in follow- 
 ing out this line of endeavor and many of them 
 have written volumes on the subject only to end 
 up with the conclusion (in their own minds, at 
 least) that it is a failure. Hypnotism may be 
 said to be a condition where the will of the sub- 
 ject is entirely dormant and his every act and 
 thought controlled by the mind of the hypnotist. 
 I do not know, not having been conscious at the 
 time, but it is not improbable that while in the 
 hypnotic state, I was able to talk without stam- 
 mering, since my words were directed by the 
 mind of the professor, and not by my own mind. 
 But inasmuch as I couldn't have the professor 
 carried around with me through the rest of my 
 lifetime in order to use his mind, the treatment 
 could not benefit me. 
 
 I next got in touch with an honest-looking old 
 man with a beard like one of the prophets, who 
 assured me with a great deal of professional dig- 
 nity, that stammering was a mere trifle for a 
 magnetic healer like himself and that he could 
 cure it entirely in ten treatments. So I planked 
 down the specified amount for ten treatments. 
 
46 STAMMERING 
 
 and went to him regularly three times a week for 
 almost a month, when he explained to me, again 
 with a plenitude of professionalism, that my case 
 was a very peculiar one and that it would require 
 ten more treatments. But I could not figure out 
 how, if ten treatments had done me no good, ten 
 more would do any better. So I declined to try 
 his methods any further. Once again I said to 
 myself, "Well, this has failed, too — I wonder 
 what next?" 
 
 The next happened to be electrical treatments. 
 When I visited the electrical treatment specialist, 
 he explained to me in a very effective manner 
 just how (according to his views) stanunering 
 was caused by certain contractions of the muscles 
 of the vocal organs, etc., and told me that his 
 treatment surely was the thing to eliminate this 
 contraction and leave my speech entirely free 
 from stammering. I knew something about my 
 stammering then, but not a great deal — conse- 
 quently his explanation sounded plausible to me 
 and appealed to me as being very sensible and 
 so I decided to give it a trial. I was glad after 
 it was over that I had received no bad effects — 
 that was all the cause I had to be glad, for he 
 had not changed my stammering one iota, nor 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 47 
 
 had he changed my speech in any way to make it 
 easier for me to talk. Thus, had I found anothei 
 one of the things that will not work and chalked 
 up another failure against my attempts to be 
 cured of stammering. 
 
 By this time, the reader may well wonder why 
 I was not discouraged in my efforts to be cured. 
 Well, who will say that I was not? I believe I 
 was — as far as it was possible for me to be dis- 
 couraged at that time. But despite all my fail- 
 ures, I had made up my mind never to give up 
 until I was cured of stammering. I set myself 
 doggedly to the task of ridding myself of an 
 impediment that I knew would always hold me 
 down and prevent any measure of success. I 
 stayed with this task. I never gave up. I kept 
 this one thing always in mind. It was a life job 
 with me if necessary — and I was not a "quitter." 
 So failures and discom-agements simply steeled 
 me to more intense endeavors to be cured. And 
 while these endeavors cost my parents many hun- 
 dreds of dollars and cost me many years of time, 
 still, I feel today that they were worth while — ^not 
 worth while enough to go through again, or worth 
 while enough to recommend to any one else — ^but 
 at least not a total loss to me. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 I REFUSE TO BE DISCOURAGED 
 
 AFTER I had tried the electric treatment and 
 found it wanting, I heard of a clairvoyant 
 who could, by looking at a person, tell his name, 
 age, occupation, place of residence, etc., and 
 could cure all diseases and afflictions including 
 stammering. So I thought I would give him a 
 trial. He claimed to work through a "greater 
 power" — whatever that was — and so I paid him 
 his fee to see the "greater power" work — and to 
 be cured of stammering, as per promise. But 
 there was nothing doing in the line of a Cure — 
 all I got in trying to be cured, was another chap- 
 ter added to my book of experience. 
 
 Following this experience, I tried an osteo- 
 path, whose methods, however good they might 
 have been, affected merely the physical organs 
 and could not hope to reach the real cause Of my 
 trouble. I do not doubt that this man was en- 
 tirely sincere in explaining his own science to me 
 in a way that led me to build up hopes of relief 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 49 
 
 from that method. He simply did not under- 
 stand stammering and its causes and was there- 
 fore not prepared to treat it. 
 
 I was told of another doctor who claimed to 
 be able to cure stammering. When I called to 
 see him, he had me wait in his reception room for 
 nearly two hours, for the purpose, I presume, of 
 giving me the impression that he was a very busy 
 man. Then he called me into his private consul- 
 tation room, where he apparently had all of the 
 modern and up-to-date surgical instruments. He 
 put me through a thorough examination, after 
 which he said that the only thing to cure me was 
 a surgical operation to have my tonsils removed. 
 I was not willing to consent to the use of the 
 knife, so therefore the operation was never per- 
 formed. 
 
 Since that time, however, the practice of oper- 
 ating on children especially for the removal of 
 adenoids and tonsils has become very popular and 
 quite frequently this is the remedy prescribed for 
 various and sundry ailments of childhood. In no 
 case must a parent expect to eradicate stuttering 
 or stammering by the removal of the tonsils. The 
 operation, beneficial as it may be in other ways. 
 
50 STAMMERING 
 
 does not prevent the child from stammering — for 
 the operation does not remove the cause of the 
 stammering — that cause is mental, not physical. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE BENEFIT OF MANY FAILURES 
 
 I HAD now tried upwards of fifteen diiferent 
 methods for the cure of my stammering. I 
 had tried the physician; the surgeon; the elocu- 
 tion teacher; the hypnotic specialist; the osteo- 
 path; a clairvoyant; a mail-order scheme; the 
 world's greatest speech specialist — so-called, and 
 several other things. My parents had spent hun- 
 dreds of dollars of money trying to have me 
 cured. They had spared no effort, stopped at no 
 cost. And yet I now stammered worse than I 
 had ever stammered before. Everything I had 
 tried had been a worthless failure. Nothing had 
 been of the least permanent good to me. My 
 money was gone, months of time had been wasted 
 and I now began to wonder if I had not been 
 very foolish indeed, in going to first one man and 
 then another, trying to be cured. "Wouldn't it 
 have been better," I asked, "if I had resigned 
 myself to a life as a stammerer and let it go at 
 that?" 
 
 My father before me stammered. So did my 
 grandfather and no less than fourteen of my 
 
52 STAMMERING 
 
 I blood relations. My affliction was inherited and 
 I therefore supposedly incurable. At least so I 
 was told by honest physicians and other scientific 
 observers who beUeved what they said and who 
 had no desire to make any personal gain by 
 trafficking in my infirmity. These men told me 
 frankly that their skill and knowledge held out 
 no hope for me and advised me from the very 
 beginning to save my money and avoid the pit- 
 falls of the many who would profess to be able to 
 cure me. 
 
 But I had disregarded this honest advice, sin- 
 cerely given, had spent my money and my time — 
 and what had I gotten? Would I not have been 
 better off if I had listened to the advice and 
 stayed at home? Everything seemed to answer 
 "Yes," but down in my heart I felt that things 
 were better as they were. Certainly some good 
 must come of all this effort — surely it could not 
 all be wasted. 
 
 "But yet," I argued with myself, "what good 
 can come of it?" Stammering was fast ruining 
 my life. It had already taken the joy out of my 
 childhood and had made school a task almost too 
 heavy to be xmdertaken. It had marked my youth 
 with a somber melancholy, and now that youth 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 53 
 
 was slipping away from me with no hope that the 
 future held anything better for me than the past. 
 Something had to be done. I was overpowered 
 by that thought — something had to be done. It 
 had to be done at once. I had come to the turn- 
 ing point in my life. Like Hamlet, I f oimd my- 
 self repeating over and over again, 
 
 "To be or not to he. 
 That is the question." 
 
 Was I discouraged? No, I will not admit that 
 I was discoui-aged, but I Was pretty nearly re- 
 signed to a Hf e without fluent speech, nearly con- 
 vinced that future efforts to find a cure for stam- 
 mering would be fruitless and bring no better 
 results. 
 
 It was about this time that I stepped into the 
 office of my cousin, then a successful lawyer and 
 district attorney of his city, later the first vice- 
 president of one of the great American railroads 
 with headquarters in New York, and now retired. 
 He was one of those men in whose vocabulary 
 there is no such word as "fail." After I had 
 talked with him for quite a while, he looked at me, 
 and with his kindly, almost fatherly smile, asked, 
 "Why don't you cure yourself?" 
 
54 STAMMERING 
 
 "Cure myself?" I queried. "How do you ex- 
 pect me, a young man with no scientific training, 
 to cure myself, when the learned doctors, sur- 
 geons and scientists of the country have given me 
 up as incurable?" 
 
 "That doesn't make any difference," he re- 
 plied, " 'while there is life, there is hope' and it's 
 a sure thing that nobody ever accomplished any- 
 thing worth while by accepting the failures of 
 others as proof that the thing couldn't be done. 
 Whitney would never have invented the cotton 
 gin if he had accepted the failures of others as 
 final. Columbus picked out a road to America 
 and assured the skeptics that there was no danger 
 of his sailing 'over the edge.' Of course, it had 
 never been done before, but then Colvimbus went 
 ahead and did it himself. He didn't take some- 
 body else's failure as an indication of what he 
 could do. If he had, a couple of hundred years 
 later, somebody else would have discovered it and 
 put Columbus in the class with the rest of the 
 weak-kneed who said it couldn't be done, just 
 because it never had been done. 
 
 "The progress of this country, Ben," continued 
 my cousin, "is founded on the determination of 
 men who refuse to accept the failures of others 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 55 
 
 as proof that things can't be done at all. Now 
 you've got a mighty good start. You've found 
 out all about these other methods — you know that 
 they have failed — ^and in a lot of cases, you know 
 WHY they have failed. Now, why don't you 
 begin where they have left off and find out how to 
 succeed?" 
 
 The thought struck me like a bolt from a clear 
 sky: "begin where the others leave off and 
 FIND OUT HOW TO SUCCEED!" I kept Saying it 
 over and over to myself, "Begin where the others 
 leave off — begin where the others leave off!" 
 
 This thought put high hope in my heart. It 
 seemed to ring Uke a call from afar. "Begin 
 where the others leave off and find out how to 
 succeed." I kept thinking about that all the way 
 home. I thought of it at the table that evening. 
 I said nothing. I went to bed — but I didn't go 
 to sleep, for singing through my brain was that 
 sentence, "Begin where the others leave off and 
 find out how to succeed!" 
 
 Right then and there I made the resolve that 
 resulted in my curing myself. "I will do it," I 
 said, "I will begin where the others leave off — 
 and I WILL SUCCEED ! !" Then and there I deter- 
 mined to master the principles of speech, to chart 
 
56 STAMMEKING 
 
 the methods that had been used by others, to find 
 their defects, to locate the cause of stammering, 
 to find out how to remove that cause and remove 
 it from myself, so that I, like the others whom I 
 so envied, could talk freely and fluently. 
 
 That resolution — that determination which 
 first fired me that evening never left me. It 
 marked the turning point in my whole life. I 
 was no longer dependent upon others, no longer 
 looking, to physicians or elocution teachers or 
 hypnotists to cure me of stammering. I was 
 looking to myself. If I was to be cured, then I 
 must be the one to do it. This responsibility 
 sobered me. It intensified my determination. It 
 emphasized in my own mind the need for per- 
 sistent effort, for a constant striving toward this 
 one thing. And absorbed with this idea, living 
 and working toward this one end, I began my 
 work. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 BEGINNING WHERE OTHEES HAD LEFT OFF 
 
 FROM the moment that my resolution took 
 shape, my plans were all laid with one thing 
 in mind — ^to cure myself of stammering. I de- 
 termined, first of all, to master the principles 
 of speech. I remembered very weU, indeed, the 
 admonition of Prof. J. J. Mills, President of 
 Earlham College, on the day I left that institu- 
 tion. "You have been a hard-working student," 
 he said, "but your success will never be complete 
 until you learn to talk as others talk. Cure your 
 stammering at any cost." That was the thing I 
 had determined to do. And having determined 
 upon that course, I resolved to let nothing swerve 
 me from it. ^ 
 
 I began the study of anatomy. I studied the 
 lungs, the throat, the brain — nothing escaped me. 
 I pursued my studies with the avidity of the 
 medical student wrapped up in his work. I read 
 aU the books that had been published on the sub- 
 ject of stammering. I sought eagerly for trans- 
 lations of foreign books on the subject. I lived 
 
58 STAMMERING 
 
 in the libraries. I studied late at night and arose 
 early in the morning, that I might be at my 
 work again. It absorbed me. I thought of the 
 subject by day and dreamed of it by night. It 
 was never out of my mind. I was living it, 
 breathing it, eating it. I had not thought myself 
 capable of such concentration as I was putting in 
 on the pursuit of the truth as regards stammering 
 and its cure. 
 
 With the knowledge that I had gained from 
 celebrated physicians, specialists and institutions 
 throughout this country and Europe, I extended 
 my experiments and investigation. I had an ex- 
 cellent subject on which to experiment — ^myself. 
 Progress was slow at first — so slow, in fact, that 
 I did not realize imtil later that it was progress at 
 all. Nothing but my past misery, backed up 
 by my present determination to be free from the 
 impediment that hampered me at every turn, 
 could have kept me from giving up. But at last, 
 after years of effort, after long nights of study 
 and days of research, I was rewarded by success 
 — I found and perfected a method of control of 
 the articulatory organs as well as of the brain 
 centers controlling the organs of speech. I had 
 learned the cause of stammering and stuttering. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 59 
 
 All of the mystery with which the subject had 
 been surrounded by so-called specialists, fell 
 away. In all its clearness, I saw the truth. I 
 saw how the others, who had failed in my case, 
 had failed because of ignorance. I saw that they 
 had been treating effects, not causes. I saw 
 exactly why their methods had not succeeded and 
 could never succeed. 
 
 In truth I had begtm where the others left off 
 and won success. The reader can imagine what 
 this meant to me. It meant that at last I could 
 speak — clearly, distinctly, freely, and fluently, 
 without those facial contortions that had made 
 me an object of ridicule wherever I went. It 
 meant that I could take my place in Ufe, a man 
 among men; that I could look the whole world 
 in the face; that I could live and enjoy life as 
 other normal persons lived and enjoyed it. 
 
 At first my friends could not believe that my 
 cure was permanent. Even my mother doubted 
 the evidence of her own ears. But I knew the 
 trouble would not come back, for the old fear was 
 gone, the nervousness soon passed away, and a 
 new feeling of confidence and self-reliance took 
 hold of me, with the result that in a few weeks I 
 was a changed man. People who had formerly 
 
60 STAMMERING 
 
 avoided me because of my infirmity began to 
 greet me with new interest. Gradually the old 
 affliction was forgotten by those with whom I 
 came into daily contact and by many I was 
 thought of as a man who had never stammered. 
 Even today, those who knew me when I stam- 
 mered so badly I could hardly talk, are hardly 
 able to believe that I am the same person who 
 used to be known as "Ben Bogue's' Boy Who 
 Stutters." 
 
 For today I can talk as freely and fluently as 
 anybody. I do not hesitate in the least. For 
 years, I have not even known what it is to grope 
 mentally for a word. I speak in public as well 
 as in private conversation. I have no difficulty 
 in talking over the telephone and in fact do not 
 know the difference. In my work, I lecture to 
 students and am invited to address scientific 
 bodies, societies and educational gatherings, all 
 of which I can accompKsh without the slightest 
 difficulty. 
 
 Today, I can say with Terence, "I am a man 
 and nothing that is human is alien to me." And 
 I can go a step further and say to those Who are 
 afflicted as I was afflicted: "I have been a stam- 
 merer. I know your troubles, your sorrows, your 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 61 
 
 ■s. 
 
 discouragements. I understand with an under- 
 standing born of a costly experience." 
 
 Man or woman, boy or girl, wherever you are, 
 my heart goes out to you. Whatever your sta- 
 tion in life, rich or poor, educated or unlettered, 
 discouraged and hopeless, or determined and res- 
 olute, I send you a message of hope, a message 
 which, in the words of Dr. Russell R. Conwell, 
 "has been affirmed and reaffirmed in the thou- 
 sands of lives I have been privileged to watch. 
 And the message is this: Neither heredity nor 
 environment nor any obstacles superimposed 
 by man can keep you from marching straight 
 through to a cure, provided you are guided by a 
 firm driving determination and have normal 
 health and intelligence." To that end I commend 
 to you the succeeding pages of this volume, where 
 you will find in plain and simple language the 
 things which I have spent more than thirty years 
 in learning. May these pages open for you the 
 door to freedom of speech — as they have opened 
 it for hundreds before you. 
 
PART II 
 
 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING 
 
 The Causes, Peculiarities, Ten- 
 dencies and Effects 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 SPEECH DISORDERS DEFINED 
 
 IN the diagnosis of speech disorders, there are 
 ahnost as many different forms of defective 
 utterance as there are cases, all of which forms, 
 however, divide themselves into a few basic types. 
 These various disorders might be broadly classi- 
 fied into three classes : 
 
 (1) — Those resulting from carelessness in 
 learning to speak; 
 
 (2) — ^Those which are of distinct mental 
 form; and 
 
 (3) — Those caused by a physical deformity 
 in the organs of speech themselves. 
 
 Regardless of under which of these three heads a 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 63 
 
 speech disorder may come, it is commonly spoken 
 of by the layman as a "speech impediment" or 
 "a stoppage in speech" notwithstanding the fact 
 that the characteristics of the various disorders 
 are quite dissimilar. In certain of the disorders, 
 
 (a) — There is an inability to release a word; 
 in others, 
 
 (b) — A tendency to repeat a syllable sev- 
 eral times before the following 
 syllable can be uttered; in others, 
 
 (c) — The tendency to substitute an incor- 
 rect sound for the correct one ; while 
 in others, 
 
 (d) — The utterance is defective merely in 
 the imperfect enunciation of sounds 
 and syllables due to some organic 
 defect, or to carelessness in learning 
 to speak. 
 
 While this volume has but little to do with speech 
 disorders other than stammering and stuttering, 
 the characteristics of the more common forms of 
 speech impediment — lisping, cluttering and hesi- 
 tation, as well as stuttering and stammering — 
 will be discussed in this first chapter, in order 
 
64 STAMMERING 
 
 that the reader may be able, in a general way at 
 least, to differentiate between the various dis- 
 orders. 
 
 LISPING 
 
 This is a very common form of speech disorder 
 and one which manifests itself early in the life of 
 the child. Lisping may be divided into three 
 forms: 
 
 ( 1 ) — Negligent Lisping 
 (2) — Neurotic Lisping 
 (3) — Organic Lisping 
 
 Negligent Lisping: This is a form of defective 
 enimciation caused in most cases by parental 
 neglect or the carelessness of the child himself in 
 the pronunciation of words during the first few 
 months of talking. This defective pronunciation 
 in Negligent Lisping is caused either by a failure 
 or an inability to ol)serve others who speak cor- 
 rectly. We learn to speak by imitation, and fail- 
 ing to observe the correct method of speaking in 
 others, we naturally fail to speak correctly our- 
 i^ves. In Negligent Lisping, this inability prop- 
 erly to imitate correct speech processes, results in 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 65 
 
 the substitution of an incorrect sound for the 
 correct one with consequent faulty formation of 
 words. 
 
 Organic Lisping: This results from an or- 
 ganic or physical defect in the vocal organs, such 
 as hair-hp, feeble lip, malformation of the 
 tongue, defective teeth, overshot or undershot 
 jaw, high palatal arch, cleft palate, defective 
 palate, relaxed palate following an operation for 
 adenoids, obstructed nasal passages or defective 
 hearing. 
 
 Neurotic Lisping: This is a form of speech 
 marked by short, rapid muscular contractions in- 
 stead of the smooth and easy action used in pro- 
 ducing normal sounds. Neurotic Lisping is often 
 found to be combined with stammering or stut- 
 tering, which is quite logical, since it is similar, 
 both as to cause and as to the presence of a men- 
 tal disturbance. In Neurotic Lisping, the mus- 
 cular movements are less spasmodic than in cases 
 of stuttering, partaking more of the cramped 
 sticking movement, common in stammering. 
 
 STUTTERING 
 
 Stuttering may be generally defined as the 
 repetition — rapid in some cases, slow in others — 
 
66 STAMMERING 
 
 of a word or a syllable, before the following word 
 or syllable can be uttered. Stuttering may take 
 several forms, any one of which will fall into one 
 of four phases: 
 
 ( 1 ) — Simple Phase 
 (2) — ^Advanced Phase 
 (3)— Mental Phase 
 (4) — Compound Phase 
 
 Simple stuttering can be said to be a purely 
 physical form of the difficulty. The Advanced 
 Phase marks the stage of further progress where 
 the trouble passes from the purely physical state 
 into a condition that may be known as Mental- 
 Physical. The distinctly Mental Phase is marked 
 by symptoms indicating a mental cause for the 
 trouble, the disorder usually having passed into 
 this form from the simple or advanced stages of 
 the malady. Stuttering may be combined with 
 stammering in which case the condition repre- 
 sents the Compound Phase of the tr9uble. 
 
 Choreatic StMtering: This originates in an at- 
 tack of Acute Chorea or St. Vitus Dance, which 
 leaves the sufferer in a condition where involun- 
 tary and spasmodic muscular contractions, espe- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 67 
 
 daily of the face, have become an established 
 habit. This breaks up the speech in a manner 
 somewhat similar to ordinary stuttering. Also 
 known as "Tic Speech." 
 
 Spastic Speech: This is often the result of in- 
 fantile cerebral palsy, the characteristic symptom 
 of the trouble being intense over-exertion, con- 
 tinued throughout a sentence, the syllables being 
 equal in length and very laboriously enunciated. 
 In spastic speech, there is present a noticeable 
 hyper-tonicity of the nerve fibers actuating the 
 muscles used in speaking as well as marked con- 
 tractions of the facial muscles. 
 
 Unconscious Stuttering : This is a misnomer 
 because there can be no such thing as unconscious 
 stuttering. It appears that the person afflicted 
 is not conscious of his difficulty for he insists that 
 he does not s-s-s-s-tut-tut-tut-ter. Unconscious 
 Stuttering is but a name for the disorder of a 
 stutterer who is too stubborn to admit his own 
 difficulty. 
 
 Thought Stuttering: This is an advanced form 
 of stuttering which is also known as Aphasia and 
 
68 STAMMEEING 
 
 which is caused by the inability of the sufferer to 
 recall the mental images necessary to the forma- 
 tion of a word. Stuttering in its simpler forms 
 is usually connected with the period of childhood, 
 while aphasia is often connected with old age or 
 injmy. The aphasic person is excessively nerv- 
 ous as is the stutterer; he undergoes the same 
 anxiety to get his words out and the same fear of 
 being ridiculous. In aphasia there is, however, 
 no excessive muscular tension or cramp of the 
 speech muscles. In these cases, the stutterer will 
 sometimes repeat the first syllable ten or fifteen 
 times with pauses between, being for a time un- 
 able to recall what the second syllable is. It is, 
 in other words, a habitual, but nevertheless tem- 
 porary, inability to recall to mind the mental 
 images necessary to produce the word or syllable 
 desired to be spoken. This condition is more 
 commonly known as Thought Lapse or the in- 
 ability to think of what you desire to say. 
 
 One investigator shows that the diagnosis of 
 "insanity" with later commitment to an asylum 
 occurred in the case of a bad stutterer. When 
 excited he would go through the most extreme 
 contortions and the wildest gesticulations in a 
 vain attempt to finally get all of the word out, 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUKE 69 
 
 finally pacing up and down the room like one 
 truly insane. This tendency to believe that the 
 stutterer is insane because of the convulsive or 
 spasmodic effort accompanying his efforts to 
 speak, is a mistaken one, although there can be 
 little doubt of the tendency of this condition 
 finally to lead to insanity if not checked. 
 
 HESITATION 
 
 Hesitation is marked by a silent, choking 
 effort, often accompanied by a fruitless opening 
 and closing of the mouth. Hesitation is a stage 
 through which the sufferer usually passes before 
 he reaches the condition known as Elementary 
 Stammering. 
 
 STAMMERING 
 
 Stammering is a condition in which the person 
 afihcted is unable to begin a word or a sentence 
 no matter how much effort may be directed 
 toward the attempt to speak, or how well they 
 may know what they wish to say. In stammer- 
 ing, there is the "sticking" as the stammerer terms 
 it, or the inability to express a sound. The dif- 
 ference between stammering and stuttering lies 
 in the fact that in stuttering, the disorder mani- 
 fests itself in loose and hurried (or in some cases, 
 
70 STAMMERING 
 
 slow) repetitions of sounds, syllables or words, 
 while in the case of stammering, the manifesta- 
 tion takes the form of an inabihty to express a 
 sound, or to begin a word or a sentence. 
 
 Elementary Stammering : This is the simplest 
 form of this disorder. Here, the convulsive effort 
 is not especially noticeable and the marked results 
 of long-continued stammering are not apparent. 
 Most cases pass quickly from the elementary 
 stage vmless checked in their incipiency. 
 
 Spasmodic Stammering : This marks the stage 
 of the disorder where the effort to speak brings 
 about marked muscular contractions and pro- 
 nounced spasmodic efforts, resulting in all sorts 
 of facial contortions, grimaces and uncontrolled 
 jerkings of the head, body and limbs. 
 
 Thought Stammering : This, like Thought- 
 Stuttering, is a form of Aphasia and manifests 
 itself in the inability of the stammerer to think 
 of what he wishes to say. In other words, the 
 thought-stammerer, like the thought-stutterer, is 
 unable to recall the mental images necessary to 
 the production of a certain word or sound — and 
 is, therefore, unable to produce sounds correctly. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 71 
 
 The manifestations described under Thought 
 Stuttering are present in Thought Stammering 
 also. 
 
 Combined Stammering and Stuttering: This 
 is a compound form of difficulty in which the suf- 
 ferer finds himself at times not only unable to 
 utter a sound or begin a word or a sentence but 
 also is f oimd to repeat a sound or syllable several 
 times before the following syllable can be uttered. 
 Any case of stuttering or stammering in the Sim- 
 ple or Elementary Stages may pass into Com- 
 bined Stammering and Stuttering without warn- 
 ing or without the knowledge, even, of the stam- 
 merer or stutterer. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE CAUSES OF STUTTERING AND 
 STAMMERING 
 
 ONE of the first questions asked by the stut- 
 terer or stammerer is, "What is the cause 
 of my trouble?" In asking this question, the 
 stammerer is getting at the very essence of the 
 successful method of treatment of his malady, for 
 there is no method of curing stuttering, stammer- 
 ing and kindred defects of speech that can bring 
 real and permanent relief from the affliction 
 unless it attacks the cause of the trouble a-nd 
 removes that cause. 
 
 Inasmuch as this book has to do almost entirely 
 with the two defective forms of utterance known 
 as stuttering and stammering, we will at this time 
 drop all reference to the other forms of speech 
 impediments and from this time forth refer only 
 to stuttering and stammering. 
 
 These forms of defective speech are manifested 
 by the inability to express words in the normal, 
 natural manner — freely and fluently. In other 
 words, there is a marked departure from the 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 73 
 
 normal in the methods used by the stammerer in 
 the production of speech. It is necessary, there- 
 fore, before taking up the discussion of the causes 
 of stuttering and stammering, to determine the 
 method by which voice is produced in the normal 
 individual, so that we can compare this normal 
 production of speech with the faulty method 
 adopted by the stutterer or stammerer and learn 
 where the fault is and what is the cause of it- 
 Let us now proceed to do this. In other words, 
 let us ask the question : "How is speech produced 
 in the normal person not afflicted with defective 
 utterance?" 
 
 Voice is produced by the vocal organs much in 
 the same manner as sounds are produced on a 
 saxophone or clarinet, by forcing a current of air 
 through an aperture over which is a reed which 
 vibrates with the soimds. The low tones pro- 
 duced by the saxophone or clarinet result from 
 the enlargement of the aperture, while the higher 
 tones are produced by contracting the opening. 
 Variations of pitch in the human voice are also 
 effected by elongation and contraction of the 
 vocal cords with comparative slackness or tension, 
 as in the violin. 
 
 It would be of no value, and, in fact, would 
 
74 STAMMERING 
 
 only serve to confuse the layman, to know the 
 duties or functions of the various organs or parts 
 entering into the production of speech. Suffice 
 it to say that in the "manufacture" of words, 
 there are concerned the glottis, the larynx, tho- 
 rax, diaphragm, lungs, soft palate, tongue, teeth 
 and lips. In the production of the sounds and 
 the combinations of sounds that we call words, 
 each of these organs of speech has its own par- 
 ticular duty to perform and the failure of any one 
 of these organs properly to perform that duty 
 may result in defective utterance of some form. 
 
 Brain Control: It must be borne in mind that 
 for any one or all of the organs of speech to 
 become operative or to manifest any action, they 
 must be innervated or activated by impulses orig- 
 inating in the brain. 
 
 For instance, if it is necessary that the glottis 
 be contracted to a point which we will call "half- 
 open" for the production of a certain sound, the 
 brain must first send a message to that organ 
 before the necessary movement can take place. 
 In saying the word "you," for instance, it would 
 be necessary for the tongue to press tip against 
 the base of the lower row of front teeth. But 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 75 
 
 before the tongue can assume that position, it is 
 necessary that the brain seiid to the tongue a 
 message directing what is to be done. 
 
 When the number of different organs involved 
 in the production of the simplest word of one 
 syllable is considered (such as the word "you" 
 •just mentioned), and when it is further consid- 
 ered that separate brain messages must be sent 
 to each of the organs, muscles or parts concerned 
 in the production of that word, then it will be 
 understood that the process of speaking is a 
 most complicated one, involving not only mmier- 
 ous physical organs but also intricate mental 
 processes. 
 
 When all of the organs concerned in the pro- 
 duction of speech are working properly and when 
 the brain sends prompt and correct brain im- 
 pulses to them, the result is perfect speech, the 
 free, fluent and easy conversation of the good 
 talker. But when any or all of these organs fail 
 to function properly, due to inco-ordination, the 
 result is discord — and defective utterance. 
 
 ^ause of Defective Utterance: Now, let us 
 consider the cause of defective utterance. What 
 is it that caiuses the organ, muscle or part to fail 
 
76 STAMMERING 
 
 properly to function? The first and most obvi- 
 ous conclusion would be that there was some 
 inherent defect in the organ, muscle or part which 
 failed to function. But experience has proven 
 that this is usually not the case. An examination 
 of two thousand cases of defective utterance, 
 including many others besides stuttering and 
 stammering, revealed three-tenths of one per 
 cent, with an organic defect — that is, a defect in 
 the organs themselves. In other words, only 
 three persons out of every thousand afflicted with 
 defective utterance were found to have any phys- 
 ical shortcoming that was responsible for the 
 affliction. 
 
 Take any of these two thousand cases — say 
 those that stammered, for instance. What was 
 the cause of their difficulty, if it did not lie in the 
 organs used in the production of speech? This 
 is the question that long puzzled investigators in 
 the field of speech defects. Like Darwin, they 
 said: "It must be this, for if it is not this, then 
 what is it?" If stuttering and stammering are not 
 caused by actual physical defects in the organs 
 themselves, what then can be the cause? 
 
 Dibe to a Lack of Co-ordination: Cases of 
 stammering and stuttering where no organic 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 77 
 
 defect is present are due to a lack of co-ordination 
 between the brain and the muscles of speech. In 
 other words, the harmony between the brain and 
 the speech organs which normally results in 
 smooth working and perfect speech has been 
 interrupted. The brain impulses are no longer 
 properly transmitted to and executed by the 
 muscles of speech. 
 
 This failure to transmit properly brain mes- 
 sages or this lack of co-ordination may take one 
 of two forms : it may result in an under-innerva,- 
 tion of the organs of speech, which results in 
 loose, uncontrolled repetitions of a word, sound 
 or syllable, or it may take the form of an over- 
 innervation of the vocal organ with the result 
 that it is so intensely contracted as to be entirely 
 closed, causing the "sticking" or inability to pro- 
 nounce even a sound, so common to the stam- 
 merer. 
 
 Suppose that you try to say the word "tray." 
 Do not articulate the sounds. Merely make the 
 initial effort to say it. What happens? Simply 
 this : The tip of the tongue comes in contact with 
 the upper front teeth at their base and as you 
 progress in your attempt to say "t," the tongue 
 flattens itself against the roof of the mouth, mov- 
 
78 STAMMEKINQ 
 
 ing from the tip of the tongue toward its base. 
 If you are a stammerer, you will probably find in 
 endeavoring to say this word, that your vocal 
 organs fail to respond quickly and correctly to 
 the set of brain messages which should result in 
 the proper enunciation of the word "tray." Your 
 tongue clings to the roof of your mouth, your 
 mouth remains open, you suffer a rush of blood 
 to the face, due to your powerful and unsuccess- 
 ful effort to articulate, and the word refuses to be 
 spoken. 
 
 Now, in order to dissociate "lack of co-ordi- 
 nation" from stammering and to get an idea of 
 its real nature, let us imagine an experiment 
 which can be conducted by any one, whether they 
 stammer or not.^ 
 
 You see on the table before you a pencil. You 
 want to write and consequently you want to pick 
 up the pencil. Therefore, your brain sends a 
 message to your thumb and forefinger, saying, 
 "Pick up the pencil." Your brain does not, of 
 course, express that command in words, but sends 
 a brain impulse based upon the kinaesthetic or 
 motor image of the muscular action necessary to' 
 accomplish that act. But for our purpose in this 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 79 
 
 experiment, we can assume that the brain sends 
 the message in terms which, if interpreted in 
 words, would be "pick up the pencil." Suppose 
 that when that brain message reaches your thumb 
 and forefinger, instead of reaching for the pen- 
 cil, they immediately close and clamp or stick, 
 refusing to act. Your hand is unable to pick up 
 the pencil. That, then, is similar to stammering. 
 The hand is doing practically what the vocal 
 organs do when the stammerer attempts to speak 
 and fails. But, on the other hand, if, when the 
 message was received by your thumb and finger, 
 it made short, successive attempts to pick up the 
 pencil, but failed to accomplish it, then you could 
 compare that failure to the uncontrolled repeti- 
 tions of stuttering. This inability to control the 
 action of the thumb and forefinger would be 
 the result of a lack of co-ordination between the 
 brain and the muscles of the hand, while stutter- 
 ing or starmnering is the result of a lack of 
 co-ordination between the brain and the muscldis 
 of speech. 
 
 What Causes Lack of Co-ordination: But 
 even after it is known that stuttering and stam- 
 mering are caused by a lack of co-ordination 
 
80 STAMMERING 
 
 between the brain and the organs of speech, still, 
 the mind of scientific and inquiring trend must 
 ask, "What causes the lack of co-ordination?" 
 And that question is quite in order. It is plain 
 that the lack of co-ordination does not exist with- 
 out a cause. What, then, is this cause? 
 
 An inquiry into the cause of the inco-ordina- 
 tion between brain and speech-organs leads us to 
 an examination of the original or basic causes of 
 stammering. These original or basic causes in 
 their various ramifications are almost as numer- 
 ous as the cases of speech disorders themselves, 
 but they fall into a comparatively few well- 
 defined classes. 
 
 These original causes in many cases do not 
 appear to have been the direct and immediate 
 cause of the trouble, but rather a predisposing 
 cause or a cause which brought about a condition 
 that later developed into stuttering or stam- 
 mering. 
 
 Let us set down a list of the more common of 
 these causes, not with the expectation of having 
 the list complete but rather of giving facts about 
 the representative or more common Basic Predis- 
 posing Causes of Stuttering and Stammering. 
 
 A little more than 96 per cent, of the cases of 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 81 
 
 stammering which the author has examined can 
 be traced back to one of the five causes shown 
 below: 
 
 1 — ^Mimicry or Imitation 
 
 2 — Fright or severe nerve shock 
 
 3 — Fall or injury of some sort 
 
 4 — Heredity 
 
 5 — ^Disease 
 
 Let us take up these familiar causes of stutter- 
 ing or stammering in the order in which we have 
 set them down and learn something more of them. 
 
 The first and one of the most common causes is 
 Mimicry, or, as it is probably more often called. 
 Imitation. Mimicry or Imitation is almost wholly 
 confined to children. After reaching the age of 
 discretion, the adult is usually of sufficient intel- 
 ligenqe to refrain from mimicking or imitating a 
 person who stutters or stammers. 
 
 The average small boy, however, (or girl, for 
 that matter) seems to find delight in mocking and 
 imitating a playmate who stutters or stammers, 
 and so keen is this delight that he persists in this 
 practice day after day until (as its own punish- 
 
82 STAMMERING 
 
 ment) the practice of mockery or mimicry brings 
 upon the boy himself the affliction in which he 
 found his fim. 
 
 It may be noted, however, that Imitation is not 
 always conscious, but often xmconscious. The 
 small child begins to imitate the stuttering com- 
 panion without knowing that he engages in imita- 
 tion. This practice, notwithstanding the fact that 
 it is unconscious, soon develops into stuttering, 
 without any cause being assignable by the parent 
 until investigation develops that unconscious and 
 even unnoticed imitation is the basic cause of the 
 defective utterance. 
 
 It has been definitely determined that stutter- 
 ing may be communicable through contagious 
 impressions, especially among children of tender 
 age whose minds are subject to the slightest 
 impressions. 
 
 For this reason, it is not advisable for parents 
 to allow children to play with others who stutter 
 or stammer, nor is it charitable to allow a child 
 who stutters or stammers to play with other 
 children who are not so afflicted. 
 
 So far-reaching are the effects of Imitation or 
 Mimicry that in certain cases, children have been 
 known to contract stuttering from associating 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUKE 83 
 
 with, a deaf-mute whose expressions were made 
 chiefly in the form of grimts and inarticulate 
 sounds. 
 
 Fright or Severe Nerve Shock: Another com- 
 mon cause of stammering is fright or nervous 
 shock, which may have been brought about in 
 countless ways. One boy who came to me some 
 time ago stated that he had swallowed a nail when 
 about six years of age and that this was the cause 
 of his stammering. The logical conclusion in a 
 case like this would be that the nail had injured 
 the vocal organs, but an examination proved that 
 there was no organic defect and that the stam- 
 mering was caused, not by injury directly to the 
 vocal organs but by the nervous shock occasioned 
 by swallowing the nail. 
 
 Another case was that of a stammerer who re- 
 ported that he had been given carbolic acid, by 
 mistake, when a child and that he had stammered 
 ever since. This, like the case of the boy who 
 swallowed the nail, might be expected to prove a 
 case of absohite physical injury or impairment of 
 the vocal chords, but once again, it was clear that 
 such was not the case and that the stammering 
 was brought about solely from the nervous shock 
 which came as a result of taking carbolic acid. 
 
84 STAMMERING 
 
 There is still another case of a boy whq felt 
 that he was continually being followed. This was 
 of course merely a hallucination, but the fright 
 that this boy's state of mind brought on soon 
 caused him to stutter and stammer in a very 
 pronounced manner. 
 
 Fright is a prohfic cause of stuttering in small 
 children and may be traced in a great many cases 
 to parents or nurses who persist in telling chil- 
 dren stories of a frightful nature, or who, as a 
 means of disciphne, scare them by locking them 
 up in the cellar, the closet or the garret. To these 
 scare-tales told to children should be added the 
 misguided practice of telling children that "the 
 bogey-man will get you" or "the policeman is 
 after you" or some such tale to enforce parental 
 commands. An instance is recalled of a woman 
 who created out of a morbid imagination a phan- 
 tom of terrible mien, who abode in the garret and 
 was constantly lying in wait for the small chil- 
 dren of the household with the professed inten- 
 tion of "eating them alive." 
 
 Such disciplinary methods of parents savor 
 much of the Inquisition and the Dark Ages and 
 should, for the good of the children and the 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 85 
 
 future generation they represent, be totally abol- 
 ished. While these methods do not, in every case, 
 result in stuttering or stammering, they make the 
 child of a nervous disposition and lay him liable 
 in later years to the afflictions which accompany 
 nervous disorders. In some cases "tickHng" a 
 child has caused stammering or stuttering. Care 
 should be exercised here as well, for prolonged 
 tickhng brings about intense muscular contrac- 
 tion especially of the diaphragmatic muscles, 
 which contraction is accompanied by an agitated 
 mental condition as well as extreme nervousness, 
 all of which approaches very closely to the com- 
 bination of abnormal conditions which are found 
 to be present in stammering or stuttering. 
 
 Fall or Injury as a Cause: Step into any 
 gathering of average American parents for a 
 half -hour and if the subject of the children should 
 come up, you are sure to hear one or more 
 dramatic recitals of the falls and injuries suffered 
 by the junior members of the household, from the 
 first time that Johnny fell out of bed and fright- 
 ened his mother nearly to death, to the day that 
 he was in an automobile crash at the age of 23. 
 
86 STAMMEKING 
 
 And these tales are always closed with the pro- 
 found bit of confided information that these falls 
 are of no consequence — "nothing ever comes of 
 them." 
 
 While in a great measure this is true, there are 
 many falls and injuries suffered in childhood 
 which are responsible for the ills of later life, 
 although it is seldom indeed that they are blamed 
 for the results which they bring about. 
 
 Injuries and falls are a frequent cause of stut- 
 tering and stammering. Usually, however, an 
 injury results in stuttering or stammering, not 
 because of any change in the physical structure 
 brought about by the injury but rather by the 
 nervous shock attending it. In other words, cases 
 of stammering and stuttering caused apparently 
 by injury might, if desired, be traced still further 
 back, showing as the initial cause an injury but 
 as a direct cause the fright or nervous shock 
 resulting from that injury. 
 
 A good example of this is fovmd in a case of a 
 young man who came to me some years ago. 
 He said: "When I was about five years old, 
 my brother and I were playing in the cellar and 
 I wanted to jump off the top step. When I 
 jumped, I hit my head on the cross-piece and it 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 87 
 
 knocked me back on the steps and I slid down on 
 my back, and ever since, for ten years, I have 
 stammered." 
 
 Here is a case where the blow on the head, or 
 the succession of blows on the spinal colmnn as 
 the boy slid down the stairs, might have been the 
 cause of the trouble. More probably, it was the 
 combined injury, undoubtedly resulting in a 
 severe nervous shock from which the boy probably 
 did not recover for many days. 
 
 Another man said, in describing his case during 
 an examination: "At the age of 16, 1 was hit on 
 the head with a ball. I lost my memory for one 
 week and when I regained it, I was a stammerer." 
 This is a'^lain case of injury resulting in imme- 
 diate stammering. 
 
 Still another case is that of a boy who, at the 
 age of three, was shot in the neck by a rifle, the 
 bullet coming out of his chin, which resulted in 
 his becoming an immediate stammerer. Here, as 
 in the case of the boy who swallowed the nail, it 
 might be expected that the cause was a defect in 
 the organs of speech, but I found stammering 
 was brought on by the nervous shock. 
 
 From these few cases of actual occurrences, it 
 will be seen that practically all cases of stammer- 
 
88 STAMMERING 
 
 ing caused by injury can be traced to the nervous 
 shock brought about by the injury. 
 
 Heredity as a Cause: There is httle that need 
 be said on the subject of heredity as a cause of 
 stuttering and stammering, save that heredity is 
 a common cause and that children of stuttering 
 or stammering parents usually stammer. In this, 
 as in the case of any malady hereditarily trans- 
 mitted, it is difficult to say whether the trouble is 
 caused by inheritance or by constant and intimate 
 association of the child with his parents during 
 the period of early speech development. 
 
 The Result of Disease: Many cases of both 
 stammering and stuttering may be traced back to 
 disease as the basic or predisposing cause. Acute 
 Chorea (St. Vitus Dance) is frequently the cause 
 of stuttering of a type known as Choreatic Stut- 
 tering or "Tic Speech." Infantile Cerebral Palsy 
 sometimes brings about a condition known as 
 "Spastic Speech," while whooping cough, scarlet 
 fever, measles, meningitis, infantile paralysis, 
 scrofula and rickets are sometimes responsible for 
 the disorder. 
 
 Disease may cause stuttering or stammering as 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 89 
 
 an immediate after-effect or the speech trouble 
 may not show up for considerable time, depend- 
 ing altogether upon the individual. But regard- 
 less of the length of time elapsing between the 
 disease which predisposes the individual to the 
 speech disorder and the time of the first evidence 
 of its presence, diagnosis reveals but an insignifi- 
 cant percentage of organic defects in these cases 
 resulting from disease, indicating that even here 
 the predominant causative factor is a mental one. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE PECULIAEITIES OF STUTTERING AND 
 STAMMERING 
 
 EACH individual case of stuttering or stam- 
 mering has its own peculiarities, already 
 more or less developed — arising from structural 
 differences (but not necessarily defects) in the 
 organs of speech, as well as differences in tem- 
 perament, health and nervousness; or peculiari- 
 ties arising from habit — ^which is th^ result of 
 previous training or neglect, as the case may be. 
 
 Sing Without Difficulty: Almost without 
 exception, the stutterer or stammerer can sing 
 without any difficulty, can talk to animals without 
 stuttering or stammering, can talk when alone 
 and in some cases can talk perfectly in a whisper. 
 Some stammerers have less difficulty in talking 
 to strangers than in talking to friends or relatives 
 while in other cases, the condition is exactly re- 
 versed. A stutterer or stammerer almost always 
 experiences difficulty in speaking over the tele- 
 phone. One experimenter has shown, however, 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 91 
 
 that a stammerer can talk perfectly over the tele- 
 phone so long as the receiver hook is depressed 
 and there is no connection with another person at 
 the other end of the line. This experimenter 
 shows that immediately the receiver hook is 
 released and a connection is established, the halt- 
 ing, stimibhng utterance begins. 
 
 These peculiarities of stuttering and stammer- 
 ing for many years puzzled investigators and 
 were, in fact, finally responsible for arriving at 
 the true cause of stammering. 
 
 Almost every stammerer seeks for an explana- 
 tion of these peculiar manifestations. Why is it, 
 for instance, that a stammerer can sing without 
 difficulty, although he cannot talk? This is one 
 of the best evidences that could be produced to 
 show that stammering is the result of a lack of 
 mental control. The stammerer who can sing 
 without difficulty has no organic or inherent 
 defect in the vocal organs, that is siu-e. If the 
 stammerer can sing, and if this proves that he has 
 no organic defect, then it follows logically that the 
 cause of his trouble is mental and not physical. 
 
 Talk When Alone: The fact that a stammerer 
 can talk without hesitation when alone and that 
 
92 STAMMERING 
 
 he can talk to animals may be explained by a 
 very simple illustration — any stammerer can try 
 this experiment on one of his friends who does 
 not stammer. He can prove that the reflex, or 
 what might be termed subconscious movements 
 of the bodily organs are more nearly normal 
 than the same movements consciously controlled. 
 Take, for instance, the regular beating of the 
 pulse. Let anyone who does not stammer (it 
 makes no difference in trying this experiment 
 whether the person stammers or not, save that 
 we are trying to prove that the condition may be 
 brought about in one who is not a stammerer) 
 feel his own pulse for sixty seconds. Let him be 
 thoroughly conscious of this effort to learn the 
 rapidity of its beating. If a disinterested 
 observer could record the pulse as normally beat- 
 ing and the pulse under the conscious influence 
 of the mind, it would be found that the pulse 
 under the conscious effort is beating either more 
 rapidly or more slowly or that it is not beating 
 as regularly as in the case of unconscious or reflex 
 action. 
 
 This same condition may be noticed in another 
 unconscious or reflex action — breathing. The 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 93 
 
 moment you become conscious of an attempt to 
 breathe regularly, breathing becomes difficult, re- 
 stricted, irregular, whereas this same action, when 
 unconscious, is thoroughly regular and even. 
 
 In the average or normal person who has 
 learned to talk correctly, speaking should be 
 practically an unconscious process. It should not 
 be necessary to make a conscious effort to form 
 words, nor should a normal individual be con- 
 scious of the energy necessary to create a word 
 or the muscular movements necessary to its 
 formation and expression. 
 
 This will explain why the stutterer or stam- 
 merer can talk without difficulty to animals or 
 when alone — ^there is no self-consciousness — ^no 
 conscious effort — ^no thinking of what is being 
 done. 
 
 Another of the peculiarities of stammering is 
 that the stammerer in many cases seems to be 
 able to talk perfectly in concert. This has long 
 baffled the investigator in this field, no reason 
 being assignable for this ability to talk in con- 
 nection with others. The baffling element has 
 been this — ^that the investigator has assumed that 
 the stammerer talked well in concert, whereas a 
 
94 STAMMEBING 
 
 very careful scientist would have discovered the 
 stammerer to be a fraction of a second or a part 
 of a syllable behind the others. 
 
 You have doubtless been in church at some 
 time when you were not entirely familiar with 
 the hymn being sung, yet by lagging a note or 
 two behind the rest, you could sing the song, to 
 all appearances being right along with the others. 
 
 When you talk over the long-distance tele- 
 phone, the voice seems instantly to reach the 
 party at the other end of the hne, yet we know 
 that a period of time has had to elapse to allow 
 the voice waves to move along the telephone wire 
 and reach the other end. The elapse of time has 
 been too slight to be noted by the average human 
 mind and the transmission seems instantaneous. 
 This is what happens in the case of the stammerer 
 who seems able to talk in concert — ^he is merely 
 a syllable or part of a syllable behind the rest, all 
 the while giving the impression nevertheless, that 
 he is talking just as they are. 
 
 There are many other individual peculiarities 
 which can be described by almost every stam- 
 merer. These different peculiarities are more 
 numerous than the cases of stammering and it 
 would be useless to attempt to discuss them in 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 95 
 
 detail. I will take up only two as being typical 
 of dozens which have come under my observation 
 in nineteen years' experience. 
 
 One stammerer explains his difficulty as fol- 
 lows: "I find I am unable to talk and do some- 
 thing else at the same time. For instance, I have 
 difficulty in talking while dancing, while at the 
 table or while listening to music. If, for instance, 
 I wish to talk to any one while the Victrola is 
 being played, I unconsciously cut it off." This 
 is a case where the stammerer finds that all of his 
 faculties must be concentrated upon a supreme 
 effort to speak before this becomes possible. In 
 other words, he has not yet learned to control 
 sufficiently the different parts of his body so that 
 they may act independently. This might be 
 termed a lack of independent co-ordination. 
 
 In the case of another young man, he found 
 himself unable to control the movements of his 
 muscles. In describing his trouble, he said : "At 
 one time, when I was talking particularly bad, I 
 was out with some other fellows driving our car. 
 I started to talk, found it almost impossible and 
 noticed a sharp twitching of the muscles of face, 
 arms and limbs. Try as I might, I found I could 
 not control these movements and in another 
 
96 STAMMERING 
 
 minute I had steered the car into the ditch and 
 wrecked it. And now," adds the young man, 
 "although father has a new car, I am never 
 allowed to drive it!" 
 
 Here was a case where the spasmodic action of 
 the muscles had gotten so far beyond control as 
 to make the ordinary pursuits of life dangerous 
 to the young man who stammered. These spas- 
 modic movements were always present — ^he told 
 of one occasion when he was in a barber's chair 
 being shaved. He attempted to say a word or 
 two while the barber was at work upon him, with 
 the result that he lost control of the muscles of 
 face and neck, causing the barber to cut a long 
 gash in his neck. 
 
 This was, of course, an abnormal case of 
 spasmodic stammering, evidencing extraordinary 
 muscular contractions of the worst type. In 
 practically every case of stammering, some such 
 peculiarity is evident, resulting from the inabil- 
 ity of the stammerer's brain to control physical 
 actions. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE INTEKMITTENT TENDENCY 
 
 PARADOXICAL as the statement may 
 seem, it is nevertheless true that one of the 
 symptoms of least seeming importance marks one 
 of the most dangerous aspects of both stuttering 
 and stammering. 
 
 This is the alternating good-and-had condition 
 Imown as the Intermittent Tendency or the 
 tendency of the stutterer or stammerer to show 
 marked improvement at times. 
 
 This seeming improvement brings about a 
 feeling of relief, the unreasoning fear of failure 
 seems for the time to have left almost entirely; 
 the mental strain under which the sufferer ordi- 
 narily labors seems to be no longer present ; there 
 is but little worry about either present condition 
 or future prospects; the nervous condition seems 
 to have very materially improved ; self-confidence 
 returns quickly and with it the hope that the 
 trouble is gone forever or is at least rapidly dis- 
 appearing. With these manifestations of im- 
 provement come also a greater ease in concen- 
 
98 STAMMERING 
 
 tration, a greater and more facile power-of-will 
 and an ambition that shows signs of rekindling, 
 with worth-while accomphshments in prospect. 
 
 Hope now burns high in the breast of the stut- 
 terer or stammerer. They go about smiling 
 inwardly if not outwardly, happy as the proud 
 father of a new boy, at peace with the world. 
 The sun shines brighter than it has for months or 
 years. Every one seems much more pleasant and 
 agreeable. Things which the day before seemed 
 totally impossible seem now to come within their 
 range of accomplishment. Such is the feehng of 
 the confirmed stutterer or stammerer during the 
 time of this pseudo-freedom from his speech dis- 
 order. 
 
 In his own mind, the sufferer is quite sure that 
 his malady has disappeared over-night, like a bad 
 dream and that freedom of speech has been be- 
 stowed upon him as a gift from the gods on high. 
 
 The higher the hopes of the sufferer and the 
 greater the assurance with which he pursues the 
 activities of his day, the greater is his disappoint- 
 ment and despair when the inevitable relapse 
 overtakes him. 
 
 For disappointment and despair are sure to 
 come — ^just as sure as the sun is to rise in the 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUM! 99 
 
 heavens in the morning. The condition of relief 
 is but temporary, and will soon pass away to be 
 followed by a return of his old trouble in a form 
 more aggravated than ever before. 
 
 Fate seems to play with the stammerer's aflBlic- 
 tion as a cat plays with a mouse, allowing him to 
 be free for a few hours, a few days or a few weeks 
 as the case may be, only to drag the dejected suf- 
 ferer back to his former condition — or, as is true 
 in many oases, worse than before. 
 
 The Recurrence: With the return of the 
 trouble, the bodily and mental reaction are almost 
 too great for the human mechanism to withstand. 
 Hope seems to be a word which has been lost 
 from the life of the stammerer. The fear of fail- 
 ure returns with an overwhelming force mocking 
 the sufferer with the thought of "Oh, how I 
 deceived youM"; the mental strain is exceedingly 
 great — so great, in fact, that it seems as if the 
 breaking point has almost been reached. The 
 nervous condition is alarming, the sufferer noting 
 in himself an inability to work, to play, to study 
 or even to sit still. An observer would note the 
 stammerer or stutterer in this condition fingering 
 his coat lapels, putting his hands in his pockets 
 
100 STAMMEEING 
 
 and removing them again, biting his finger nails, 
 constantly shifting eyes, head, arms and feet 
 about. If at home, the sufferer in this condition 
 would probably be seen walking about the house, 
 unable to read, to play or listen to music or to 
 follow any of the accustomed activities of his life. 
 If in business or in the shop, he would be noticed 
 making frequent trips to the wash room, to the 
 drinking fountain, to the foreman, picking up 
 and laying down his tools, looking out the win- 
 dow, shifting from one foot to another, all of 
 which symptoms indicate an acute nervous condi- 
 tion, brought about by the return of his trouble. 
 
 At this stage, the stammerer's confidence is 
 hopelessly gone, so it seems, and this feeling is 
 accompanied by one of depression which finds an 
 outlet in the expression of the firm belief and con- 
 viction on the part of the stutterer or stammerer 
 that the disorder can NEVER be cured, by any 
 method, although just the day before the same 
 sufferer would have insisted that his stuttering or 
 stammering had cured itself and left of its own 
 accord. 
 
 These conditions, both at the time of the so- 
 called improvement and at the time of the recur- 
 rence of the trouble, will appear in greater or less 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUEE 101 
 
 degree in the ease of every stutterer or stammerer 
 whose trouble is of the intermittent type. 
 
 The Dangers of This Tendency: This period 
 of recurrence is accompanied by aknost total loss 
 of the power-of-will, a marked weakening in the 
 abihty to concentrate, and if it does not result in 
 insomnia (inability to sleep) puts the mind in 
 such a state as to make sleep of little value in 
 building up the body, replacing worn-out tissue 
 cells and restoring vital energy. 
 
 The chief danger, however, resulting from 
 these periods of temporary improvement, is the 
 behef that it instills into the mind of the suf- 
 ferer and more frequently into the minds of the 
 parents of stuttering or stammering children, that 
 the trouble will cure itself — a fallacy greater than 
 which there is none. 
 
 Stuttering and stammering are destructive 
 maladies. They tear down both body and mind 
 but they have not the slightest power to build up. 
 And until a strong mental and physical structure 
 has been built up in place of the weakened struc- 
 ture (which results in stammering and stutter- 
 ing) a cure is out of the question. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE PROGRESSIVE TENDENCY 
 
 THE spell of intense recurrence of either 
 stammering or stuttering which follows a 
 period of improvement, often marks the period 
 of transition from one stage of the disorder into 
 the next and more serious stage. This transition, 
 however, may not be a conscious process — that is, 
 the sufferer may not in any way be informed of 
 the fact that he is passing into a more serious 
 stage of his trouble save that after the transition 
 has taken place, he may find himself a chronic or 
 constant stammerer and in a nervous and mental 
 condition much more acute than ever before. 
 
 Dr. Alexander Melville Bell (father of Alex- 
 ander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone), 
 who before his death, was a speech expert of 
 unquestioned repute, discovered this condition 
 many years ago and in his work "Principles of 
 Speech" speaks of it as follows (page 234) : 
 
 "Often the transition from simple to more complicated 
 forms of difficulty is so rapid, that it cannot be traced or 
 anticipated. Perhaps some slight ailment may imperceptibly 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 103 
 
 introduce the higher impediment or some evil example may 
 draw the ill-mastered utterance at once into the vortex of the 
 difficulty." 
 
 This Progressive Tendency, which we shall here- 
 after call the Progressive Character of the trouble 
 in order to distinguish it from the Intermittent 
 Tendency, is present in more than 98 per cent, of 
 the cases of stammering and stuttering which I 
 have examined and diagnosed. 
 
 True, there are many cases, the apparent or 
 manifest tendencies of which do not indicate that 
 the disorder is becoming more serious, but never- 
 theless this condition is no indication that the 
 trouble is not busily at work tearing out the 
 foundation of mental and bodily perfection. 
 
 Successive Stages: Stuttering may be con- 
 veniently divided into four stages, by which its 
 progress may be meastired. These may be desig- 
 nated in their order as: 
 
 1 — Simple Phase 
 2 — Advanced Phase 
 3 — ^Mental Phase 
 4 — Compoimd Phase 
 
 The progress of the disorder is sure. Take the 
 case of a child eight years of age who has a case 
 
104 STAMMERING 
 
 of simple stuttering. Permit the child to go 
 without attention for some time and the trouble 
 will have progressed into the Advanced Phase, 
 usually without the knowledge of the child or his 
 parents or without any especially noticeable sur- 
 face change in his condition. 
 
 Stuttering in its first phase — Simple Stutter- 
 ing — can justly be called a physical and not a 
 mental trouble. In this stage, the disorder should 
 be easily eradicated. The duration of cases of 
 Simple Stuttering is very slight, for the reason 
 that Simple Stuttering soon passes into the Ad- 
 vanced Phase, which is of a physical-mental 
 nature, exhibiting the symptoms of a mental dis- 
 turbance as well as of a physical difficulty. 
 
 From the Advanced Phase, stuttering then 
 passes into the Mental Phase, where the mental 
 strain is found to be greatly intensified and the 
 disorder a distinct mental type instead of a phys- 
 ical or physical-mental trouble. 
 
 When stuttering in this stage is permitted to 
 continue its hold upon the sufferer, the continued 
 strain, worry and fear bring about a condition of 
 extraordinary malignancy, in which the trouble 
 develops into the Chronic Mental Stage. . This is 
 a condition bordering upon mental breakdown 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUKE 105 
 
 and even though the complete breakdown never 
 occurs, the one afflicted finds himself a chronic 
 stutterer, without surcease from his trouble. He 
 further finds that he has increasing difficulty in 
 thinking of the things which he wishes to say. 
 He seems to know, but his mind refuses to frame 
 the thought. In other words, he is unable to 
 recall the mental image of the word in mind, and 
 is therefore unable to speak the word. This is a 
 condition known as Aphasia or Thought Lapse 
 and represents a most serious stage of the diffi- 
 culty, in many cases totally beyond the possibil- 
 ity of reliefs — a condition in which no stutterer 
 should allow himself to get. 
 
 Stammering, being a kindred condition to stut- 
 tering, progresses from bad to worse in a manner 
 very similar. The progress of stammering may 
 be classified into successive stages as follows : 
 
 1 — Elementary Stage 
 
 2 — Spasmodic Stage 
 
 3 — Primary Mental Stage 
 
 4 — Chronic Mental Stage 
 
 5 — Compound Stage 
 Stammering in the Elementary Stage, like Stut- 
 tering, is a Physical Trouble. The Stammerer 
 has often been known to remain in the Elemen- 
 
106 STAMMERING 
 
 tary Stage only a few days or a few weeks, pass- 
 ing almost immediately into either the Spasmodic 
 or the Primary Mental Stage. Not all stam- 
 merers pass into the Spasmodic Stage of the 
 disorder, however, some passing directly into 
 Primary Mental Stage. 
 
 The Spasmodic Stage, however, is a form of 
 difficulty somewhat akin to the Advanced Phase 
 of Stuttering, for in this stage the trouble can be 
 said to be of Physical-Mental nature instead of 
 the purely physical disorder found in Elemen- 
 tary Stammering. 
 
 Stammering, in the Primary Mental Stage, 
 takes on a distinct Mental form as differentiated 
 from the Mental-Physical form and becomes 
 therefore more difficult to eradicate. If allowed 
 to continue, this form of Stammering (like Stut- 
 tering) passes into the Chronic Mental Stage, in 
 which case the Stammerer usually exhibits pro- 
 nounced signs of Thought Lapse and finds him- 
 self a Chronic or Constant Stammerer, often 
 unable to utter a sound — and further at times 
 unable to think of what he wishes to say. 
 
 The progress of both Stuttering and Stam- 
 mering from one stage to another is very certain. 
 These speech disorders do not differ materially 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUEE 107 
 
 from other human affictions in this respect — ^they 
 do not remain constant. There is an axiom in 
 Nature, that "Nothing is static," which, being in- 
 terpreted, means, that nothing stands still. And 
 this applies with full force to the stutterer or 
 stammerer. If no steps are taken to remedy the 
 malady, he may be very sure that the disorder is 
 getting worse — ^not standing still or remaining 
 the same. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 CAN STAMMERING AND STUTTERING BE 
 OUTGROWN? 
 
 PROBABLY the most harmful and oft- 
 repeated bit of advice ever given to a stam- 
 merer or stutterer is that which says, "Oh, don't 
 bother about it — you will soon outgrow the trou- 
 ble!" It is the most harmful because it is palp- 
 ably untrue. It is so oft-repeated because the 
 person giving the advice knows nothing what- 
 ever about the cause of stammering and just as 
 little about its progress or treatment. 
 
 The fact that we hear of no cases of stuttering 
 or stammering which have been outgrown does 
 not seem to alter the popular and totally un- 
 founded belief that stammering and stuttering 
 can be readily outgrown. 
 
 If the reader has not read the chapter on the 
 causes of stuttering and stammering and the two 
 preceding chapters on the Intermittent Tendency 
 and the Progressive Character of these speech 
 disorders, then these chapters should be read care- 
 fully before going further with this one, because 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 109 
 
 it is essential to know the cause of the trouble 
 before it is possible to answer intelligently the 
 question, "Can Stammering be Outgrown?" 
 
 To any one who understands the nature of the 
 difficulty and the progress it is liable to make, the 
 question is almost as absurd as asking whether or 
 not the desire to sleep can be outgrown by stay- 
 ing awake. But aside from its scientific aspect — 
 aside from the absurdity of the question — let us 
 examine the facts! as revealed by actual records of 
 cases. Let us dispense with all theory on the sub- 
 ject and take experience gained in a wide range 
 of cases as the correct guide in finding the answer. 
 
 Facts from Statistics: An examination of the 
 records of several thousand cases of stuttering 
 and stammering of all types and in all stages of 
 development reveals the fact that after passing 
 the age of six, only one-fifth of one per cent, ever 
 outgrow stammering. This means that out of 
 every five hundred people who stammer, only one 
 ever outgrows it. Between the ages of three and 
 six, the indications are more favorable, the records 
 in these cases showing that slightly less than one 
 per cent, outgrow the difficulty. That means that 
 
110 STAMMEKINQ 
 
 one out of every hundred children affected has a 
 chance, at least, of outgrowing the difficulty 
 between the ages of three and six, and after that 
 time, only one chance in five hundred. 
 
 Suppose you were handed a rifle, given five 
 hundred cartridges and told to hit a bull's-eye at 
 a hundred yards, 499 times out of 500. Suppose 
 you were told that if you missed once you would 
 have to suffer the rest of your life as a stanmifirer. 
 
 Would you take the offer? Certainly not!!! 
 
 And yet that is exactly the opportunity that a 
 stammerer over six years of age has to outgrow 
 his trouble. 
 
 Dr. Leonard Keene Hirschberg, the medical 
 writer, whose suggestions appear daily in a large 
 list of newspapers, has this to say about the pos- 
 sibility of outgrowing stammering : 
 
 "Often when the attention of careless and reckless fa- 
 talistic relatives is attracted to a child's stammering, they 
 labor under the mistaken illusion that the child 'wiU out- 
 grow it.' A more harmful doctrine has never been perpet- 
 uated than the one contained in that stock phrase. As a 
 matter of experience, speech troubles are not 'outgrown.' 
 They become 'ingrown.' If not corrected at first, they go 
 from bad to worse. So firmly rooted and ingrained into the 
 child's habits does stuttering become that with every hour's 
 growth the chance for a cure becomes farther and farther 
 removed." 
 
 This statement from Dr. Hirschberg is a straight- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 111 
 
 forward, practical and common-sense view of the 
 subject. 
 
 The belief that the child will outgrow the 
 malady often springs out of the tendency of the 
 stammerer to be better and worse by turns, a 
 condition which is fully described and explained 
 in the chapter on the Intermittent Tendency. 
 There is always present in any case of stammer- 
 ing the opportunity for a cessation of the trouble 
 for a short period of time. The visible condition 
 is changeable and it is this particular aspect of 
 the disorder that renders it deceptive and danger- 
 ous, for many, who find themselves talking fairly 
 well for a short period, believe that they are on 
 the road to relief, whereas they are simply in a 
 position where their trouble is about to return 
 upon them in greater force than ever. 
 
 From the nature of the impediment — lack of 
 co-ordination between the brain and the organs of 
 speech — stammering cannot be outgrown — ^no 
 more so than the desire to eat or to talk or to 
 sleep. 
 
 Back of that statement, there is a very sound 
 scientific reason that explains why stammering 
 cannot be outgrown. Stammering is destructive. 
 It tears down but cannot build up. Every time 
 
112 STAMMERING 
 
 the stammerer attempts to speak and fails, the 
 failure tears out a certain amount of his power- 
 of-will. And since it is impossible for him to 
 speak fluently except on rare occasions, this loss 
 of will-power and confidence takes place every 
 time he attempts to speak, so that with each suc- 
 cessive failure, his power to speak correctly be- 
 comes steadily lessened. The case of a stammerer 
 might be compared to a road in which a deep rut 
 has been worn. Each time a wagon passes 
 through this rut, it becomes deeper. The stam- 
 merer has no more chance of outgrowing his 
 trouble than the road has of outgrowing the rut. 
 Dr. Alexander Melville Bell recognizes the ab- 
 solute certainty of the progress of stammering 
 and the impossibihty of outgrowing the difficulty, 
 when he states in his work, "Principles of 
 Speech" (page 234) : 
 
 "If the stammerer or stutterer were brought under treat- 
 ment before the spasmodic habit became established, his cure 
 would be much easier than after the malady, has become 
 rooted in his muscular and nervous system." 
 
 To the stammerer or stutterer or the parents of 
 a stammering child, experience brings no truer 
 lesson than this: Stammering cannot be out- 
 grown ; danger lurks behind delay. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE EFFECT ON THE MIND 
 
 IT is hardly necessary to describe to the stam- 
 merer who has passed beyond the first stage 
 of his trouble the effect of stammering on the 
 mind. Most any sufferer in the second or third 
 stages of the malady has experienced for very 
 brief periods the sensation of thoughts slipping 
 away from him and of pursuing or attempting to 
 pursue those thoughts for some seconds without 
 success, finally to find them returning like a flash. 
 The stammerer who recalls such an incident 
 will remember the feeling of lassitude or momen- 
 tary physical exhaustion, as well as the feeling of 
 weakness which followed the lapse-of-thought. 
 This mental fliu^ry is but an indication of a men- 
 tal condition known as Thought-Lapse, which 
 may result from long-continued stammering, 
 especially a case which has been allowed to pro- 
 gress into the Chronic or Advanced Stage. 
 
 A Case of Aphasia: One writer, in citing in- 
 stances of thought-lapse or aphasia, tells of the 
 
114 8TAMMEBINO 
 
 case of a man unable to recall the name of any 
 object imtil it was repeated for him. A knife, 
 for instance, placed on the table before him, 
 brought no mental image of the word represent- 
 ing the object, yet if the word "knife" were 
 spoken for him, he would immediately say, "Oh, 
 yes, it is a knife." 
 
 A chapter could be fiUed with instances of this 
 sort, but I shall not attempt to quote further any 
 I of the symptoms of aphasia in a stammerer, for 
 in cases that become so far advanced, there is con- 
 siderable question as to the possibility of bringing 
 about a cure. I say this, notwithstanding the fact 
 that my experience with students having this 
 tendency has been very satisfactory indeed. 
 
 Cases of unreasoning despondency, which re- 
 sult in the stammerer's desire to take his own life, 
 are so numerous as hardly to require comment. 
 Very frequently you see in some of the large 
 metropohtan papers an account of a suicide 
 resulting from a nervous and mental condition 
 brought on by stuttering and stammering. This 
 condition seems to be very marked in the cases 
 of stammerers between the ages of twelve and 
 twenty, records showing that most of the suicides 
 of stammerers are persons between those ages. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 115 
 
 The intense mental strain, the extreme nervous 
 condition, the continual worry and fear cannot 
 fail, sooner or later, to have its effect upon the 
 mind. This is clear to any stammerer, who is 
 familiar with the mental condition brought about 
 by the first few hours of one of his periods of re- 
 currence. Another case where the mental strain 
 is extremely great is that of the synonym stam- 
 merer — the mentally alert individual who, in 
 order to prevent the outward appearance of stam- 
 mering, is continually searching for synonyms or 
 less difficult words to take the place of those which 
 he cannot speak. This continual searching for 
 synonyms results in a nervous tension that is sure 
 to tell on the mental faculties sooner or later, and 
 I have foimd, in examining many thousands of 
 cases, that the synonym stammerer is usually in 
 a more highly nervous state than any other type. 
 
 Mental Strain Eventually Tells: The effect 
 of stuttering or stammering on the sufferer's con- 
 centration is very marked. The sufferer notes 
 an inability to concentrate his mind on any sub- 
 ject for any length of time, finds it impossible to 
 pursue an education with any degree of success 
 
116 STAMMERING 
 
 or to follow any business which jequires close 
 attention and careful work. 
 
 The power-of-will is also affected and the 
 stammerer notes an inability to put through the 
 things which he starts and which require the exer- 
 cise of will power to bring to a successful con- 
 clusion. 
 
 A diagnosis of insanity is sometimes made in 
 the case of a stammerer in the advanced stages of 
 his malady, while in other instances the mental 
 aberration takes the form of a hallucination of 
 some sort, as in the case of the boy who was of 
 the belief that he was continually being followed. 
 
 But regardless of what form is taken by the 
 mental disorder resulting from stammering, such 
 cases are almost invariably found to have long 
 since passed into the incurable stage, although 
 positive statements as to the individual's condi- 
 tion should not be made, as a rule, without a 
 thorough diagnosis having first been made. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE EFFECTS ON THE BODY 
 
 THE effect of stammering or stuttering 
 upon the physical structure is problemat- 
 ical. In some cases examined, a noticeable lack of 
 vitality has been found, together with an almost 
 total loss of active appetite, a marked inclination 
 toward insomnia and a generally debilitated con- 
 dition resulting from the nervous strain and con- 
 tinued fear brought on by the speech disorder. 
 
 In other cases, it has been found that the health 
 was but little affected and that there was no 
 marked departure from normal. 
 
 The physical condition of the stammerer is the 
 result of many factors. If plenty of fresh air 
 and exercise is supplied, and the mind is well- 
 employed so that the worry over the trouble does 
 not disturb the stammerer, then the chances for 
 being in a normal physical condition are good. 
 
 On the other hand, the boy of studious dis- 
 position, who is somewhat of a bookworm, keeps 
 close to the house and does not play with other 
 children of his age, will probably find time for 
 
118 STAMMEKINQ 
 
 much introspection, and on this account, as well 
 as on account of the lack of fresh air and exer- 
 cise, will probably be in a physical condition that 
 of itself demands careful attention. 
 
 It has been found in examinations of stammer- 
 ers and stutterers, however, that they are usually 
 of below normal chest expansion and that the 
 health, while not particularly bad, is subject to a 
 great improvement as a result of the proper 
 treatment for stammering. 
 
 Charles Kingsley, the noted English divine 
 and writer, and himself a stammerer many years 
 ago, has the following to say regarding the effect 
 of stammering on the body: "Continual depres- 
 sion of spirit wears out body as well as mind. 
 The lungs never act rightly, never oxygenate the 
 blood sufficiently. The vital energy continually 
 directed to the organs of speech and there used 
 up in the miserable spasm of mis-articulation, 
 cannot feed the rest of the body; and the man too 
 often becomes thin, pale, flaccid, with contracted 
 chest, loose ribs and bad digestion. I have seen 
 a boy of twelve stunted, thin as a ghost and with 
 every sign of approaching consumption. I have 
 seen that boy a few months after being cured, 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 119 
 
 upright, ruddy, stout, eating heartily and begin- 
 ning to grow faster than he had ever grown in 
 his life. I never knew a single case in which the 
 health did not begin to improve then and there." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 DEFECTIVE SPEECH IN CHILDREN 
 
 (1) The Pre-Speaking Period 
 
 FROM the standpoint of speech development, 
 the life of any person between the time of 
 birth and the age of twenty-one years, may be 
 divided into four periods as follows: 
 
 From Birth to Age 2 — Pre-Speaking 
 
 Period. 
 Age 2 to Age 6 — Formative Period 
 Age 6 to Age 11 — Speech-Setting Period 
 Age 11 to Age 20 — Adolescent Period 
 
 This chapter will deal only with the first period of 
 the child's speech-development, beginning with 
 birth and taking the child up to his second year. 
 The speech disorders of the later periods wiU be 
 taken up in the three following chapters. 
 
 The Pre-Speaking Period: This is the period 
 between the time of birth and the age of 2, and 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 121 
 
 takes the child up to the time of the first spoken 
 Word. This does not mean, of course, that no 
 child speaks before the age of 2, for many chil- 
 dren have made their first trials at speaking at 
 as early an age as 15 months, and many begin to 
 talk by the time they are a year and a half old. 
 At the age of two, however, not only the pre- 
 cocious child but the child of slower-than-average 
 development should be able to talk in at least 
 brief, disjointed monosyllables. 
 
 Before taking up the possibility of a child ex- 
 hibiting symptoms of defective speech with the 
 first utterance, let us familiarize ourselves with 
 the fundamentals underlying the production of 
 the first spoken words. 
 
 •The mother, who for months, perhaps, has been 
 listening with eager interest and fond anticipa- 
 tion for her child's first word to be spoken, has 
 little comprehension of the vast amount of edu- 
 cation and training which the infant has absorbed 
 in order to perfect this first small utterance. 
 Months have been spent in listening to others, in 
 taking in sounds and recalling them, in impress- 
 ing them upon the memory by constant repeti- 
 tion, until finally after a year and a half, or more. 
 
122 STAMMERING 
 
 perhaps, the circuit is completed and the first 
 word is put down as history. 
 
 Association of Ideas: It must be remembered 
 that perfect co-ordination of speech is the result 
 of many mental images, not of one. In saying 
 the word "salt," for instance, you have a graphic 
 mental picture of what salt looks like; a second 
 picture of what the word sounds like; a "motor- 
 memory" picture of the successive muscle move- 
 ments necessary to the formation of the word; 
 another picture that recalls the taste of salt, and 
 still another that recalls the movements of the 
 hand necessary to write the word. 
 
 These pictures all hingeing upon the word 
 "salt" were gradually acquired from the time you 
 began to observe. You tasted salt. You saw it 
 at the same time you tasted it. There you see 
 was an association of two ideas. Thereafter, 
 when you saw salt, you not only recognized it by 
 sight, but yoxir brain recalled the taste of salt, 
 without the necessity of your really tasting it. 
 Or, on the other hand, if you had shut your eyes 
 and someone had put salt on your tongue, the 
 taste in that case would have recalled to your 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUEE 123 
 
 mind the graphic picture of the appearance of 
 salt. 
 
 As you grew older and learned to, speak, your 
 vocal organs imitated the soimd of the word 
 "salt" as you heard it expressed by others and 
 thus you learned to speak that word. At that 
 stage, your brain was capable of calling up three 
 mental pictures — an auditory picture, or a pic- 
 ture of the sound of the word; a graphic or visual 
 picture, or a picture of the appearance of salt, 
 and a third, which we have called a motor- 
 memory picture, which represents the muscular 
 movements necessary to speak the word. A little 
 later on, after you had gone to school and 
 learned to write, you added to these pictures a 
 fourth, the movements of the hand necessary to 
 write the word "salt." 
 
 At the sight of the mother, a child may, for 
 instance, be heard to say the word "Mom" while 
 at the sight of the pet dog whose name is "Dot," 
 be heard to say "Dot" in his childish way. 
 
 Here we have the first example in this child of 
 the association of ideas. The child has heard, re- 
 peatedly, the word "Mama" used in conjunction 
 with the appearance of the smiling face of his 
 
124 STAMMERING 
 
 mother. Thus has the child acquired the habit 
 of associating the word "Mama" with that face — 
 and the sight of the countenance after a time 
 recalls the sound of the associated word. Thus a 
 visual image of the mother transmitted to the 
 child through the medium of the eye, links up a 
 train of thought that finally results in the child's 
 attempt to say "Mama." 
 
 To take another example of the association of 
 ideas or the co-ordination of mental images neces- 
 sary to the production of speech, let us suppose, 
 for instance, that the child has been in the habit 
 of petting the dog and hearing him called by 
 name "Dot" at the same time. Now, if the dog 
 be placed out of the child's sight and yet in a posi- 
 tion where the hand of the child can reach and 
 pet him in a familiar way, this sense of touch, like 
 the sense of sight, will set up a train of thought 
 that results in the child making his childish 
 attempt to speak the name of the dog "Dot." 
 
 In other words, the excitation of any sensory 
 organ sets up a series of sensory impulses which 
 are transmitted along the sensory nerve fibres to 
 the brain, where they are referred to the cerebel- 
 lum or filing case, locating a set of associated im- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUKE 125 
 
 pulses which travel outward from the motor area 
 of the brain and result in the actions, or series of 
 actions, which are necessary to produce a word. 
 
 It will make the action of the brain clearer if 
 the reader will remember the sensory nerve fibres 
 as those carrying messages only to the brain, 
 while the motor nerve fibres carry messages only 
 FEOM the brain. 
 
 To make still clearer this association of ideas 
 so necessary to the production of speech, suppose 
 this same child hears the word "Dot" spoken in 
 his presence. He will, in all probability, begin to 
 repeat the word, and to search diligently for his 
 pet dog. Thus it will be seen that in this case the 
 sound of the dog's name has stirred up a train of 
 mental images, one of these being a visual image 
 of the dog himself, causing the child to look about 
 in search for him. 
 
 How We Learn to Talk: We learn to talk, 
 therefore, purely by observation and imitation. 
 Observation is here used in a broad sense and 
 means not only seeing but sensing, such as sens- 
 ing by smelhng, touching or tasting. The child 
 imitates the sounds he hears and if these sounds 
 
126 STAMMEBING 
 
 emanate from those afflicted with defective utter- 
 ance, then it follows that the initial utterance of 
 the child will be hkewise defective. 
 
 Source of the First Word: The first spoken 
 word of the child usually finds its source in some 
 name or word repeatedly spoken in the child's 
 presence. It is not usual that this first word is 
 marked by a defective utterance and if such 
 should be the case, then it is safe to say that this 
 faulty utterance can be traced back to the imita- 
 tion of some member of the family, or some child 
 who has been permitted to talk to the child in his 
 pre-speaking period. There is little to be gained 
 by tracing the first word back, for no very pro- 
 found conclusion can safely be registered with 
 such a basis, for no matter what the word be and 
 no matter whether it be correctly or imperfectly 
 emmciated, it is the result of imitation. 
 
 There may be two exceptions to this, however, 
 one being the case of a child with a physical de- 
 fect in the organs of speech and the other that of 
 a child who has inherited from the parents a pre- 
 disposition to stammer or stutter. These excep- 
 tions, however, are so rare as to hardly require 
 consideration. In the first (that of a physical 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 127 
 
 defect) it is hardly probable that an organic de- 
 fect would manifest itself in the form of stutter- 
 ing or stammering, but rather in some other form 
 of defective utterance. In the case of the in- 
 herited predisposition to stutter or stammer, there 
 is always the question which has contributed more 
 largely to the defective utterance — ^the inherited 
 predisposition or the association with others who 
 speak in a faulty manner. 
 
 Advice to Parents: It is very essential that 
 from the very beginning of the period of the 
 recording of suggestion, the child is shown the 
 correct and customary utterance with the best 
 method of its accomplishment. The child should 
 not be subjected to constant repetitions of pho- 
 netic defects, imperfect utterance or speech dis- 
 orders of any sort. The child who hears none but 
 perfect speech is not liable to speak imperfectly, 
 or at least not so hable as the child who hears 
 wrong methods of talking in use at all times, for 
 this last cannot escape the eifects of his environ- 
 ment. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 DEFECTIVE SPEECH IN CHILDREN 
 
 (2) The Formative Period 
 
 THE period in a child's speech development 
 dating from the second year and up to the 
 sixth, is called the Formative Period, for the 
 reason that this is the time when the child is busy 
 learning new words, acquiring new habits of 
 speech, co-ordinating and learning properly to 
 associate the jflood of ideas which overwhelm the 
 child-mind in this period. 
 
 The child-vocabulary at this time is but an echo 
 of the vocabulary of the home. The words that 
 have been used most frequently there are most 
 strongly impressed upon the child-mind. The 
 names he has heard, the objects he has seen, the 
 applications of speech-ideas — ^these alone are now 
 in his mind. This condition is inevitable since the 
 child must learn to speak by imitation — and, 
 since he has had no source of word-pictures other 
 than the home, he must have acquired facility in 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 129 
 
 the use of only those words he has had an oppor- 
 tunity to hear. 
 
 President Wilson, whose faultless diction, re- 
 markable fluency of expression and discriminat- 
 ing choice of words made him a master speaker 
 and writer, attributes his present facility to the 
 training he received in the home of his father, a 
 minister, where the children were constantly 
 encouraged in the use of correct English and in 
 the broadening and enrichment of their store of 
 words. 
 
 From the form of simple child-speech, made 
 up often of monosyllables or of a few brief and 
 easy sentences, the child must now evolve a more 
 complicated form of thought-expression, with the 
 use of connectives, descriptions and a finer grada- 
 tion of color than heretofore. 
 
 This process may be materially aided by the 
 parent by the repetition of the child's own utter- 
 ances, proving to the child that these are correct, 
 that he is being understood and giving him con- 
 fidence to venture further out in his attempts at 
 speech amplification. This encouragement of the 
 child-mind in its attempts to speak is so impor- 
 tant that it is worth while to give some simple 
 
130 STAMMERING 
 
 examples of what is meant, in order that the 
 point may be clearly understood. Let us take, 
 first, the example of a mother who, from some 
 cause, allows herself to be of a nervous and irrita- 
 ble disposition. The small child may say, "Mom- 
 ma, I want a tooky." The mother, either through 
 indifference or through habit, says, "You want 
 what?" This, first of all, is like a dash of cold 
 water to the child in his uncertain state of mind 
 as to the correctness of his utterance. The child 
 repeats, "I want a tooky," and in all probabihty 
 gets the further inquiry, "You want a tooky — 
 what's that?" which undermines the child's confi- 
 dence in himself and in his ability to talk. 
 
 On the other hand, the mother who under- 
 stands the needs of the child from a speech-form- 
 ing standpoint will not insist on the child repeat- 
 ing the word time after time as if it was not 
 understood. She will strive hard to understand 
 the first time, even though the expression is im- 
 perfect and difficult of interpretation, and her 
 nimble mind having figured out what it is that the 
 child desires, will say, "Baby wants a cooky?" 
 Here the child, in his comparatively new occupa- 
 tion of talking, finds a deal of delight in knowing 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 131 
 
 that his words have been properly comprehended 
 and feels a new confidence in his ability to express 
 thoughts — which confidence, by the way, is essen- 
 tial to normal speech development in the child. 
 It has the further effect of correcting the tend- 
 ency of faulty utterance, and in time will result 
 in the complete eradication of the natural 
 tendency to "baby-talk" which is too often en- 
 couraged and aided by the habit of parents in 
 repeating the baby-talk. In no case, should de- 
 fective utterances be repeated, no matter how 
 "cute" the utterance may seem at the time. Many 
 speak indistinctly throughout their entire life 
 simply because of the habit of their parents in 
 repeating baby-talk, thus confirming incorrect 
 images of numerous words. 
 
 Speech Disorders in the Formative Period: 
 The Formative Period may mark the beginning 
 of a speech disorder and in many instances 
 chronic cases of stuttering and stammering may 
 be traced to a simple disorder which first mani- 
 fested itself in the ages between 2 and 6. 
 
 Speech disorders arising in this period may be 
 traced to any one of a nvimber of causes. In a 
 
132 STAMMEEINQ 
 
 child of five, for instance, the diagnostician would 
 look for evidences of an inherited tendency to 
 stammer or stutter; he would look also for cir- 
 cumstances which would show that the child had 
 acquired defective utterance through mimicry of 
 others similarly afflicted or through the imcon- 
 scious imitation of the defective speech of those 
 immediately about him. 
 
 Failing to find any hereditary tendency to a 
 speech defect or any evidence that the disorder 
 had been acquired by imitation or mimicry, the 
 next step would be to determine whether or not 
 the trouble had been caused by disease or injury. 
 As explained in Chapter III, the diseases of 
 childhood, such as Whooping Cough, Scarlet 
 Fever, Diphtheria, Acute Chorea, Infantile 
 Cerebral Palsy and Infantile Paralysis are fre- 
 quently the cause of stuttering or stammering, 
 and a history showing a record of these diseases 
 would result in a very careful examination for 
 the purpose of determining if they had resulted 
 in a form of defective utterance. 
 
 Advice to Parents: But whatever the cause of 
 the trouble, care should be taken to see that it 
 grows no worse and every attempt S'hould be 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 183 
 
 made to eradicate it at this early stage. Like a 
 fire, speech disorders in their early stages are 
 insignificant compared to their future progress 
 and can be much more readily eradicated then 
 than later. Inasmuch as a child of less than eight 
 years is hardly old enough to vmdertake institu- 
 tional treatment successfully, it behooves the 
 parent of the stammering or stuttering child to 
 render what home assistance is possible, din-ing 
 this period. The old adage, tried and true, that 
 "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 
 cure" is never more correctly apphed than here. 
 A few simple suggestions may aid in preventing 
 the trouble from progressing rapidly to a serious 
 stage, even though these suggestions do not erad- 
 icate the disorder altogether. 
 
 First of all, the child should be kept in the very 
 best possible physical condition. This means, too, 
 plenty of fresh air and sunshine, without which 
 any child is less than physically fit. 
 
 It is important that the child be not allowed to 
 associate with others who stammer or stutter, or 
 who have any form of speech disorder. Imita- 
 tion or mimicry, as heretofore stated, is the most 
 prolific cause of speech trouble and to place a 
 child who stammers or stutters in the company 
 
184 STAMMERING 
 
 of an older person similarly afflicted, is to invite 
 a serious form of the disorder. 
 
 Nervousness, while not the cause of speech dis- 
 order, is an aggravant of the trouble and should 
 be avoided. The child should not be allowed to 
 engage in anything which has a tendency to make 
 him nervous or highly excited. Such a condition 
 will aggravate the speech trouble, make it worse 
 and tend to fix it more firmly in the child. 
 
 Furthermore, parents should not scold or be- 
 rate the child because he stammers or stutters. 
 'No child stammers or stutters because he wants 
 to, but because he has not the power to control 
 his speech organs. In other words, the child can- 
 not help himself — and scolding and harsh words 
 simply cause confusion and dejection which in 
 turn react to make a more serious condition. 
 
 The Chances for Outgrowing : The author's 
 examination and diagnosis of more than 18,000 
 cases of speech disorders has revealed the fact 
 that at this period in the hfe of the child afflicted 
 with stammering or stuttering, slightly less than 
 1 per cent, outgrow the difficulty. With proper 
 parental care it might be possible to increase this 
 percentage, perhaps double it, but this should 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 135 
 
 hardly be called "outgrowing." In the mind of 
 the average person, the expression "outgrowing 
 his stammering" means that the stammerer has 
 been able to go ahead without giving the slightest 
 heed to his trouble and that it has, by some 
 magical process, ceased to exist. This is a fal- 
 lacy. Stammering and stuttering are both de- 
 structive and progressive and no amount of 
 indifference will result in rehef — but on the other 
 hand, will terminate in a more malignant type of 
 the disorder. It is true, however, that more care 
 on the part of the parent in looking after the 
 formation of speech habits in the Pre-Speaking 
 and Formative Periods of the child's speech de- 
 velopment, would result in fewer cases of chronic 
 stammering and stuttering in later life. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 DEFECTIVE SPEECH INf CHILDBEN 
 
 (3) The Speech-Setting Period 
 
 THE period from the age of 6 to the age of 
 11 (inclusive) is in truth the Speech-Setting 
 Period, for it is at this time that the child's speech 
 habits become more or less fixed, and his vocabu- 
 lary, while constantly developing, manifests tend- 
 encies vphich may be traced through into the later 
 life of the adult. 
 
 This Speech-Setting Period marks two very 
 important events in the speech development of 
 the child. First, it marks the period of second 
 dentition or the time when the milk-teeth are 
 "shed" and the new and permanent teeth take 
 their place. This is a critical period and statistics 
 show that there is a marked increase in speech 
 disorders at this time. The second event of im- 
 portance, both to child and to parents, is the 
 beginning of the work in school. It must be 
 remembered that heretofore the child has been 
 under the watchful care of the parents during 
 most of his hours, while now, with the beginning 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 137 
 
 of his work in school, he is having his first small 
 taste of facing the world alone — even if only for 
 a little while each day. 
 
 Regardless of the attitude which the child takes 
 toward his work in school, this work presents new 
 problems and new possibilities of danger from a 
 standpoint of speech development. A slight de- 
 fect in utterance which at home is passed over 
 from long familiarity, is the subject of ridicule 
 and laughter at school. For the first time in the 
 child-life, the stammering or stuttering yoxmg- 
 ster may experience the awful feeling of being 
 laughed at and made fun of, without exactly 
 knowing why. He will have to face the ques- 
 tions of his thoughtless companions who will 
 attempt to make him talk merely for the sake of 
 entertaining themselves. To the child who stut- 
 ters or stamtmers, this is torture in its worst form. 
 The humiliation and disgrace which the stammer- 
 ing child must undergo on the way to school, in 
 the school-yard and on the way home again, is a 
 tremendous force in the life of the yoimgster^-— a 
 force which may seriously impede his mental de- 
 velopment, his physical welfare and his progress 
 in school. He finds himself unlike others, de- 
 ficient in some respect and yet not realizing the 
 
138 STAMMERING 
 
 exact natxire of his deficiency or understanding 
 why it should be a deficiency. He stands up to 
 recite with a constantly increasing fear of failure 
 in his heart and unless he is fortunate enough to 
 have a teacher who understands, is apt to fare 
 poorly at her hands, also. Even in the case of the 
 teacher who does understand the child's difficulty 
 and consequently permits written instead of oral 
 recitations, there is a constant feeling of inability 
 on the part of the child, a knowledge of being 
 less-whole than those about him, which saps the 
 self-confidence so necessary to proper mental de- 
 velopment and normal progress. He further- 
 more misses much of the value of the studies that 
 he pursues, for, as a noted educator has said, "In 
 order for a child to remember and fix clearly in 
 his own mind the things he studies, those things 
 must be repeated in oral recitation." And this 
 the stammering or stuttering child cannot do. 
 
 Sending Stammering Children to School: 
 With these facts in mind, the question arises as to 
 whether it is ever policy to send a stammering 
 or stuttering child to school, knowing that he is 
 afflicted with a speech-disorder. In the first 
 place the parents who send a stammering child to 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 139 
 
 school exhibit a careless disregard for the rights 
 of others and a further disregard for the many 
 children who must, of a necessity, associate with 
 this stammering child, with all the consequent 
 dangers of infection by imitation or mimicry. 
 Speech defects of a remediable nature among 
 school children could be materially reduced by 
 refusing to allow children so afflicted to play or 
 in any way associate with the others who talk 
 normally. 
 
 Aside, however, from the question of the par- 
 ents' obUgation to society and to the children of 
 others (which should be, in the end, a means of 
 protection for their own children, as well) there 
 is the bigger and more selfish aspect of the ques- 
 tion, viz : the effect on the child himself. 
 
 No better suggestion can be given than that 
 contained in "The Habit of Success" by Luther 
 H. Gulick, who says : 
 
 "If you take a child that is really mentally subnormal and 
 put him in school with normal children, he cannot do well 
 no matter how hard he tries. He tries again and again and 
 fails. Then he is scolded and punished, kept after school 
 and held up to the ridicule of the teacher and other students. 
 When he goes out on the playground, he cannot play with 
 the vigor and skill and force of other children. In the plays, 
 he is not wanted on either side ; he is always "it" in tag. So 
 
140 STAMMEKING 
 
 he soou acquires the presentiment that he is going to fail no 
 matter what he does, that he cannot do as the others do and 
 that there is no use in trying. So he gives up trying. He 
 quits. 
 
 "That is the largest element in the lives of the feeble- 
 minded—that conviction that they cannot do like others, and 
 is the first thing they must overcome if they are to be helped. 
 There is no hope whatever of growth, as long as they foresee 
 they are going to fail." 
 
 The futility of trying to "cram" an education 
 into a subnormal child has never been better 
 expressed than in the statement quoted above. 
 There is nothing to be gained by insisting that 
 a child who is ill, attend school — and it should be 
 remembered that so far as school is concerned, the 
 child who stutters or stammers is just as ill as 
 the one with the measles, save that the illness of 
 the stammering or stuttering child is chronic and 
 persistent, while that of the other is temporary. 
 
 Chances for Outgrowing at This Age: The 
 opportunities for the stammering or stuttering 
 child to outgrow his trouble are about five times 
 as great in the Formative Period, between the 
 ages of 2 and 6, as they are in the Speech-Setting 
 Period, from 6 to 11. In the former, as previ- 
 ously explained, statistics show that about 1 per 
 cent. — or one in a hundred — outgrow their trou- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUKE 141 
 
 ble before the age of 6, while after this age the 
 percentage drops to one-fifth of one per cent, or 
 about one person in every five hundred, which is 
 a very small chance indeed. 
 
 In speaking of the tendency of parents to wait 
 in the hope that speech disorders will be out- 
 grown, Walter B. Swift, A. B., S. B., M. D., has 
 this to say : 
 
 "This suggestion may frequently be offered, even by the 
 physician. Many people say, 'let the case alone and it will 
 ontgrow its defect.' No treatment could be more foolish 
 than this. No advice could be more iU-advised; no sugges- 
 tion could show more ignorance of the problems of speech. 
 Such advisers are ignorant of the harm they are doing and 
 the amount of mental drill of which they are depriving the 
 pupil. Nor do they know at all whether or not the case will 
 ever 'outgrow' its defect. In brief, this advice is without 
 foundation, without scientific backing, and should never be 
 followed." 
 
 Advice to Parents: Parents of children be- 
 tween the ages of 6 and 11 who stammer or stut- 
 ter, should follow out the suggestions given in the 
 previous chapter, with the idea of removing the 
 difficulty in its incipiency if possible, or at least 
 of preventing its progress. If by the time the 
 child is eight years of age, the defective utterance 
 remains, this fact is proof that the speech dis- 
 order is of a, form that will not yield to the simple 
 
142 STAMMERING 
 
 methods possible under parental treatment at 
 home and the child should be immediately placed 
 under the care of an expert whose previous 
 knowledge and experience insures his ability to 
 correct the defective utterance quickly and per- 
 manently. 
 
 In all cases after the age of 8, the matter should 
 be taken firmly in hand. There should be no 
 dilly-dallying, no foolish belief in the possibility 
 of outgrowing the trouble, for whatever chances 
 once existed are now past. First of all, the child's 
 case should be diagnosed by an expert with the 
 idea of ascertaining the exact nature of the speech 
 disorder, the probable progress of the trouble, the 
 present condition, the curability of the case and 
 the possibilities for early relief. A personal 
 diagnosis should be secured where possible, but 
 when this cannot be brought about, a written 
 description and history of the case should enable 
 the capable diagnostician of speech defects to 
 diagnose the case in a very thorough manner. 
 The results of this diagnosis should be set down 
 in the form of a report in order that the parent 
 may have a permanent record of the child's con- 
 dition and may be able to take the proper steps 
 for the eradication of the speech disorder. With 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 148 
 
 this information as to the child's case in hand, 
 parents should be guided by the advice of Alex- 
 ander Melville Bell, one of the greatest speech 
 specialists of his age, who said : 
 
 "Stuttering and Hesitation are stages through which the 
 stammerer generally passes before he reaches the climax of 
 his difiSeulty, and if he were brought under treatment before 
 the spasmodic habit became established, his cure would be 
 much more easy than after the malady has become rooted in 
 his muscular and nervous system." 
 
 Truly may it be said of the stammering child at 
 this period, that "There is a tide in the affairs of 
 men, which taken at the flood, leads on to for- 
 tune ; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound 
 in shallows and in miseries." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE SPEECH DISORDERS OF YOUTH 
 
 YOUTH, as we shall define it from the stand- 
 point of the development of speech disorders, 
 is the period from the age of 12 to the age of 20. 
 From the twelfth to the twentieth year is a very 
 critical period in the life of both the boy and the 
 girl who stammers — a period which should have 
 the watchfulness and care of the parent at every 
 step. This is known as the period of adolescence 
 and may be said to mark the time of a new birth, 
 when both mind and body undergo vital changes. 
 New sensations, many of them intense, arise, and 
 new associations in the sense sphere are formed. 
 
 To the boy or girl passing through this stage 
 of life, it is a period of new and unknown forces, 
 emotions and feelings. It is a time of uncer- 
 tainty. The sure-footed confidence of childhood 
 gives way to the unsure, hesitating, questioning 
 attitude of a mind filled with new and strange 
 thoughts and a body animated by new and 
 strange sensations. 
 
 These are the symptoms of a fundamental 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 145 
 
 change, the outward manifestations of the pass- 
 ing from childhood to manhood or womanhood. 
 This is childhood's equinoctial storm, marking the 
 beginning of the second season of life's year. In 
 this storm, it is the paramount duty of the parent 
 to be a safe and ever-present pilot through the 
 sea that to the captain of this craft is as uncharted 
 as the route to the Indies in Colxmibus' day. 
 
 The revolution now taking place in both the 
 mental and bodily processes results in a lack of 
 stability — ^an "imsettledness" that manifests itself 
 in restlessness, nervorsness, self -consciousness or 
 morbidness, taking perhaps the form of a per- 
 sistent melancholia or desire to be alone. 
 
 At this time in the life of the boy or girl, the 
 possibihties for stuttering or stammering to 
 secure a firm hold on their muscular and nervous 
 system are very great. Next to the age of second 
 dentition, children at the age of puberty are most 
 susceptible to stammering or stuttering. 
 
 During adolescence, the annual rate of growth 
 in height, weight and strength is increased and 
 often doubled or more. The power of the dis- 
 eases peculiar to childhood abates and the liabiUty 
 to the far more nimierous diseases of maturity 
 begins, so that with the liability to both it is not 
 
 10 
 
146 STAMMEKING 
 
 strange that this period is marked at the same 
 time by increased morbidity. 
 
 The significant fact about stuttering m chil- 
 dren as far as it relates to the period of 
 adolescence, is that this stage marks the most 
 pronoimced susceptibility to the malady as well 
 as the time during which it may most quickly pass 
 into the chronic stage. Examinations show that 
 the largest percentage of stutterers among boys 
 was at the ages of eight, thirteen and sixteen, 
 while the largest percentage among girls was at 
 the ages of seven, twelve and sixteen — the earlier 
 age of severity in girls being explained by the 
 fact that the girl reaches a given state of maturity 
 more quickly than a boy. 
 
 Parents of stammering or stuttering children 
 between the ages of twelve and twenty, may well 
 note with alarm the increasing nervousness, the 
 hyper-sensitive feelings, the overpowering self- 
 consciousness and the morbid tendencies which 
 mark a state of mental depression, brooding and 
 worry over troubles both real and fancied. 
 
 Period of Most Frequent Suicide: Statistics 
 gathered over a period of years indicate that the 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 147 
 
 cases of suicide of stammering children occur at 
 this time with greater frequency than at any 
 other. Rarely has a case been found where a 
 child has attempted to take his life before the age 
 of 12 and seldom after the age of 20. 
 
 At frequent intervals there can be found in any 
 of the large papers, a very brief note of the suicide 
 of a child who' had found life too much of a 
 burden for him to bear and who, as a conse- 
 quence, fell to brooding over his troubles and as 
 the easiest way out of them, took his own life. A 
 Chicago boy recently attempted suicide by in- 
 haling gas, although he was discovered before it 
 was too late. Another took his own life by shoot- 
 ing himself with a revolver given him some years 
 ago as a birthday present; still another took 
 poison as the easiest way out of his humiliation, 
 embarrassment and despair. 
 
 The average age of these boys was about 16^ 
 years, which marks a period of intense self -con- 
 sciousness and extreme sensitiveness of the youth 
 to ridicule and disgrace. 
 
 Tendency to Rapid Progress: The condition 
 of the young person between the ages of 12 and 
 
148 STAMMERING 
 
 20 can hao-dly be considered to be normal in any 
 way. The physical processes are un-normal and 
 are undergoing a change, and the mental facul- 
 ties, too, are un-normal, overwhelmed as they are 
 with new emotions and sensations. The nervous 
 condition is marked by a much higher nervous 
 irritabihty, which contributes to a condition most 
 favorable for the rapid progress of the speech 
 disorder, always easily aggravated by a sub- 
 normal physical, mental or nervous condition. 
 Cases where the Intermittent Tendency is a pro- 
 nounced characteristic are liable at this period to 
 find the alternate periods of relief and recurrence 
 to be more frequent than ever before and to note 
 a marked tendency of their trouble to recur with 
 constantly increasing mahgnancy. Cases that at 
 the age of 11 or 12, for instance, might have been 
 said to have been in an incipient state, have com- 
 monly been known at this age to pass through 
 the successive intermediate stages of the trouble 
 and become of a deep-seated and chronic nature 
 in a surprisingly short period of time. 
 
 In some cases where the transition from a sim- 
 ple to the complex form of the difficulty takes 
 place at this agej it is f ovmd that the disorder has 
 passed beyond the curable stage, in which case. 
 
m CAUSE AND CUBE 149 
 
 of course, nothing is left to the unf ortimate stam- 
 merer but the prospects of a life of untold misery 
 and torture, deprived of companionship, ostra- 
 cized from society and debarred from participa- 
 tion in either business or the professions. 
 
 Chances for Outgrowing: The chances for 
 outgrowing a speech disorder at this age are con- 
 siderably less than at any other time in the previ- 
 ous life of the individual. The unbalanced gen- 
 eral condition tends to make the stammerer more 
 susceptible instead of less so. As previously ex- 
 plained, this period marks the time when speech 
 disorders progress rapidly from bad to worse and, 
 as a consequence, the chances for outgrowing 
 diminish from 1 per cent, before the age of 6 to 
 practically zero after the age of 12. 
 
 ^Suggestions : There is httle that can be said 
 for the good of the young person at these ages. 
 The time for home treatment is past. The simple 
 suggestions offered for the assistance of those in 
 the Formative or Speech-Setting Periods would 
 be of little value here because the growth of the 
 individual has made the eradication of the trouble 
 quite improbable without a complete re-education 
 
150 STAMMERING 
 
 along correct speech lines — best obtained from an 
 institution devoting its efforts to that work. 
 Whatever steps are taken, however, should be 
 taken before the disorder has become rooted in 
 the muscular and nervous system and before it 
 has passed into the Chronic Stage. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 WHERE DOES STAMMERING LEAD? 
 
 IN answering the question: "Where Does 
 Stammering Lead?" nothing truer can be 
 found than the words of a man who has stam- 
 mered himself : 
 
 "What pen can depict the woefukiess, the intensified suf- 
 fering of the inveterate stammerer, confirmed, stereotyped in 
 a malady seemingly -worse than death? Are the afiBictions, 
 mental and physical, of the pelted, brow-beaten, down- 
 trodden stutterer imaginary? Nonsense! There is not a 
 word of truth in the idea. His sufferings all the time, day 
 in and day out, at home and abroad, are real— intense- 
 purgatorial. And none but those who have drunk the bitter 
 cup to its dregs feel and know its death, death, double 
 death ! These afflicted ones die daily and the graves to them 
 seem pleasant and delightful. The sufferings of the deaf 
 and dumb are myths — but a drop in the ocean compared to 
 what I endured ! And who cared for me? Who? I was the 
 laughing stock, a subject of scofEing and ridicule, often. I 
 could fill an octavo with the miseries I endured from early 
 childhood till the elapsement of forty summers." 
 
 Thus does the Rev. David F. Newton, himself a 
 stamjnerer for forty years, speak of stammering 
 and stuttering and its effects. And Charles 
 Kingsley, a noted English divine and author who 
 
152 STAMMERING 
 
 stammered, paints the stammerer's future in 
 words of experience that no stammerer should 
 ever forget: 
 
 "The stammerer!s life is a life of misery, growing with 
 his growth and deepening as his knowledge of life and his 
 aspirations deepen. lOne comfort he has, truly, that his life 
 will not be a long one. Some may smUe at this assertion; 
 let them think for themselves. How many old people have 
 they ever heard stammer? I have known but two. One is a 
 very slight case, the other a very severe one. He, a man of 
 fortune, dragged on a very painful and pitiful existence 
 — nervous, decrepit, asthmatic — kept alive by continual 
 nursing. Had he been a laboring man, he would have died 
 thirty years sooner than he did." 
 
 To the man who has never been through the suf- 
 fering that results from stammering or who has 
 never been privileged to watch the careers of 
 stammerers and stutterers over a period of years, 
 these final results of stammering seem impossible. 
 The inexperienced observer can only ask in won- 
 der: "How can stammering or stuttering bring 
 a man or woman to these depths of despair?" 
 
 To the stammerer who has but begun to taste 
 the sorrows of a stammerer's life, these effects of 
 stammering appear to be the ultimate result of 
 an umisual case — never the inevitable result of 
 his own trouble. 
 
 Doubtless if Charles Kingsley were with us 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 153 
 
 today, he could look back and tell us of the day 
 when he, too, was sure that stammering was but 
 a trifle. He, too, could point out the time when 
 he felt that sometime, somehow, his stammering 
 would magically depart and leave him free to talk 
 as others talked. And yet, having gone down the 
 road through a long hfe of usefulness, Kingsley's 
 is the voice of a mature experience which says to 
 every stammerer: "Beware — there are pitfalls 
 ahead !" And this man is right. 
 
 Results of Stammering: Experience proves 
 that the results of continued stammering or stut- 
 tering are definite and positive, and that they are 
 inevitable. Stammering is known to be at the 
 root of many troubles. It causes nervousness, 
 self -consciousness and sometimes brings about a 
 mental condition bordering on complete mental 
 breakdown. It causes mental sluggishness, dis- 
 sipates the power-of-concentration, weakens the 
 power of will, destroys ambition and stands 
 between the sufferer and an education. 
 
 There is no affliction more annoying or embar- 
 rassing to its victim than stammering. 'No mat- 
 ter how bright the intellect may be, if the tongue 
 is unable easily and quickly to formulate the 
 
154 STAMMERING 
 
 words expressing thought, the individual is held 
 back in business and is debarred from the pleas- 
 ures of social and home life. 
 
 Stammering is a drawback to children in 
 school. To be unable to recite means failure. It 
 means humiliation. It means disgrace in the eyes 
 of the other pupils. And finally, it means valu- 
 able time wasted — not in getting an education — 
 but in suffering untold misery in TRYING to 
 get one — and failing. 
 
 A boy fourteen years of age, who has failed to 
 advance in school, and who finds stammering a 
 handicap of serious proportions, tells me: 
 
 "I am fourteen years old and only in the fifth grade. I 
 ■am afraid to recite because of my stuttering, and because 
 of my not reciting when my teachers call on me, I am get- 
 ting low marks in school and do not know if I will ever get 
 through." 
 
 One mother writes : 
 
 "My little girl will not go to Sunday School because she 
 does not like the other children to look at her so straight 
 when she stammers." 
 
 A boy says : 
 
 "I am thirteen years old and in school. I am afraid to 
 recite because of my stuttering; and because of my not 
 reciting 1 get low average in my studies." 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 155 
 
 Another boy told me: 
 
 "I am now in the third year of my high school course. 
 On the first day of the term I went to school, I made such a 
 miserable thing of myself that I quit. The school superin- 
 tendent and principal saw me when I came back the second 
 day as I was carrying my books out. Of course they stopped 
 me and I made an explanation. I couldn't tell any of the 
 new teachers my name. It was impossible to make any kind 
 of a recitation. I was introduced to all of my teachers and 
 have been stumbling along ever since with grades anywhere 
 from to 60." 
 
 A Social Drawback: No stammerer but knows 
 that his malady marks him for the half-sup- 
 pressed smiles of thoughtless people and the 
 unkind remarks of those who really know nothing 
 of the suffering which these unkind remarks 
 occasion. It is true, but unfortunate, that the 
 stammerer is not wanted in any social gathering, 
 he can provide no entertainment, save at his own 
 expense, and of all people he is most ill at ease 
 when out among others. 
 
 A young lady writes: 
 
 "Mr. Bogue, I would give one of my eyes to get rid of 
 stammiering. That is all I am after. Please excuse this 
 awful writing. I AM SO NERVOUS I CAN HABDLY 
 GET THE PEN INTO THE INK BOTTLE." 
 
IBQ STAMMEBINO 
 
 Here is a letter from one man : 
 
 "I am 36 yeara old, and have stammered for 28 years. I 
 don't stammer so bad, but just bad enough to spoil my Ufe. 
 I always have to take a back seat in company. I belong to 
 three lodges, but I do not take part in any of them because 
 I am afraid they will ask me to take part in the order. It 
 would make me feel cheap. I have often felt like commit- 
 ting suicide, but I would pull my nerves together and make 
 the best of it again. I am now a janitor at a school." 
 
 Hopeless in Business: There is not a young 
 man stammerer in this whole coimtry who would 
 not work night and day to be cured of stammer- 
 ing if he realized the hopelessness of trying to be 
 a success in a business way, handicapped by stam- 
 mering, unable to talk fluently, clearly and in- 
 telligently. 
 
 A man says: 
 
 "I am 33 years old and single. I have stammered ever 
 since I was a child. It has made me nervous. At my age 
 it is very embarrassing to me to stutter. I kept getting 
 more nervous from year to year, and finally I have had 
 to give up my position. I was a long-hand biller for ten 
 years, but I am now troubled with writer's cramp and 
 unable to do much. I can't get a clerk's job because of my 
 stuttering." 
 
 And here is another — a man grown, who too late 
 realized the futility of trying to get an education 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 157 
 
 while yet handicapped by stammering. He said, 
 a while back: 
 
 "I must say my stammering has spoiled my life and 
 robbed me of a successful career. I would give much if my 
 parents had sent me to be cured of stammering when a boy, 
 instead of trying as they did to educate me." 
 
 Stammerer Appears Illiterate: No matter 
 how great the stammerer's knowledge may be, he 
 often appears to be ilHterate simply because he is 
 unable to express himself in words. His knowl- 
 edge is locked up by his infirmity, the same as 
 though he had a steel band drawn over his mouth 
 and fastened with a padlock which he is unable 
 to unlock for want of a proper key. The man 
 with the locked-up knowledge is under as great 
 a handicap as the man without knowledge. 
 
 A man who had a chance to be a big success in 
 business, had he not stammered, says : 
 
 "Stammering is the cause of all my trouble. My earlier 
 associates have shunned me for several years, and I have 
 sought the worst class of dives and the lowest kind of com- 
 panions, where I was reasonably certain that I would not 
 come in Contact with those with whom I had associated in 
 earlier years. My eyes are wet with tears— tears of remorse 
 and regret— because I see no chance in life for me now." 
 
 The stammerer who thinks that success oomes to 
 
158 STAMMERING 
 
 the man who stammers — ^who believes that ihe 
 business world is willing to put up with anything 
 less than fluent speech, should read this heart- 
 broken letter from a young man : 
 
 "I am a bookkeeper, and dearly love my work, but am 
 afraid that I am going to have to give it up because my 
 speech is getting worse, and I have noticed that the boss has 
 mentioned it to me a couple of times now, and it almost 
 breaks my heart to know that my position is going to get 
 away from me. No one realizes how much one suffers, and 
 I'm afraid I'm going to break down with nervous prostra- 
 tion soon. When one day is over with me, I wonder how I 
 am going to get through with the next one." 
 
 What are the results of stammering? Should 
 anyone ask that question, I could point to in- 
 stances in my own experience that would prove 
 that almost every undesirable condition of himian 
 existence may be the result of stammering. I 
 have seen young men who are business failures, 
 dejected, hopeless, drifting along, men who in 
 early years were intellectual giants, and who 
 before their death were mere children in mental 
 power, because they allowed stammering to 
 destroy every valuable faculty they possessed. 
 
 I could point to children whom stammering 
 had held back almost from the time they began 
 to talk — give cases of young men depressed, em- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 159 
 
 barrassed, unsuccessful, because they stammer — 
 cite instances of all the worth-while things in life 
 turned from the path of a young woman because 
 she stammered. 
 
 Yet in the past, not one of these knew what 
 was coming. Not one realized where the trail 
 was leading. No stammerer can of himself see 
 into the future. But he can, at least, look into 
 the future of others who, like himself, are stam- 
 merers, and avoid the pitfalls into which they have 
 fallen and save himself the mistakes they have 
 made. 
 
PAUT III 
 
 THE CURE OF STAMMERING 
 AND STUTTERING 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 CAN STAMMERING REALLY BE CUBED? 
 
 IT has only been a few years since the impres- 
 - sion was abroad that stammering was inciir- 
 able. Not a particle of hope was held out to the 
 afl9icted individual that any semblance of a cure 
 was possible by any method. This erroneous idea 
 that stammering could not be cured grew up in 
 the mind of the average person as a result of one 
 or all of the following conditions : 
 
 1st— The inability of the stammerer to cure himself and 
 his further inability to outgrow the trouble, (although he 
 was repeatedly told that he would outgrow it) was the 
 first reason that led to the foolish and totally unfounded 
 belief that stammering could not be cured. 
 
 2nd— The principles of speech and the un-normal condition 
 known as stammering have been surrounded with a great 
 deal of mystery in the years gone by. The idea has been 
 widely prevalent that the affliction was one sent by Provi- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUKE 101 
 
 deuce as a punishment for some act committed by th» 
 sufferer or his forebears. This and many other ideas bor- 
 dering upon superstition, are responsible, too, to a great 
 degree for the belief that stammering is incurable. 
 
 3rd— Even if an attempt to cure stammering was made, this 
 attempt was based upon the "supposition" that stammer- 
 ing was a physical trouble, due to some defect in the 
 organs of speech. It followed that since no one was ever 
 able to discover any physical defect, no one knew the true 
 cause of the disorder, nor how to treat it successfully. 
 
 4th— Unfortunately there have been in the field a number of 
 irresponsible charlatans, preying upon the stammerer with 
 claims to cure, while in fact they knew little or nothing of 
 the disorder, had never stammered themselves, nor had the 
 slightest knowledge of the correct methods of procedure 
 in the cure of stammering. The failure of such as these 
 to do any good led to a widespread belief that there was 
 no successful method for the eradication of speech dis- 
 orders. 
 
 From an experience covering more than nineteen 
 years, during which time the author has corre- 
 sponded with 170,000 persons who stammer and 
 has personally met and diagnosed about 18,000 
 cases, it has been proved that all of these beliefs 
 are fallacies of the worst character. Given any 
 person who stutters or stammers and who has no 
 organic defect and is as intelligent as the average 
 child of eight years, it has been found that the 
 Unit Method of Restoring Speech will eradicate 
 11 
 
162 STAMMEBINO 
 
 the trouble at its source and by removing the 
 cause, entirely remove the defective utterance. 
 
 The Stammerer's Case Not Hopeless: Stam- 
 merers should fix this fact firmly in mind : Stam- 
 mering can be cured! There is hope, positive, 
 definite hope for every case — this fact is based on 
 every imaginable form of stuttering or stammer- 
 ing. It is not, in other words, a mere idle state- 
 ment based on theory or guess-work, but a mathe- 
 matical truth, taken from experience. 
 
 I recall very well the case of a man of 32 who 
 came to me for help after five of the so-called 
 schools for stammerers had failed to afford him 
 any relief. Quite naturally this man was a con- 
 firmed skeptic. He did not believe that there was 
 any cure for him. Anyone who had been through 
 the trials that he had experienced would have felt 
 the same way. But he placed himself under treat- 
 ment, nevertheless, and in a few weeks' time, the 
 Unit Method had restored him to perfect speech. 
 He left entirely convinced that stammering could 
 be cured, because it had been done in his own case 
 which had so long seemed beyond all hope. 
 
 Many years afterward, he wrote a letter which 
 I take the liberty of reproducing here for the 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 163 
 
 encouragement and inspiration of everyone who 
 is similarly afflicted and who feels as this man felt 
 — that he is incurable: 
 
 "I tried to be cured of stammering at five different times 
 by five different men at a total cost of more than one thou- 
 sand dollars. None of them cured me. Then I decided to 
 try the Unit Method. Nine years ago I did so— a decision 
 that I have never regretted. It was evident that this method 
 was based on a comprehensive knowledge of the art of 
 speech. I am now a piano salesman and talk by the hour 
 all day long; talk over the telephone perfectly; and many 
 tell me that I speak more distinctly than the majority of 
 people who have never stammered. I believe this is because 
 I was taught through the Unit Method the very funda- 
 mentals of speech." 
 
 This man's case is typical of the hundreds of f ail- 
 ures-to-cure which are responsible for the belief 
 that stammering cannot be cured. The fact that 
 he had made five separate attempts to be cured 
 would, in the mind of the average man, establish 
 the fact that stammering cannot be cured and yet 
 it is seen that even in this extreme case, under the 
 appUcation of the proper scientific methods, the 
 stammerer found freedom of speech without 
 vmusual difficulty and in a comparatively short 
 time. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 CASES THAT "CURE THEMSELVES" 
 
 NOT infrequently from some source will be 
 heard a story, many times retold, to the 
 effect that "So-and-so" who stammered for many 
 years has been cured — ^that the trouble has 
 magically disappeared and that he stammers no 
 longer. 
 
 What is the cause of this? What brings about 
 such a miraculous cure? 
 
 The answer depends upon the case. Usually, 
 the story is much more a story than a fact. Few 
 indeed have been the stamjnerers who have ever 
 actually heard the man stammer before "his 
 trouble cured itself" and then heard him talk per- 
 fectly afterwards. Like the stories of haunted 
 houses, there is nothing to substantiate the truth 
 of the statement, there is no evidence by which 
 the story may be checked up. 
 
 In the rare cases where the facts would seem 
 to indicate the truth of the statement, it will be 
 found that the person in question never really 
 stammered — ^tbat his trouble was scHne<liing else 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 16i5 
 
 — lalling, lisping, or some defect of speech that 
 was mistaken for stammering or stuttering. 
 
 Another case of apparent miraculous cure is 
 the case of the stammerer who, finding him- 
 self unable to say words beginning with certain 
 letters, begins the practice of substituting easy 
 sounds for those that are diflBcult and thus, pro- 
 vided he has only a slight case, leads many to 
 believe that he talks almost perfectly. This fel- 
 low is known as the "Synonym Stammerer" and 
 is usually a quick thinker and a ready "substi- 
 tuter-of -words." If he has stammered noticeably 
 for some time imtil those in his vicinity have 
 become acquainted with his affliction, and then 
 discovers the plan of substituting easy sounds for 
 hard ones, he may for a time conceal his impedi- 
 ment and lead certain of his friends to believe 
 that he no longer stammers. 
 
 This "Synonym Stammerer" is storing up end- 
 less trouble for himself, however, for the mental 
 strain of trying to remember and speak syno- 
 nyms of hard words entails such a great drain 
 upon his mind as to make it almost impossible to 
 maintain the practice for any great length of 
 time. In this connection, let every stammerer be 
 
166 STAMMEEINa 
 
 warned to avoid this practice of substitution of 
 words. It is a seeming way out of difficulty some- 
 times, but you will find that you are only making 
 your malady worse and laying up difficulties for 
 yourself in the future. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 CASES THAT CANNOT BE CURED 
 
 IN an experience in meeting stammerers and in 
 curing stammering, it is only natural to as- 
 sume that I have come across certain cases which 
 could not be ciu-ed. It is only natural, too, to 
 expect that in such a wide experience it would be 
 possible to determine what cases are incurable 
 and why. 
 
 Cases of incurable speech impediments may be 
 divided into seven classes : 
 
 (1) — Those with organic defects; 
 
 (2) — Those with diseased condition of the 
 
 brain ; 
 (3) — Those who have postponed treatment 
 
 until their malady has progressed so 
 
 far into the chronic stage as to make 
 
 treatment valueless ; 
 
 (4) — Those who refuse to obey instructions; 
 (5) — Those who persist in dissipation, re- 
 gardless of effects ; 
 
 (6) — Those of below normal intelligence; 
 
168 STAMMERING 
 
 (7) — Those who will not make the effort to 
 be cured. 
 
 Stutterers and stammerers whose trouble arises 
 from an organic defect are so few as to be almost 
 an exception, but where those cases exist, they 
 must be regarded as incurable. The re-educa- 
 tional process used in the successful method of 
 curing stuttering and stammering will not replace 
 a defective organ of the body with a new one. It 
 will not cure harehp or cleft palate, nor will it 
 loosen the tongue of the child who has been hope- 
 lessly tongue-tied from birth. 
 
 A boy was brought to me some years ago by 
 his parents in the hope that his speech trouble 
 might be eradicated, but it was f oimd upon exam- 
 ination that he had always been tongue-tied and 
 that the deformity would not permit of the 
 normal, natural movements of the tongue neces- 
 sary to proper speaking. I immediately told the 
 parents the unfortunate condition of their son and 
 frankly stated that in his condition there was no 
 possibiHty of my being able to help him. 
 
 Diseased Brain: Taking up the second class — 
 those who have a diseased condition of the brain 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 169 
 
 — these cases, too, are very rare. I have met but 
 a comparatively few. Where a lesion of the brain 
 has occurred, and a distinct change has thus been 
 brought about in the physical structure of that 
 organ, an attempt to bring about a cvire would be 
 a waste of time — ^hopeless from the start. 
 
 The Procrastinators : The third type of incur- 
 able cases is that of the stammerer or stutterer 
 who, against all advice and experience, has per- 
 sisted in the belief that his trouble would be out- 
 grown and who has by this means allowed the 
 disorder to progress so far into the chronic stage 
 as to make treatment entirely without effect.- 
 
 This type of incurable is very numerous. They 
 usually start in childhood with a case of simple 
 stuttering which, if treated then, could be eradi- 
 cated quickly and easily. From this stage they 
 usually pass into the trouble of a compound 
 nature, known as combined stammering and stut- 
 tering. Here, also, their malady would yield 
 readily to proper methods of treatment, but 
 instead of giving it thie attention so badly needed, 
 they allow it to pass into a severe case of Spas- 
 modic Stammering, and from this into the most 
 
170 STAMMERING 
 
 chronic stage of that trouble. The malady be- 
 comes rooted in the muscular system. The nerv- 
 ous strain and continued fear tear down all 
 semblance of mental control and in time the suf- 
 ferer is in a condition that is hopeless indeed, a 
 condition where he is a subject for the pity and 
 the sympathy of every one who stammers, and 
 yet a condition brought on purely by his own 
 neglect and wilfulness. 
 
 I recall the case of a father who brought his 
 boy of 16 to see me some years ago. At that 
 time, the boy represented one of the worst cases 
 of stanunering I ever saw. He could scarcely 
 speak at all. He made awful contortions of the 
 face and body when attempting to speak. When 
 he succeeded in uttering sounds, these resembled 
 the deep bark of a dog. These sounds were 
 totally unintelligible, save upon rare occasions, 
 when he would be able to speak clearly enough 
 to make himself imderstood. I gave the boy the 
 most searching personal diagnosis and very care- 
 fully inspected his condition both mental and 
 physical, after which I was convinced that he 
 could be cured, with time and persistent work. 
 The father was given the result of my findings 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 171 
 
 and told of the boy's condition. He decided to 
 take the boy home, talk the matter over and place 
 him under my care the next week. Ten days 
 later he wrote me saying that the boy had secured 
 a job in a garage at $6 a week and could not 
 think about being cured of stammering at that 
 time. 
 
 Two and a half years later — ^the boy was near- 
 ing twenty — I saw him again, and even after all 
 my experience in meeting stammerers, could 
 hardly believe that stammering could bring about 
 such a terrible condition as this boy was in at that 
 time. His mental faculties were entirely shat- 
 tered. His concentration was gone. This poor 
 boy was merely a blubbering, stumbling idiot, a 
 sight to move the stoutest heart, a living example 
 of the result of carelessness and parental neglect. 
 Needless to say, I would not consider his treat- 
 ment in such a condition. There was no longer 
 any foundation to build on — ^no longer the 
 slightest chance for benefiting the boy in the least. 
 
 The Wilfully Disobedient Cases: Taking up 
 the fourth class of incurables, those who refuse to 
 obey instructions — I can only say that such as 
 
172 STAMMEEING 
 
 these are not deserving of a cure. They are not 
 sincere, they are not willing to hold themselves to 
 the simplest program no matter how great might 
 be the resultant good. They spend their own 
 money or the money of their parents foolishly, 
 get no results and disgust the instructor who 
 spends his or her efforts in trying to bring about 
 a cure, against obstacles that no one can over- 
 come, viz: unwillingness to do as told. The old 
 saying that "You can lead a horse to water, but 
 you can't make him drink" applies most force- 
 fully to the case of the wilfully disobedient stam- 
 merer. You can instruct this individual in the 
 methods to bring about a cure, but you can't 
 make him follow them. 
 
 I well remember one case in point. A young 
 man of 20 years came to me apparently with 
 every desire in the world to be cured of stammer- 
 ing. The first day he followed instructions with 
 great care, seemed to take a wonderful interest 
 in his work and at the end of the day expressed 
 to me his pleasure in finding himself improved 
 even with one day's work. By the third day, the 
 novelty had worn off and his "smart-aleck" tend- 
 encies began to come to the surface. He was 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 178 
 
 impertinent. He was impudent. He was rude. 
 He failed to come to his work promptly in the 
 morning, was late at meals, stayed out at night 
 beyond the time limit set by the dormitory rules 
 and persisted in doing everything in an irregular 
 and wilfully disobedient manner. 
 
 I was not inclined to dismiss him because of 
 his misconduct, because it was evident that here 
 was a boy of more than ordinary native intelli- 
 gence, a fine-looking chap with imtold opportu- 
 nities ahead of him, if he were cured of stammer- 
 ing. So I put up with his misdeeds for many 
 days, imtil one morning I decided that either he 
 must come to time or return to his home — and he 
 elected to take the latter course. 
 
 In looking up this boy's record later on, it was 
 found that he was incorrigible, that his parents 
 had never been successful in controlling him at 
 any time and that he had been expelled from 
 school twice. 
 
 There is no need for me to say that this boy 
 was aflflicted with something even worse than 
 starmnering: — something that science was not able 
 to help — ^i. e., a lack of sense. His case was incur- 
 able, just as much so as if an inch of his tmigue 
 
174 STAMMERING 
 
 had been sheared off. With such stammerers as 
 this I have neither patience nor sympathy. They 
 have no respect or consideration for others and 
 are consequently entitled to none themselves. 
 
 The Chronic Dissipator: The fifth type of in- 
 curable might be called the "chronic dissipator" 
 and his stammering is hopelessly incurable just 
 as far as his habits are incurable. The person 
 who persists in undermining his mental and 
 physical being with dissipation and who, when he 
 knows the results of his doings, will not cease, 
 cannot hope to be cured of stammering. Cases 
 such as these I do not attempt to treat. They 
 are neither wanted nor accepted. 
 
 I recall the case of a man of 32, a big, stalwart 
 fellow, who came to me about two years ago with 
 a very severe case of combined stammering and 
 stuttering. He made his plans to place himself 
 under my care but before getting back, fell a vic- 
 tim to his inordinate appetite for drink and was 
 laid up for a week. His wife wrote me the cir- 
 cumstances, told me it had been going on for nine 
 years and that all efforts to eradicate the appetite 
 had failed. I immediately advised her that I con- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 175 
 
 sidered his case incurable and could not accept 
 him for treatment. In such cases, a cure is built 
 upon too shallow and uncertain a foundation to 
 offer any hope of being permanent. 
 
 Below Normal Intelligence : There is another 
 incurable case which must be included if we are 
 to complete this list of the incurable forms of 
 speech impediments. That is the case of the 
 stammerer who is of below normal intelligence. 
 These cases are very rare and I do not recall but 
 four instances where a case has been diagnosed 
 as incurable on account of the lack of intelligence. 
 This is a direct refutation of the statement that 
 stammerers are naturally below normal in mental 
 ability. Out of more than nineteen years experi- 
 ence in meeting stammerers by the thousands, I 
 can say most emphatically that stammerers as a 
 class are not naturally below normal intelligence 
 or mental power, save as their trouble may have 
 affected their concentration or will-power. 
 
 The Lackadaisical: The last and largest class 
 of incurable cases of stammering are those who 
 will not make the effort to be cured. These are 
 
176 STAMMERING 
 
 the spineless, the unsure, the cowards, who are 
 afraid to try anything for fear it will not be suc- 
 cessful. • 
 
 They are usually afflicted With a malady worse 
 than stammering or stuttering — "indecision" — a 
 malady for which science has found no remedy. 
 Knowing the dire results of continued stammer- 
 ing, still they stammer. Reason fails to move 
 them to the necessary effort. Common sense 
 makes no appeal. Well, indeed, in such cases, 
 may we paraphrase the words of Dr. Russell H. 
 Conwell and say: 
 
 "There is nothing in the world that can prevent 
 you from being cured of stammering but YOURSELF. 
 Neither heredity, environment or any of the obstacles euper- 
 imposed by man can keep you from marching straight 
 through to a cure if you are guided by a firm, driving 
 determination and have health and normal intelligence." 
 
 These seven classes of incurable cases complete 
 the list. And the number of such cases, all taken 
 together, is so small as to be almost out of con- 
 sideration. For, out of a thousand cases of stut- 
 tering and stamanering examined, I find but 2 per 
 cent, with organic defects or of an incurable na- 
 ture. In other words, 98 per cent, can be com- 
 pletely and permanently cured. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 CAN STAMMERING BE CUBED BY MAIL? 
 
 IN the years past there have been attempts 
 from time to time to induce the stammerer to 
 seek a cure for his impediment in mail order 
 treatments. As has already been told, I was the 
 victim of one of these so-called "correspondence- 
 cures" and know something about them from per- 
 sonal experience. 
 
 In the first place, the sufferer usually takes up 
 with the mail order specialist because this man 
 retails his "profound" knowledge at a low rate, a 
 rate so low that even a single thought on the sub- 
 ject would convince anyone that his money was 
 buying a few sheets of paper but no professional 
 knowledge or experience. 
 
 The very best correspondence course I have 
 ever known anything about was not as good as a 
 number of books on elocution that are available 
 in any good library. Usually these courses are 
 written by some charlatan who is in business as a 
 mail-order-man selling trinkets and stammering 
 cures or running a general correspondence school, 
 
 12 
 
178 STAMMEEING 
 
 teaching not only how to cure stammering by 
 correspondence but giving courses in "Hair- 
 Waving" and "How to Become a Detective." It 
 is needless for me to say that such as these are in 
 the business, not for the good of the stammerer 
 nor even for the purpose of helping him, but sim- 
 ply for the money that can be extracted from the 
 stammerer or stutterer. 
 
 The Difference: There are two main differ- 
 ences, however, between the books which the 
 stammerer may read without cost and the cor- 
 respondence course for which he pays out his 
 good money — ^many dollars of it. The corre- 
 spondence course has been written by a man who 
 knew little or nothing of the subject, and who 
 put out a course for stammerers only because he 
 knew something of the nimiber of stammerers in 
 his territory and said to himself, "My, but I 
 ought to be able to sell them a mail-order cure." 
 Forthwith he sits down and writes a course — it 
 isn't necessary to have anything in it at all. 
 Often these men do not even take the trouble to 
 consult reliable books on the subject. They do 
 not profess to know anything about stammering 
 or stuttering, their cause or their cure. They 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 179 
 
 simply sit down and write — and when they have 
 it written, they send it to the printer, have it 
 printed and then split these printed sheets up into 
 ten, or twenty, or fifty, or a hundred lessons — 
 whatever their fancy may dictate, and begin to 
 sell them. They have no thought of the results — 
 results to them mean nothing save the number of 
 courses that can be sold — and whether or not a 
 single iota of good accrues to the stammerer from 
 this expenditure of money is one of the things 
 in which the correspondence school stammering 
 speciaUst is not at all interested. 
 
 The most that can be expected from the very 
 best mail course for the cure of stammering is 
 that the subscriber will receive information worth 
 as much as that which might be in a library book. 
 He receives this in installments and for privilege 
 of reading it piece-meal, pays from $50 to $100. 
 
 It is hopeless to try to cure stammering or stut- 
 tering by any method unless the instructor knows 
 his business. And this knowledge comes not by 
 chance but by long, hard study. 
 
 Mail Cures a Failure: No stammerer should 
 attempt to be cured by any correspondence 
 method. When the decision has been made to 
 
180 STAMMERING 
 
 have a speech defect removed, the suiferer should 
 place himself under the care of a reputable insti- 
 tution, the past record of which entitles it to con- 
 sideration. Correspondence cures are a waste of 
 money, a waste of time and finally leave the 
 stammerer with the firm-founded belief that his 
 trouble is absolutely incurable, when, as a matter 
 of fact, he may have a comparatively simple form 
 of stuttering or stammering which could be 
 quickly eradicated by the proper institutional 
 treatment. 
 
 At no time should the stammerer resort to the 
 use of any mechanical contrivance to aid him in 
 speaking correctly. The cause of the trouble 
 as previously explained, is inco-ordination. Me- 
 chanical contrivances to hold the tongue in a cer- 
 tain position, elevate the palate or for any other 
 purpose may be positively harmful and should be 
 strictly avoided — always. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPERT DIAGNOSIS 
 
 A DIAGNOSIS is an examination or analy- 
 sis to determine the identity of a disease 
 and to reveal its cause and characteristics. A 
 reputable medical man will not undertake the 
 treatment of any malady without having first 
 made a searching examination and a thorough 
 diagnosis of the trouble. 
 
 In the case of the stammerer or stutterer, ex- 
 pert diagnosis is very important and should be 
 undertaken only by a diagnostician who has had 
 previous training and experience of sufficient 
 duration to enable him to be classed as an expert 
 on the subject. No stammerer or stutterer, how- 
 ever, should overlook the value of such diagnosis, 
 for the reason that there are so many forms of 
 speech disorders that it is totally impossible as 
 well as imsafe for the sufferer himself to try to 
 determine the exact nature of his trouble. 
 
 I recaU the case of a certain young man who 
 had depended upon his own knowledge to deter- 
 mine the identity of his speech defect and the 
 
182 STAMMERING 
 
 nature of his trouble. When a boy, he had swal- 
 lowed a small program pencil With a metal tip, 
 injuring his vocal cords, so he said, and causing 
 him to become a stammerer. An examination of 
 his condition and a careful diagnosis of his case 
 revealed the fact that his vocal organs were as 
 normal as those of any person who had never 
 stammered. The diagnosis also revealed the fact 
 that his stammering was not originally caused by 
 any organic defect or any injury to the vocal 
 organs, but that, on the other hand, he had, in 
 the first place, inherited a predisposition to stam- 
 mer, his father and his grandfather both having 
 been stammerers whose trouble had never been 
 remedied. The diagnosis showed that the onset 
 of the trouble immediately after swallowing the 
 pencil was due chiefly to the nervous shock and 
 fright caused by the accident, which, in conjunc- 
 tion with the inherited predisposition toward 
 stammering, was too much for the boy's mental 
 control and he immediately developed into a 
 stammerer. The yOung man had believed for 
 many years that his defective utterance was 
 totally incurable, that it was due to an organic 
 defect which could not be remedied. The diag- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 183 
 
 nosis quickly revealed, however, that a very dif- 
 ferent condition was responsible for his trouble 
 and as a consequence, he found himself able to be 
 cured, where without expert diagnosis, he had 
 resigned himself to a life as a stammerer. 
 
 Another case which also shows the stammerer's 
 inability to diagnose his own trouble accurately 
 was that of a woman who persistently refused to 
 allow her son to have his case diagnosed, because 
 of her behef that he was incurable and that the 
 diagnosis would be a waste of time and money. 
 
 After months of coaxing, however, he suc- 
 ceeded in getting her to consent and I gave him a 
 thorough diagnosis and report on his condition. 
 This mother had been unduly alarmed — the boy 
 was still in a curable stage and in fact completed 
 the necessary work in much less than the usual 
 time. This is but another case that shows the 
 loss which comes from not knowing the truth. 
 
 Written Report of Diagnosis Valuable : It is 
 well to get a personal diagnosis of the case where 
 possible, but if this cannot be done, a written his- 
 tory of the case, together with a statement of the 
 symptoms and present condition, should enable 
 
184 STAMMERING 
 
 the expert diagnostician of speech defects to 
 make a thorough and reliable diagnosis of the 
 trouble. 
 
 This diagnosis, to be of the most value to the 
 stammerer or stutterer, should be made up in the 
 form of a written report, so that the information 
 may be in permanent form and so that the suf- 
 ferer can study his own case in all its angles. 
 
 What Diagnosis Should Show: First of all, 
 of course, the diagnosis should identify and label 
 yom* trouble. It should tell what form of speech 
 defect is revealed by the symptoms ; it should tell 
 the cause of the trouble; the stage it is now in; 
 should indicate whether or not there is any or- 
 ganic defect; should give information as to the 
 possibilities of outgrowing the trouble ; and, most 
 important of all, should state whether or not the 
 disorder is in a curable stage. 
 
 When it is remembered that nearly a dozen 
 more or less common speech disorders can be 
 named, almost in one breath, and that some of 
 these disorders may pass through four or five suc- 
 cessive stages, it will be seen that an expert diag- 
 nosis and report is almost a necessity to the stam- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 185 
 
 merer or stutterer who would have reliable and 
 authoritative information about his speech dis- 
 order. 
 
 The stammerer or stutterer who voluntarily 
 remains in the dark, who is satisfied with gross 
 ignorance of his trouble, is surely not on the road 
 to freedom of speech. 
 
 The most able man cannot decide correctly 
 without the facts. To decide in the absence of 
 information is guesswork — and guesswork is a 
 poor method of deciding what to do — in the case 
 of the stammerer as in every other case. 
 
 Therefore, it behooves the stammerer to become 
 enlightened to as great an extent as possible, to 
 banish ignorance of his trouble and replace it 
 with facts and sound knowledge. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE SECRET OF CUBING STUTTERING AND 
 STAMMERING 
 
 IF the reader has followed this work carefully 
 up to this point, he is now informed on the 
 causes of stuttering and stammering, on their 
 characteristic tendencies and their peculiarities. 
 We are now ready to ask, "What are the correct 
 methods for the cure of stuttering and stammer- 
 ing?" and to answer that question authoritatively. 
 As to the successful mode of procedure in de- 
 termining the proper methods for the cure of 
 stuttering and stammering, I know of no sug- 
 gestion better than that offered by Alexander 
 Melville Bell, who says: 
 
 "The rational, as it is experimentally the successful 
 method of procedure, is first to study the standard of correct 
 articulation (not the varieties of imperfect utterance) and 
 then not to go from one extreme to another, but at every 
 step to compare the defective with the perfect mode of 
 speech and so infallibly to ascertain the amount, the kind 
 and the source of the error." 
 
 We have already done that : We have located the 
 cause of the trouble. We not only know that 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 187 
 
 stammering is caused by a lack of co-ordination 
 between the brain and the muscles of speech, but 
 we know the things which may bring about the 
 lack of co-ordination. Now, how to cure? Sim- 
 ply remove the cause. Re-establish normal co- 
 ordination between the brain and the muscles of 
 speech. Restore normal brain control over the 
 speech organs. Make these organs respond freely, 
 naturally and promptly to the brain messages. 
 
 That sounds simple. But if it is as simple as 
 it sounds, why is it that so many in the past have 
 failed to cure stammering and stuttering? Why 
 have so many so-called methods of cure passed 
 into the discard? The answer is, they were based 
 on the wrong foxindation. They struck at the 
 effects and not at the cause of the trouble. And 
 as a result, the methods failed. 
 
 These so-called methods have aimed at many 
 different effects. One method, for instance, had 
 as its theory that if you could cure the nervous- 
 ness, the stammering would magically disappear. 
 The unfortunate sufferer was doped with vile- 
 tasting bitters and nerve medicines, so-called, in 
 the hope that his nervous system would respond 
 to treatment. But the nerves could not be quieted 
 
188 STAMMERING 
 
 and the nervous system built up until the cause of 
 the nervousness — ^which was stammering — ^was 
 removed. 
 
 There was a time, too, and it has not been so 
 long ago, when the craze was on for using sur- 
 gery as a cure-all for stammering. Terrible 
 butchery was performed in the name of surgery 
 — the patient's tongue sometimes being slitted or 
 notched, and other foolish and cruel subterfuges 
 improvised in an effort to cure the stammering. 
 Needless to say, there was no cure found in such 
 methods. There is no chance of curing a mental 
 defect by shtting the tongue and the absurdities 
 of that "butchering period" which have now 
 passed away, are numbered among the mistakes 
 of those who committed them. 
 
 A lack of thoroughness marked the later 
 attempts to cure stammering. One method was 
 based, for instance, solely upon correct breath- 
 ing. There is no doubt that correct breathing is 
 very vital both to the stammerer and the non- 
 stammerer, if they are to speak fluently and well. 
 But breath-control does not even begin to solve 
 the problem of curing stammering. It is but an 
 element, and a small element, in the proper artic- 
 ulation of words. And however well this plan of 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 189 
 
 breath-control might have succeeded, it could 
 never have succeeded in really curing stuttering 
 and stammering. 
 
 Most of these ill-advised efforts and half-baked 
 methods sprang up, not as a result of sound 
 knowledge but rather as a result of the lack of it. 
 In fact, looking back at the manner in which the 
 stammerer was treated for stammering under 
 these methods, we can see now that nothing but 
 the most profound ignorance of the fundamental 
 principles underlying the art of speaking could 
 have made it possible for these misguided in- 
 structors to pass out as science the jargon and 
 hodge-podge which they did try to pass off 
 as scientific knowledge. The absurdities pro- 
 poimded in the name of stammering cures were 
 too numerous even to enumerate in this volxmie. 
 
 Speech Principles Fundamental: Back of 
 every spoken word, whether that word be French, 
 English, Italian, or any other language, are the 
 unchangeable principles of speech. These prin- 
 ciples of speech are fundamental. They do not 
 change basically nor do they vary in the indi- 
 vidual. When you speak correctly, you do so as 
 a result of following the correct principles of 
 
190 STAMMERING 
 
 speech. I speak correctly by the same method as 
 you. And when you speak incorrectly, or when 
 you stutter or stammer, you do so because you 
 have violated one or more of these fundamental 
 principles. Any other person who stammers or 
 stutters as you do, violates the same principles 
 and requires the same method of correction as 
 yourself. The severity of your case depends upon 
 how many of the principles of speech you violate. 
 A diagnosis will determine this — and therefore 
 what is necessary to be done to bring about per- 
 fect speech. The number of speech violations to 
 be corrected will also determine to a certain 
 extent the time required for correction. 
 
 Speech Defined: Speech, in all the diversities 
 of tongues and dialects, consists of but a small 
 number of articulated elementary sounds. These 
 are produced by the agency of the lungs, the 
 larynx, and the mouth. The lungs supply air to 
 the larynx, which modifies the stream into whis- 
 per or voice ; and this air is then moulded by the 
 plastic oral organs into syllables which singly or 
 in accentual combinations constitute words. 
 
 As explained in the Chapter on Causes, all of 
 the physical organs which have to do with the 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 191 
 
 production of speech and all of the brain centers 
 whose dtity it is to control the actions of these 
 various organs, must operate in harmony, or, in 
 other words, must co-ordinate, if we are to have 
 perfect speech. Co-ordination implies perfect 
 mental control of physical actions. And this in 
 turn means perfect obedience of the physical 
 organs of speech to the brain messages that are 
 received. 
 
 The cure of stammering and stuttering requires 
 a great deal of care based, of course, upon the 
 correct scientific knowledge in the first place. 
 
 In attempting to cure stammering, there has 
 been too much teaching by rigid rules and not 
 enough teaching by principles. There are very 
 few hard-and-fast rules that can be followed with 
 success by every stutterer or stammerer. No set 
 of rules can be laid down as a standard for every 
 one to follow, for no two persons stanmier exactly 
 alike any more than two persons look exactly 
 ahke. 
 
 The only safe rule of all the rules is that which 
 says, "Cleave closely to the principles, let the 
 rules fall where they may." The only successful 
 method is that which, being first based upon the 
 right principle, is followed out with intelligence 
 
192 STAMMEBING 
 
 by the stammerer and administered with wisdom 
 by the instructor to fit the needs and require- 
 ments of the individual case. 
 
 Method Necessarily Three-Fold: The cure of 
 stammering and stuttering can be wrought only 
 by a method that is three-fold — ^that attacks all of 
 the un-normal conditions of the stammerer simul- 
 taneously and eradicates them in unison. 
 
 It would be of little avail, for instance, to build 
 up perfect breath control, and leave the stam- 
 merer in a mental state where he was continually 
 harassed by a fear of failure, by a continual self- 
 consciousness and irritated by a deep-seated 
 nervousness. 
 
 And it would be of just as little use to try to 
 remove that self -consciousness, fear of failure and 
 nervousness without removing the cause of the 
 stammering. 
 
 In other words, when the successful method of 
 curing stammering is spoken of as being three- 
 fold in purpose, it is meant that this method must 
 build up the physical being, must achieve perfect 
 mental equilibrium and must link up the physical 
 with the mental in perfect harmony. 
 
 A permanent cure can rest on no other f ounda- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 193 
 
 tion than perfect restoration to a truly normal 
 mental and physical condition. When this has 
 been accomplished and when the synchronization 
 of brain and speech organs has been brought 
 about, the muscles of speech do not hesitate in 
 responding to a brain message for the utterance 
 of a word. There is no longer any sticking, any 
 loose or hurried repetition. In other words, per- 
 fect speech now comes as a logical consequence. 
 
 Speech Specialist Should Have Stammered: 
 It is very important that the speech expert who 
 would promulgate a method for the eradication 
 of stammering should have, at one time or 
 another, stammered himself. 
 
 It is a well-known fact that the imagination 
 cannot conjure up an image of something that 
 has never been experienced. If you had been 
 bom blind, you would have no mental picture of 
 any color, no matter how much you might have 
 heard about it. Still your imagination might be 
 a most prolific one. The utmost feat of the 
 hmnan imagination is to combine mental pictures 
 to form still other images which are impossible or 
 absiu'd or which in their entirety have not been 
 experienced. In other words, new combinations 
 
 13 
 
194 STAMMEEING 
 
 of images are possible, but an entirely new or 
 basic picture is beyond the power of the imagina- 
 tion to create. 
 
 So, with the speciaUst who would cure stutter- 
 ing and stammering. It is impossible for the 
 man who has never stammered or stuttered to 
 know the fear that grips the sufferer when he 
 thinks of speaking. It is impossible for one who 
 has never stammered to imagine what this fear is 
 like or to know the feeling that accompanies it. 
 
 For that reason, it is important that the man 
 who attempts to eradicate speech defects should 
 have been afflicted himself in order that his 
 experience may have been acquired first-hand — 
 that the suffering may have been felt and all of 
 the conditions and situations of the stammerer 
 may be as familiar to him as to his student. 
 
 Valwe of Moral Influence in the Cure of Stam- 
 mering: In speaking of the necessity for good 
 health, both physical and mental, before the erad- 
 ication of stammering can take place, we must 
 not overlook a few words about one particular 
 type of derehct — ^the will-less or sometimes wilful 
 -individual who persists in indulging in dissipa- 
 tion of every kind, the individual who, with cock- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUEE 195 
 
 sure attitude and haughty sneer, laughs in the 
 face of experience and insists that "it will not 
 bother him." To such as these, no hope can be 
 held out. Such tactics leave both body and mind 
 in a condition that does not permit of up-build- 
 ing. There is little foundation for any effort and 
 with the passing of each day, there is a tearing- 
 out of bodily and mental vigor that makes all 
 effort useless. 
 
 But in the average individual, physical rebuild- 
 ing is a process of but a few weeks. The mental 
 rehabilitation can usually be accomplished in an 
 equally short period of time and when these 
 things have been brought about, perfect speech 
 soon follows if the correct methods are applied. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE BOGUE UNIT METHOD DESCRIBED 
 
 Ar the time a stammerer or stutterer first 
 places himself imder my care and before 
 any attempt is made to apply the treatment, he 
 is given a very thorough and searching examina- 
 tion for the purpose of learning the exact nature 
 of his difficulty. It must be remembered that no 
 two cases of stammering or stuttering are exactly 
 alike and that no two cases require exactly the 
 same method of treatment, although the same 
 basic principles apply to all. 
 
 Even if the stammerer's case has been previ- 
 ously diagnosed by me, it is necessary to compare 
 and verify the symptoms as previously exhibited 
 with those existing at the time of his beginning 
 treatment, in order to learn, first of all, whether 
 his malady has more recently progressed into a 
 further and more serious stage. 
 
 The Bogue Test: If the usual entrance exam- 
 ination does not bring out all of the' essential facts 
 regarding the case, the stammerer is then put 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 197 
 
 through the Bogue Test — an original system of 
 diagnosis which I perfected some years ago — ^by 
 means of which the pecuharities of the trouble are 
 brought out, the normal, the subnormal and the 
 abnormal condition of the disorder is gauged and 
 the most minute details of the trouble are dis- 
 closed. This Bogue Test covers the case from 
 every possible angle. It lays bare the exact phys- 
 ical, mental and nervous condition of the stam- 
 merer or stutterer, enables me to determine the 
 original cause of the trouble and to foUow 
 its progress from the first up to the present time, 
 almost as easily as if the student had been under 
 my observation ever since he first noticed his 
 defect of speech. 
 
 I recall the case of a boy who came to me at 
 one time for a personal diagnosis of his case. I 
 examined him carefully, put him through a num- 
 ber of tests and diagnosed his case, which proved 
 to be in the second stage and of no more than 
 ordinary severity. He was unable to place him- 
 self under my care at that time but returned to 
 me about eight months later, apparently in no 
 worse condition than before. Not being satisfied 
 with the results of the examination, the complete 
 test was applied, with the result that a condition 
 
1&8 STAMMERING 
 
 of grave seriousness was discovered, marking the 
 most pronounced form of his trouble — a form so 
 far advanced as to make the case ahnost incur- 
 able. The situation was explained to the yoimg 
 man and he was told that it would take much 
 longer than usual to bring about a cure in his 
 case, although such a cure was yet possible. He 
 expressed his willingness to spend as much time 
 as was necessary in the cure and as a result, he 
 was able within some weeks' time to talk without 
 stuttering or stammering. The mental sluggish- 
 ness which marked his conversation soon disap- 
 peared. He became alert and eager and when he 
 left for home, he was a much different boy than 
 when he came for treatment. 
 
 This is but one of hvmdreds of examples show- 
 ing the need for expert diagnosis and for careful 
 analysis of the condition of the stammerer even 
 if a previous diagnosis has been made within a 
 few months. 
 
 In practically all cases of stammering, par- 
 ticularly those of a progressive character, the 
 condition is naturally changeable and common 
 prudence calls for caution in accepting antedated 
 facts as an indication of the present condition. 
 
 In every case, the examination enables me to 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 199 
 
 gauge the severity of the case so accurately that 
 the student's course can be outhned, designating 
 the exact Plan-of- Attack to be used in: 
 
 1 — Tearing out the improper methods of 
 speech production 
 
 2 — ^Replacing those incorrect methods with 
 the correct natural methods 
 
 3 — Re-establishing normal co-ordination be- 
 tween the brain and the muscles of 
 speech. 
 
 The Method at Work: When the Preliminary 
 Examination and Tests have been completed and 
 the student's course outlined, the actual working 
 of the Bogue Unit Method then begins. This 
 does not involve the practice of any "ism" or 
 "ology," nor does it require the use of medicines, 
 drugs, surgery, hypnotism or the "laying-on-of- 
 hands," but by scientific and natural methods, 
 begins the first step of the work, viz : Tearing out 
 the improper methods of speech production. 
 
 At every step in the application of the method, 
 the principles which underlie and govern perfect 
 articulation, serve as the foundation of the in- 
 struction. As has been so often stated in this 
 
200 STAMMERING 
 
 book, these principles of speech never change. 
 They apply to all persons alike, and all who talk 
 normally apply these principles in the same man- 
 ner. Those who stammer violate them, so that in 
 correcting defective speech it is only logical that 
 we should first remove the defective procedure 
 and then institute the correct procedure in its 
 place. ^ 
 
 The Bogue Unit Method is three-fold in action. 
 From this it takes the name "Unit Method." 
 The first Unit of Treatment has for its purpose 
 the building up of physical efficiency. "The first 
 requisite is to be a good animal," says Herbert 
 Spencer. This is certainly true of the stammerer, 
 for in his case, normal health is a valuable aid 
 during the time of treatment. Consequently, the 
 first step is to build up the physical organs and be 
 sure that these are functioning properly. 
 
 The second Unit of Treatment restores the 
 mental equilibrium, stabiUzes the mental activi- 
 ties and places them under perfect control. The 
 inability of the mind to control the organs of 
 speech has led to a condition which might be 
 described as a "flabbiness of the mental muscles" 
 which necessitates that the mental condition be 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 201 
 
 altered and improved so that the mind can once 
 more possess the capacity for properly control- 
 ling the organs of speech. 
 
 The third Unit of Treatment synchronizes 
 and harmonizes mental and physical actions and 
 re-establishes normal co-ordination between the 
 brain and the muscles of speech, which completes 
 the work necessary to bring about a cure. After 
 both physical and mental conditions have been 
 made normal, it merely remains to link up these 
 two properly-working forces, co-ordinate their 
 activities and firmly inhabitate the correct prin- 
 ciples of control, after which it can be said that 
 a copiplete cure is permanently effected. 
 
 Daily Record of Progress: Beginning with 
 the first day, a complete report in writing is made 
 of the progress. Each point on which the student 
 makes progress is noted. If proper advancement 
 is not made on any particular point, special effort 
 is put forth to bring that point up to the standard 
 which has been set. This makes it possible for 
 the instructor to give individual attention to each 
 student, something which is absolutely essential 
 in many cases. In other words, it will not do to 
 start the student off and let him work out his own 
 
202 STAMMERING 
 
 salvation. The instructor must be constantly at 
 hand, giving advice, correcting faulty articula- 
 tion and constantly aiding the stammerer in a 
 hundred ways to rout the malady. 
 
 After having been under treatment for seven 
 days, the student is subjected to his first treat- 
 ment test. After passing this examination satis- 
 factorily, the student is assigned additional work 
 from another angle. Some students require as 
 much as ten days to complete the work necessary 
 to pass this first test — in fact, it might also be 
 said that this test will determine the speed with 
 which the student is to progress. From this time 
 until the completion of the course, additional tests 
 are given at various intervals, according to the 
 needs of the case, until the Final Cure Test 
 proves that the malady has been eradicated. 
 
 Conscious of the Improvement: The stam- 
 merer is profoundly conscious of a distinct change 
 for the better by the end of the very first day 
 under treatment. In other words, there is an 
 immediate and noticeable improvement, not only 
 in his nervous condition, but also in his physical 
 and mental state as wqll. 
 
 Before the student passes from vmder the treat- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 208 
 
 ment, he is thoroughly aware of the benefits which 
 the work has brought about. For, after he has 
 met every progress test and has been examined on 
 every phase and every principle of speech, he 
 passes to a rigid Final Test. In this test, more 
 than ever before, he finds the results of his efforts. 
 He discovers that he can use his speech in any 
 way that he desires — in any way that it will be 
 necessary for him to use it in his future life. He 
 finds himself able to produce any sound — labial, 
 dental, lingual, nasal or palatal or any combina- 
 tion of these sounds in any language. He finds 
 every word now is an easy word, articulation is 
 under perfect control and the formation of voice 
 a process involving no apparent mental effort or 
 physical contortions. 
 
 A young woman of 20 years was placed under 
 my care by her mother. She stammered very 
 badly and at the time when her condition was at 
 its worst, f oimd it almost impossible to make her- 
 self understood by any means. After five weeks 
 of careful instruction, this young woman had no 
 difficulty whatever in speaking, there was no 
 "piling up of thoughts," as she expressed her 
 former condition, and her articulation was excel- 
 lent. A few days after she returned home, she 
 
204 STAMMEEING 
 
 wrote as follows : "I have been talking ever since 
 I came home and have had no trouble whatever. 
 I just love to talk and I beheve I have said more 
 in the last five days than in the whole last five 
 years." 
 
 Additional Results: The Bogue Unit Method 
 of Cure when earnestly followed out by the stu- 
 dent, does much more than eradicate the impedi- 
 ment of speech. It increases the weight of the 
 below-the-average student, stops all spasmodic or 
 convulsive efforts of face, arms and limbs and 
 increases by several inches what was formerly a 
 flat and poorly-developed chest. 
 
 A very bad case who came to me for treatment 
 several years ago was a yoimg man of 26. He not 
 only stuttered but stammered very badly. He 
 placed himself under my guidance for a period of 
 a httle more than six weeks. At the end of that 
 time he found no difficulty in talking nor were 
 there any spasmodic movements of the facial 
 muscles, as before. In reporting some time later, 
 he said: 
 
 "When I left I tipped the scales at 20 pounds heavier 
 than when I went to you. My folks are certainly pleased 
 to hear me talk without the straining and strangling exer- 
 tion I had before in trying to force my words out. Now 
 they flow out nice and easy." 
 
 Many children, both boys and girls, are under- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 205 
 
 developed. This may have resulted from several 
 causes, but it is frequently traceable to the stam- 
 mering or stuttering as an indirect cause. The 
 Bogue Unit Method takes these children in a 
 poor physical condition and while eradicating the 
 defect of speech, brings about a healthy physical 
 development. An Ohio woman reported excel- 
 lent results in a letter which said : 
 
 "I am glad to inform you that Diy son AJlan since taking 
 the treatment ia June last, has not to my knowledge, stam- 
 mered once, for which we are aU very grateful to the Bogue 
 Method. I also wish to say that his physical condition is 
 much improved and he has increased ia weight about ten 
 pounds." 
 
 Regardless of the age of the student, there is 
 an increased vitality flowing through the entire 
 body, the powers of endurance are greatly in- 
 creased and the health built up from every stand- 
 point. One man sent in an enthusiastic report in 
 these words : 
 
 "I am fine and healthy; the people down here say I don't 
 look like the same person. I gained 17 poimds while I was 
 out there. I am talking fine. My mother says I talk them 
 nearly to death. I talk them all to bed at night, so they put 
 out the light on me so I will go to bed and hush. I went 
 down town Saturday night and the boys were sure glad to 
 hear me talk without stammering." 
 
 Even this physical improvement is not unusual. 
 
206 STAMMEEING 
 
 Another man reports the change brought about 
 in his condition as follows: 
 
 "Just about two years ago I was one of the worst stam- 
 merers I know that ever was ; it was simply awful. I could 
 not speak a word without the most terrible stammering you 
 ever heard. My parents were heartbroken over my condition, 
 which grew worse all the time. I did not grow and develop 
 like my brothers. My shoulders were stooped, my chest 
 sunken— in fact, I was in a terrible condition. After staying 
 with you for six weeks I came home and every one who knew 
 me when I left was simply astonished at the improvement, 
 not in my speech alone, but in my physical condition also. 
 Am stronger and well now and I say it is a comfort to be 
 able to talk like other boys." 
 
 This case is not an unusual one, however, for 
 it is frequently found that the stammering child 
 grows into a physically deficient man as a result 
 of his speech impediment. 
 
 Concomitant with these physical betterments 
 comes a changed mental attitude, whereby the 
 former pessimistic outlook has been changed to 
 an optimistic view of life. The former abnormal 
 timidity of the student has been replaced by a 
 perfect confidence; the old unreasoning fear-of- 
 failure is transformed into a feeling of supreme 
 self-reliance; and the depressed, care-worn ex- 
 pression which may once have marked the stam- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 207 
 
 merer's countenance has given place to that of 
 cheerfulness. 
 
 The weak and vacillating will now manifests 
 itself as a dominant, masterful power-of-will and 
 the stagnant mentality of the stammerer has now 
 given place to a vigorous, forceful, creative mental 
 power. The mind-wandering or lack of ability to 
 concentrate is gone and in its place is an intense 
 and well controlled power-of-concentration. In 
 addition to this, the nervousness which marked 
 the every movement of the stammerer has dis- 
 appeared and the self -consciousness which made 
 hfe a misery is replaced by a calm self-control, 
 resulting in an entire self-forgetfulness, perfect 
 poise and a feeling of self-possession. 
 
 These benefits accrue gradually as the course 
 progresses, but when, upon the completion of the 
 course, perfect speech is finally restored, the re- 
 sults are fully evident and entirely permanent. 
 Their permanency is the crowning result of the 
 proper methods — ^methods which eradicate the 
 trouble at its source — ^treat and remove the cause 
 instead of treating the effect. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SOME CASES I HAVE MET 
 
 DURING the last nineteen years, I have per- 
 sonally met more than 18,000 stammerers, 
 diagnosed 60,000 cases by mail and corresponded 
 with more than 170,000 people who stammer or 
 stutter. In this time, it is only natural that I 
 should have come in contact with almost every 
 conceivable type of stammering in practically 
 every form. 
 
 I am going to describe a few of these cases in 
 this chapter, give their history and description 
 very briefly, follow out the course of the trouble 
 when unchecked and indicate the circumstances 
 of cure when the stammerer has placed himself 
 'for treatment. 
 
 I shall make no attempt to discuss all types of 
 speech disorders nor even all of the forms of any 
 one type, but rather to take up those cases which 
 can be regarded as most common and which are 
 typical of the disorders of the largest number of 
 stammerers and stutterers. Since a whole volume 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 209 
 
 could easily be filled with descriptions of cases, it 
 is evident that those discussed here must be but 
 briefly described. 
 
 (The ease numbers- in the following pages refer to specific 
 cases, but not to the order of their treatment, since the 
 classification is a decimal system used to indicate type, 
 duration, stage, etc.) 
 
 Case No. 66.435 — This was a boy of 8, brought 
 to me by his mother after he had experienced xm- 
 told trouble in school. The boy complained of a 
 pain in his head when making an effort to talk or 
 after having spoken under the strain for some 
 minutes. I found the spasmodic contractions 
 accompanying his trouble to be very pronounced 
 for a boy so young in years and upon making the 
 examination, was not surprised to find his to be 
 a case of Combined Stammering and Stuttering. 
 There was no indication of Thought-Lapse, but 
 there was a condition that could easily have been 
 mistaken for it — viz : a woeful lack of confidence 
 in his own ability to speak, which in this boy's 
 case was due to the fact that he had stuttered 
 almost since his first word and had rarely spoken 
 words correctly. As has been previously ex- 
 plained, every child learns to speak by imitation 
 and his confidence in his speaking-abihty must be 
 gained by constant reassurance from some source 
 
 14 
 
210 STAMMERING 
 
 that he is speaking correctly. Early in life this 
 boy had found that he was not speaking correctly 
 and at that moment began to feel the lack of con- 
 fidence which had been growing upon him daily. 
 Although in the midst of his school work, ar- 
 rangements were easily made to remove him from 
 class and place him for treatment. Notwithstand- 
 ing the fact that his trouble was unusually severe 
 for a boy of that age, seven weeks at the Institute 
 saw him made into a new boy, his confidence 
 regained, his speech under perfect control and 
 his physical condition greatly improved. He 
 returned to school, where his unusual proficiency 
 enHsted the aid and co-operation of his teachers 
 to such an extent that he was able to finish the 
 semester with his class. 
 
 Case No. 7.232 — This was another boy of early 
 school age, whose case is described here because 
 of the contrast of the one just mentioned. The 
 present case was that of a boy soon to be 10 years 
 old. He had stammered, not since his first word, 
 but only since he had been allowed to play with 
 two children, twins, who lived in the neighbor- 
 hood, and both of whom had stuttered since their 
 first attempts to speak. While I never examined 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 211 
 
 the twins, it seems from what I learned of them, 
 that the predisposition to stammer was an inher- 
 ited one, both the father and grandfather having 
 been inveterate stammerers. Be that as it may, 
 their defective enunciation, practiced in the pres- 
 ence of the boy whose case I am describing, 
 caused the boy himself to acquire a habit of im- 
 perfect enunciation which took the form of simple 
 stuttering and which all the home efforts of his 
 mother and father had failed to eradicate. At 
 the time he was brought to me, I gave him the 
 usual examination, traced his trouble back to its 
 original cause — Unconscious Imitation, diag- 
 nosed his case as one of Simple Stuttering and 
 recommended the procedure to be followed. This 
 boy left my care after three weeks and experi- 
 enced no further 'difficulty to this day, although 
 he is now 24 years old and engaged in work that 
 necessitates his making impromptu speeches 
 almost every day. Here was a case of Simple 
 Stuttering, taken at the right time, which yielded 
 almost magically to the treatment, but had it been 
 allowed to run on, would have progressed into the 
 Advanced Stage of Stuttering and later, in all 
 probability, into an extremely severe case of 
 Combined Stammering and Stuttering. 
 
212 STAMMERING 
 
 Case No. 986M3 — This was the case of a 
 Polish boy who found it ahnost impossible to 
 begin a word or a sentence. In describing his 
 case to me, he finally managed to say, "Before I 
 utter a word it takes me a Jong time and after I 
 utter the word, I become red in the face and so 
 excited that I don't know where I am, or what 
 I am doing!" I foimd this boy to be extremely 
 high-strung and of a nervous temperament, easily 
 excited. He was of an emotional type, was more- 
 than-ordinarily sensitive about his trouble and 
 brooded over it constantly, having long fits of 
 deep melancholia that were a constant source of 
 worry to his parents. He was furthermore at a 
 critical age, from the standpoint of his speech 
 development, just approaching 16. Although 
 naturally of an agreeable disposition, his trouble 
 had made hitn irritable and often sullen. He 
 wore an air of dejection almost constantly. It 
 was evident to me immediately upon examination 
 that his trouble had had a grave effect upon his 
 mind and that it would in time (and not so long 
 a time, either) have a deep and permanent effect 
 that no amount of effort could eradicate. 
 
 It would be naturally expected that his symp- 
 toms would indicate Thought-Stammering, but 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 213 
 
 this is not true. Instead I found his to be a bad 
 case of Spasmodic Stammering, in iwhich the con- 
 vulsive action took place immediately upon an 
 effort to speak and which resulted, therefore, in 
 the inability to express a sound — ^the "sticking" 
 tendency so common to stammering and particu- 
 larly to this type. 
 
 While the worry over his stammering had left 
 him in a mental state that made him impotent so 
 far as normal mental accomplishments were con- 
 cerned, stiU the removal of his stammering by the 
 eradication of the cause would, I felt, entirely 
 relieve the condition of mental flurry and stop the 
 nervousness. 
 
 The case was so urgent that the boy's parents 
 decided to place him for treatment immediately. 
 The results were so gratifying as to be almost 
 unbelievable. By the end of the first day's work, 
 the boy's whole mental attitude was changed. 
 His outlook on life was different. He felt the 
 thrill of conquering his difiiculty and before 
 many days, he was working hke a Trojan to 
 make his cure complete and permanent. At my 
 suggestion, he remained with me for seven weeks, 
 at the end of which time he went back East, 
 entirely changed in every particular. He was 
 
214 STAMMERING 
 
 smiling now, where before he seemed to have for- 
 gotten how to smile. He was full of life, enthu- 
 siasm and ambition — ^no one who had seen him the 
 day he first came here, could realize that this was 
 the same boy that entered a few weeks before with 
 the desire-to-live almost extinct. There are hun- 
 dreds of cases not far different from this — I have 
 cited the case of this Polish boy to show what a 
 complete transformation is made in the mental 
 state by a few weeks' work along the right lines. 
 
 Case No. 87.622 — Here was a case of a type 
 that is very, very common. It was that of a 
 girl, 17 years of age, from a good family, well- 
 educated and having all the marks of careful 
 training in a home of refinement. The most 
 marked characteristic of her case was the tend- 
 ency to recur. In other words, she was an Inter- 
 mittent Stammerer, who had believed (as had her 
 parents) that the tendency to get better was an in- 
 dication that she would soon outgrow the trouble. 
 "If Marie still stammers by the time she is 18 — " 
 this had come to be almost a household word, for 
 if she stammered at that time, it was the intention 
 of her parents (so they said) to have the girl 
 placed under treatment. As was to be expected, 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 215 
 
 she continued to stammer and continued to get 
 steadily worse, although the tendency to be better 
 and worse by turns was maintained throughout 
 the years. The periods of improvement were 
 eagerly seized by her parents, year after year, 
 as indications of outgrowing, while the periods 
 of relapse were seldom spoken of and usually 
 ignored. It was another case of the old saying 
 that: "We like to think that the thing will 
 happen which we want to happen," and since 
 they wanted the daughter to outgrow her trouble, 
 they insisted in believing, despite their own 
 unexpressed fears, that the daughter would 
 "eventually get over it"! 
 
 She did not get over it, however, and the criti- 
 cal age of 16 brought on a condition so severe that 
 her parents became alarmed about her and sought 
 advice as to what should be done. 
 
 An examination of her case brought out the 
 'fact that she had probably inherited a predispo- 
 sition to stanmaer, but that the immediate cause 
 of the trouble had been fright, caused by a nurse 
 who had tried to discipline the girl when small, 
 by telling her that the "bogey-man" would get 
 her if she didn't do certain things as told. This 
 disciplining by means of fear is never a safe pro- 
 cedure and in this case had been carried to ex- 
 
216 STAMMERING 
 
 tremes on many occasions, finally resulting in the 
 child becoming a stammerer. 
 
 She had a case of Genuine Stammering in its 
 second stage and, according to her own state- 
 ment at the time the examination was made, had 
 become much worse in the last two years. At age 
 15 it seems that everyone felt secure in the belief 
 that her trouble would pass away, but at age 17, 
 the condition became critical, the disorder having 
 previously passed into the second stage. 
 
 Two and a half weeks worked a wonderful im- 
 provement in this girl's condition, at the end of 
 which time she was coriapelled to return to her 
 home on account of a death in the family. She 
 remained at home for almost a month, after which 
 she returned to me to complete the cure. Even 
 under such an unusual and unfavorable circum- 
 stance as this, she remained with me the last 
 time only four weeks, and has, according to her 
 report, never stammered since, nor has she been 
 oppressed by the overpowering sense of fear that 
 formerly seized her when she thought of trying to 
 talk. 
 
 Case No. 84-563 — This case first came to my 
 attention over ten years ago, when I was called 
 upon to make a diagnosis. This showed the 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 217 
 
 trouble to be a case of Combined Stammering and 
 Stuttering, originally caused, it seemed, from 
 having associated with an old man who was 
 janitor in a wood- working plant belonging to the 
 father of the boy whose case I am describing. 
 The janitor had stammered ever since anyone 
 about the place had known him and probably all 
 of his life. In his early days, with his youth to 
 carry him on, he had tried to hold down several 
 jobs of consequence, but with varying success, 
 dropping down the ladder rung by rimg tmtil 
 he reached the place of janitor. The boy in 
 question, having associated with the old man, 
 early acquired the habit of mocking his defective 
 speech, with the result that he himself soon began 
 to stutter, which later turned into a combined 
 form of disorder known as Combined Stammer- 
 ing and Stuttering. 
 
 He came to me at the time he was 28, having 
 fotmd it necessary to go to work on his own 
 account, upon the failure of his father's business. 
 I explained to him that his was a case of Com- 
 bined Stammering and Stuttering, outlined to 
 him the probable course of his trouble and what 
 he might reasonably expect if he allowed it to 
 continue. Having been married only a short 
 
218 STAMMERING 
 
 time and being rather reluctant to leave home 
 for the length of time necessary to take the 
 course, he decided to postpone treatment until 
 some later date. I heard nothing more from him 
 for almost three years, when he walked in one 
 day, looking like a shadow of his former self. 
 There were dark rings around his eyes, his gaze 
 was shifty and I could hardly believe that this was 
 the young fellow who had seen me three years 
 ago. Nevertheless it was the same man, with a 
 story that pointed out the danger of postpone- 
 ment. His trouble had become steadily worse, he 
 said, until it had ruined his control over himself. 
 He had become nervous, irritable and cross, with- 
 out meaning to be so, had lost one good position 
 after another and finally, as a climax to a long 
 string of misfortunes, his wife had left him, 
 declaring that she would not put up with him in 
 such a condition. 
 
 A second examination revealed the fact that 
 his stammering had progressed so rapidly since 
 he had last talked with me, that it was now peril- 
 ously near the stage known as Thought Lapse. 
 His control was not entirely shattered, however, 
 and he was accepted for treatment. It was some- 
 thing over two months before he was back in 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUKE 219 
 
 shape again, but those two months did a wonder- 
 ful thing for him, for it put him in first-class 
 physical condition, removed all traces of his 
 impediment and restored the mental equilibrium 
 which had been so long endangered. Later, as a 
 result of his restoration to perfect speech, his 
 family differences were adjusted, and at the last 
 reports, he was making splendid headway in a 
 business of his own. Such is the power of stam- 
 mering to destroy — even home and happiness 
 itself — and such the power of perfect speech to 
 build up again. 
 
 Case No. 4.65.722 — This was the case of a man 
 born in Ireland, who came to this country as a 
 boy, and the original cause of whose trouble was 
 a blow over the head in a street fight soon after 
 landing in America. 
 
 When he came to me, he was 52 years of age 
 and not only had one of the most severe cases of 
 Spasmodic Stammering I have ever seen, but 
 was in the first stages of Thought Lapse. He 
 was practically speechless all of the time and his 
 trouble instead of manifesting an Intermittent 
 Tendency as it had formerly done, was now con- 
 stant, indicating that he was in the chronic stage 
 of his difficulty. Aside from his Spasmodic 
 
220 STAMMEKINQ 
 
 Stammering, he seemed tmable to think of the 
 things which he wished to say. In other words, 
 his trouble had been affecting him so long that he 
 had lost the power to recall and control the men- 
 tal images necessary to the formation of words. 
 I not only gave him the usual examination but 
 applied the special Bogue test, both of which con- 
 vinced me that his case was far into the incurable 
 stage. There was little or nothing I could do for 
 him at that late date and so I told him. He acted 
 as if dazed for a few moments, and when the full 
 force of the truth dawned upon him, it was as if 
 a cord had snapped and broken. Hope was gone. 
 He was an incurable — and knew it now, only too 
 well. And as he turned and left me, I knew from 
 the droop of the shoulders and the hang of the 
 head, that life meant but little to him now. He 
 was merely waiting — ^waiting for the last page 
 to be written and his book of despair to be closed. 
 
 Case No. 34.444 — This young woman was 
 very talented, had a beautiful singing voice and 
 could not understand why she was unable to 
 speak fluently when she could sing so well. The 
 cause of her trouble was distinctly mental and 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 221 
 
 did not lie in any defective formation of the vocal 
 organs but rather in a lack of co-ordination 
 between the brain and the muscles of speech. In 
 her case, the speech disorder had not materially 
 affected her health, although she admitted it had 
 impaired her power of will and her ability to con- 
 centrate. Six weeks put her in good condition 
 and gave her the opportunity to use her beautiful 
 voice to excellent advantage in speaking as well 
 as in singing — ^much to her satisfaction. 
 
 Case No. 667.788 — This man came to me for 
 assistance and relief from a severe case of Com- 
 bined Stammering and Stuttering. He shook 
 like a leaf when he talked, was very nervous, and 
 could hardly sit still. His speech was marked by 
 loose and hurried repetitions of syllables and 
 words, alternating with a slow and seemingly 
 dazed repetition of words, as though he did not 
 know what he was saying. 
 
 In a few moments, I learned that he was a 
 habitual alcoholic, that he was acquainted with 
 the Deliriimi Tremens and that he frequently 
 went upon sprees lasting a week, which left him 
 a physical wreck. He had no backbone, there 
 
222 STAMMEEING 
 
 was no foundation to build on and his case was 
 declined as incurable, not altogether from the 
 condition of his speech, but because it is useless 
 and hopeless to attempt treatment of the stam- 
 merer who is also a chronic dissipator. 
 
 Case No. 34.343 — This was the case of a young 
 man who came to me at the age of 17. He was 
 one of the type that "seldom stammer." He 
 explained this to me and told me that many of his 
 friends were not aware of the fact that he stam- 
 mered. 
 
 I gave him an examination and found his 
 trouble to be a case of Combined Stammering and 
 Stuttering in the second stage. He was of the 
 Intermittent Type and at intervals his trouble 
 became very bad, at which times he made it a 
 point not to go out among his friends — one of 
 the reasons which made it possible for him 
 to say that his friends did not know of his speech 
 trouble. 
 
 This young man came to me hoping that I 
 would tell him that his trouble was not severe and 
 that he would outgrow it in a few years. I was 
 able to tell him that at the time his case was not 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 223 
 
 an extremely bad one, but I knew that instead of 
 being outgrown it would become ingrown, and I 
 so told him. 
 
 But he decided to postpone action until some 
 later date, feeling sure, despite what I had told 
 him, that he would outgrow his stammering. 
 
 Four and a half years later, he came back. 
 This time he did not say that his friends knew 
 nothing of his trouble. He was in bad condition, 
 his "seldom stammering," as he had called it, was 
 chronic now and the painful expression on his 
 face when he tried to talk was ample proof of the 
 condition in which he had allowed himself to get. 
 His trouble had passed into Genuine Stammer- 
 ing and was of a very severe nature. There was 
 no thought of postponement in his mind at this 
 time and he placed himself for treatment imme- 
 diately. Eight weeks time saw his work com- 
 pleted, with excellent results. His fear was gone, 
 his confidence renewed and his health greatly im- 
 proved, in addition to being able to talk fluently. 
 
 Case No. 66.788 — Here was the case of a man 
 of 30, a preacher, who found no difficulty in 
 preaching to his congregation, from the pulpit. 
 
224 STAMMEEING 
 
 but whose trouble immediately got the best of 
 him the moment he went down into the church 
 and attempted to carry on a conversation indi- 
 vidually. This became so embarrassing to him 
 that he finally gave up the idea of passing 
 through his congregation, but satisfied himself 
 with standing at the door and greeting them as 
 they passed out. This, too, he was later com- 
 pelled to give up on account of his speech, 
 although during none of this time did he have the 
 slightest trouble in delivering his sermons. 
 
 His was a case of Genuine Stammering. The 
 mental control when he was in the pulpit was 
 almost normal. Talking to individuals, this con- 
 trol was quickly shattered. He placed himself 
 for treatment after having secured a brother- 
 pastor to fill his place for two months. He was 
 a good student, obedient to instruction, concen- 
 trating on his work with a creditable energy. As 
 a result, in five weeks' time, he found himself able 
 to talk to' anybody under any conditions without 
 the slightest sticking or fear. He could talk 
 over the telephone and was master of himself 
 under the cross-fire of conversation which in his 
 previous state had bothered him so seriously. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 223 
 
 Case No. 48.336 — This is a case that repre- 
 sents a very common type of Combined Stam- 
 mering and Stuttering, and a type that is not so 
 quickly cured as might be imagined. This was a 
 young man of 18, who not only stammered but 
 stuttered. His speech disorder, however, was 
 further complicated by a bad habit of prefixing 
 a totally foreign word or sound to the word or 
 soimd which he found it difficult to pronounce. 
 "B" was one of his hard sounds and in speaking 
 the sentence: "We expect to leave Baltimore," 
 he would say: "We expect to leave ah-ah-ah- 
 Baltimore." 
 
 The fear of failure which caused him to acquire 
 this habit of spealdng, led his friends often to 
 think that his mind wandered, although as a mat- 
 ter of fact, he was a very bright young fellow, 
 without a single indication of Thought Lapse. 
 
 I diagnosed his case as Combined Stammering 
 and Stuttering, and explained to him that he 
 represented a type of stammering that might be 
 called the "Prefix Stammerer" because of their 
 habit of prefixing every hard sound with an easy 
 word or an easy sound, even to the extent of 
 losing the sense of the sentence — so great is the 
 "Prefix Stammerer's" fear of failure. 
 
 15 
 
226 , STAMMERING 
 
 He placed himself for treatment, and although 
 his trouble was comphcated by this prefixing 
 habit, seven weeks put him in good shape. He 
 forgot his fear of failure, found every word an 
 easy word and every sound an easy sound. He 
 learned to talk fluently again and returned to his 
 home, both physically and mentally improved. 
 
 Case No. 98.666 — This was the case of a rather 
 arrogant young man from a good family, who 
 was too proud to admit that he was a stammerer. 
 Rather it should be said, he was too foolish to 
 admit it. He was well-educated and with the 
 store of words at his command, succeeded for 
 some years in concealing the fact that he stam- 
 mered. This he accomplished by the substitu- 
 tion of words. That is, words beginning with 
 those letters that he could not utter were not 
 used. If his sentence included such a word, he 
 quickly substituted another word of somewhat 
 similar meaning, but beginning with a letter that 
 he could pronounce correctly. This substitution 
 of words was so well done that for some time it 
 was scarcely noticeable to the average listener. 
 Often he found himself incorrectly understood, 
 because of his inability to use the right word in 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 227 
 
 the right place, but nevertheless he was successful 
 in concealing his speech defect from many of his 
 friends. 
 
 This case is of a type known as the "Synonym 
 Stammerer" because synonyms are used to avoid 
 stammering. The mental strain of trying always 
 to substitute easy words for hard ones, was very 
 great, however, and after a few years' practice, 
 the strain began to tell on the young man. It 
 affected his health and made him nervous and 
 irritable. 
 
 It was at this time that he came to me. Gen- 
 uine Stammering was his trouble, and so it was 
 diagnosed. He refused to admit that he had a 
 severe case, although the truth of the matter was, 
 he did stammer badly and the mental power which 
 had sustained him in his attempts to speak, was 
 being steadily weakened by what we might term 
 misuse. 
 
 He placed himself for treatment, although in 
 a frame of mind that did not augur well for his 
 success, but by the end of the third day his mental 
 attitude had entirely changed, he came to reahze 
 the immense difference between being able to 
 speak fluently and naturally and being compelled 
 to substitute synonyms. From that day forth he 
 
228 STAMMEEING 
 
 was one of my best students. His education 
 stood him in good stead, his enthusiasm was so 
 spontaneous as to be contagious and at the end 
 of four and a half weeks, he departed, as thor- 
 oughly changed for the better as anyone could 
 wish. The arrogance was gone. In its place was 
 something better — a sure-footed confidence in his 
 abihty to talk — and this was a confidence based 
 on real ability — ^not on bluff. He was no longer 
 nervous and irritable — and in fact, before leav- 
 ing, he had won his way into the hearts of his as- 
 sociates to the extent that all were sorry when he 
 left and felt that they had made the acquaintance 
 of a young man of remarkable power. 
 
 Five years later, I met him in New York, quite 
 by accident. He was in charge of his father's 
 business, had made a wonderful success of his 
 work and was universally respected and admired 
 by those who knew him. Even to this young 
 man, who to many would have seemed to have all 
 that he could desire, freedom of speech opened 
 new and greater opportunities. 
 
 If I had the space to do so within the covers 
 of one volume, I would gladly give many more 
 cases, with descriptions and diagnosis as well as 
 results of treatment. Specific cases are always 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUEE 229 
 
 interesting, illuminating and conclusive. They 
 show theory in practice and opinions backed by 
 actual results. 
 
 But lack of space makes it impossible to give 
 additional cases here. Those which have been 
 given are typical cases — ^not the unusual ones. 
 The out-of-the-ordinary cases have been avoided 
 and the common types dwelt upon with the idea 
 of "giving the greatest good to the greatest 
 number." 
 
 Every reader of this volvune who lives today 
 under the constant handicap of a speech disorder, 
 may well take new hope from the thought that 
 "What man hath done, man can do" — again! 
 
PART IV 
 
 SETTING THE TONGUE FREE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE JOY OF PERFECT SPEECH 
 
 IF you stammer — if you are afraid to try to 
 talk for fear you will fail — if you are nervous, 
 self-conscious and retiring because of your stam- 
 mering-7-then you don't realize the Magic Power 
 of Perfect Speech. You don't realize what per- 
 fect speech will mean to you. Listen to this — 
 from a young woman who stammered — who was 
 cured — and who knows: 
 
 "The most wonderful thing has happened to me. What 
 do you think it is ? I have been cured of stammering. You 
 have no idea how different it is to be able to talk. I just 
 feel like I could fly I'm so happy. Just think, I can talk. 
 I'm so glad, so glad, so glad, it's over. I just feel like 
 jumping up and down and shouting and telling everybody 
 about it. I never was so happy in my life — I never was so 
 glad about anything as I am about this." 
 
 That is the way she feels after being entirely 
 freed from her stammering — after learning to 
 
ITS CAUSE AN& CURE 231 
 
 talk freely and fluently without difficulty, hesita- 
 tion or fear-of -failure. 
 
 And here are the words of a young man who 
 has just found his speech: 
 
 "The Bog^e Cure is marvelous. It is just like making a 
 blind man see. It is remarkable. The sensation of being 
 able to talk after stammering for twenty-flve years is won- 
 derful." 
 
 And another young woman — this time from Mis- 
 souri: 
 
 "That six weeks was the beginning of Uf e for me. All my 
 life I have had a dread of trying to speak which made life 
 most unpleasant. I do not have it now— I love to meet 
 people." 
 
 The joy of perfect speech — 
 
 The wonderful exhilaration of being able to say 
 anything you want to say whenever you want to 
 say, to whomsoever you desire to speak. 
 
 "I can talk" — that simis it all up. With that 
 assurance comes the feeling of the innocent man 
 freed from a long term in prison — ^the sense of 
 completeness and wholeness and ability, the feel- 
 ing that you are equal to others in every way, 
 that you can compete with them and talk with 
 them and associate with them on a plane of 
 equality. 
 
 Such is the Joy of Perfect Speech!! 
 
282 STAMMERING 
 
 To know that the haunting fear is gone — ^that 
 the shackles have fallen away, the chains are 
 broken. 
 
 To know that you are free — delivered from 
 bondage. 
 
 What a feehng — ^what a sensation — 
 
 Living itself is worth-while. Life means more. 
 The sun shines brighter, the grass is greener, the 
 flowers are more beautiful while friends and rela- 
 tives seem closer, kinder and dearer than ever 
 before. 
 
 The Joy of Perfect Speech I 
 
 'No words can paint the picture, no tongue 
 describe the lofty f eeUng of elation which crowns 
 the man or woman or boy or girl who has stam- 
 mered and has been set free. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 HOW TO DETERMINE WHETHER YOU 
 CAN BE CUBED 
 
 YOU can either be cured of your trouble — or 
 you cannot. If you can, why should you go 
 about hesitating, stumbling, sticking, stammering 
 and stuttering? 
 
 Why should you deny yourself the privileges 
 of society, the advantages of opportiinity, the 
 fruits of success — if you can be completely and 
 permanently cured of the trouble which handi- 
 caps you and holds you back? 
 
 Why should you live a half life as a stam- 
 merer, if you can be cured and live the complete, 
 joyous, happy, overj&owing life? 
 
 Why should you be content with failure or 
 half -success if the triumphant power to accom- 
 plish, the masterful will to succeed is right within 
 your grasp? 
 
 Why should you continue to stammer if you 
 can be cured? 
 
 The answer is, you should not. 
 
 The first step, therefore, is to determine defi- 
 
234 STAMMERING 
 
 nitely and accurately whether you are in a cur- 
 able stage of your trouble and whether you can 
 be completely and permanently cured. 
 
 These things you cannot determine for your- 
 self. You have no facilities for determining the 
 facts. You lack the scientific knowledge upon 
 which such conclusions must be based. You can- 
 not diagnose your case of stammering any more 
 than you could accurately diagnose a highly com- 
 plex nervous disease. In order, therefore, that 
 the most important of all questions, viz: "Can 
 I be Cured?" may be correctly and authorita- 
 tively answered, I am willing to diagnose your 
 case and give you a typewritten report of your 
 condition, telling you whether or not you are still 
 in a curable stage. 
 
 It goes without saying that this diagnosis must 
 be based upon a description of the case in ques- 
 tion. This description must be accurate and re- 
 liable as well as thorough. In order to insure 
 this, I furnish with each book a Diagnosis Blank, 
 which when properly filled out, gives me the in- 
 formation necessary to determine the curability 
 of the case, as well as to furnish much other 
 valuable information about the individual's con- 
 dition. 
 
 In no case, will I undertake to pass on the cur- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 285 
 
 ability of the stammerer without a diagnosis first 
 being made. You want the opinion which I give 
 you to be authoritative and dependable — a report 
 in which you can place your entire confidence. I 
 cannot give such a report by merely hazarding a 
 guess as to your condition. I must base my re- 
 port on the actual facts as they exist. I must 
 make a careful study of your symptoms, deter- 
 mine what your peculiar combination of symp- 
 toms indicates, find out the nature of your 
 trouble, determine its severity. 
 
 When you have retiu-ned the blank — and when 
 I have fvu-nished you with the diagnosis of your 
 case, you can depend upon it to be accurate, 
 authoritative, definite and positive. It will give 
 you the plain facts about your trouble — ^be those 
 facts good or bad. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE BOGUE GITAHANTEE AND 
 ■WHAT IT MEANS 
 
 NO matter what caused your stammering, no 
 matter how old you are, how long you have 
 stammered, how many times you have tried to be 
 cured — no matter what you think about yom* case 
 or whether you, believe it to be curable — ^if I have 
 diagnosed your trouble and pronounced it cur- 
 able, then I can cure YOU. 
 
 By the apphcation of the Bogue Unit Method, 
 I can eradicate the cause of your trouble at its 
 very source, and re-establish normal co-ordina- 
 tion between your brain and the muscles of 
 speech, removing every trace of that "mental 
 expectancy" which you call "fear-of-failure." 
 
 I can show you how to place yoiu* articulation 
 under perfect control, how to make the formation 
 of words an easy process involving no apparent 
 mental e£fort or noticeable physical exertion. 
 
 I can teach you how to produce any sound or 
 combination of sounds, how to make every word 
 an easy word and every sound an easy sound. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 237 
 
 I can show you how to talk without stammer- 
 ing — ^how to talk just as freely and fluently as 
 any normal person who has never stammered. 
 
 I not only claim to be able to do this for you, 
 I back it up with a past record of success in treat- 
 ing hundreds of cases similar to your own. Like 
 cures like. What has cured others like you, will 
 cure YOU. But I don't ask you to risk a single 
 penny upon even that evidence and proof. The 
 moment you enroll in the Bogue Institute, I will 
 issue to you and place in your hands, a written 
 Guarantee Certificate, over my own signature, 
 binding me to cure you of stammering or refimd 
 every cent of the money which you have paid me 
 for tuition fee, and asking you only to follow the 
 easy instructions given under the Bogue Unit 
 Method. 
 
 You are to he the sole judge. 
 
 I will leave it entirely to you to decide. All I 
 ask of you is full opportunity to do my best for 
 you and absolute honesty, such as you expect and 
 will receive from me. 
 
 I want to be absolutely fair with you — I want 
 to cure you as I have cured myself and hundreds 
 of other stammerers. I do not want a dollar of 
 yoiir money unless I have given you a dollar's 
 
238 STAMMERING 
 
 worth of benefit in return. I would not keep a 
 penny of the money that you might have paid me 
 for cure of your stammering unless I had actually 
 cured you, provided, of course, that you had fol- 
 lowed the instructions which anybody of ordinary 
 intelligence over eight years of age can easily 
 follow, 
 
 I have no fear of your dealing dishonestly with 
 me. I know enough about human nature to know 
 that all you want is to be cured — and you under- 
 stand that to be cured you must co-operate with 
 me to that end. I can cure your stammering only 
 with your co-operation — ^just as a music teacher 
 can make a pianist of you only with your co-oper- 
 ative and sincere effort. Therefore, I ask only 
 that you follow my instructions carefully and 
 faithfully — and I guarantee to bestow upon you 
 the same gift of Perfect Speech that I have be- 
 stowed upon hundreds of now-happy men and 
 women — and I put that guarantee in writing 
 over my personal signature. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE CURE IS PERMANENT 
 
 NO one who stammers should put any faith 
 in a cure for his trouble unless the results 
 are known to be permanent. A temporary cure 
 is no cure at all and should be avoided, for it is 
 merely a means of wasting money. 
 
 The Bogue Unit Method brings about not only 
 a complete but a permanent cure. The secret of 
 its success as far as permanency is concerned, lies 
 in the fact that the basic cause of the trouble is 
 removed at its very source, the wrong methods 
 rooted out and the correct methods installed in 
 their place. 
 
 Once this process is completed and the cure 
 eflPected, the cure is permanently insured, because 
 its very cause is gone. You cannot stammer 
 without a cause — everyone understands that. 
 
 The proof of the permanency of the cure is 
 attested by the many letters from those who 
 were here ten, twelve, fifteen years ago. A 
 woman cured at the Institute ten years ago 
 writes : 
 
240 STAMMERING 
 
 "At 14 I was a very bad stammerer. I then attended the 
 BogTie Institute, where I was completely cured in a few 
 weeks. I then secured a position as saleslady in one of our 
 leading stores where I have been called upon to handle as 
 many as one hundred sales in a single day. I have never 
 stammered once. My cure has been absolutely perfect for 
 the past ten years. It was certainly a lucky day that I 
 walked into Mr. Bogue's oflSee the first time." 
 
 Another excellent proof of the permanency of 
 the cure, is the subjection of the cured student to 
 tremendous mental and nervous strain. Many of 
 our former students were in the Great War, 
 nimibers of them right up in the front line where 
 the fighting was stiffest and where the nervous 
 and mental strain was terrific. Even under this 
 test (which was enough to make a normal person 
 become a stammerer — and many of them did) 
 the results of the Bogue Unit Method held them 
 to normal speech. One young man writes : 
 
 "I completely regained my speech at the Bogue Institute 
 in 1915. I enlisted in the army and was sent overseas in the 
 spring of '18, and went through some of the hardest fighting 
 the 42nd Division was in, that being the Division I was 
 transferred to, and am happy to say the speech trouble has 
 never come back on me. I was wounded by a fragment of 
 high explosive shell. One hit me under the right arm, frac- 
 turing two ribs. Another struck my shoulder and a piece 
 ranged downward into my right lung, which now remains 
 there. I developed tuberculosis in November, in all prob- 
 ability from exposure as much as the wound. I was evacu- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 241 
 
 ated to the U. S. early last winter and sent to this place, 
 where I am rapidly regaining my health and expect to be 
 discharged about September 1st. 
 
 "With all the hard experiences I went through, stammer- 
 ing did not come back to me. I have never regretted the 
 time I spent with your Institute, and I have only the highest 
 words of praise for the work being done in the Bogue Insti- 
 tute." 
 
 Another severe test of a cure of stammering is an 
 illness such as may have brought the trouble on 
 in the first place. If the stammerer, for instance, 
 can undergo an attack of influenza or pneumonia 
 and come out of it without difficulty, it proves 
 beyond all question of a doubt that the cvire is 
 permanent. 
 
 For that reason, I wish to quote the letter of 
 an Illinois boy who says : 
 
 "I am getting along fine with my speech. I am sure I will 
 never stammer again. I was sick the week after Christmas 
 with pneumonia but it did not bother me a bit." 
 
 Another young man says : 
 
 "It is now nearly six months since I left the Institute and 
 in that time I have not stammered a word. What do you 
 think about that? It surely is fine. But you know that. I 
 was in Chicago last week and visited friends and saw a doe- 
 tor friend of mine who did not know that I had been away, 
 so he just stood there and looked at me and said, 'you are 
 talking fine. How did you learn that?' 
 
 "I told him and then talked to him for four hours and he 
 said it was the best thing that had ever happened to me." 
 
 16 
 
242 STAMMERING 
 
 Another letter, this time from Honolulu and from 
 a man who attended the Institute a number of 
 years ago, says: 
 
 "Just to let you know that I am still alive and enjoying 
 life as I never have before. I have forgotten that I ever 
 stammered. Sincere thanks to you." 
 
 This young man is now an engineer in the 
 employ of the United Shipping Board. 
 
 These letters give the answer better than I 
 can — ^better than any scientist can — because they 
 tell the real truth taken from the experience of 
 those who have tried and know — 
 
 First — That stammering can be cured by the 
 Bogue Unit Method ! 
 
 Second — That the cure is a permanent cure ! 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 A PRICELESS GIFT — AN EVEELASTING 
 INVESTMENT 
 
 THERE is no gift that can take the place of 
 perfect speech. It is beyond price — and the 
 person who talks after stammering would give all 
 his possessions to keep from going back again to 
 stammering. 
 
 But Freedom-of-Speech is more than a price- 
 less gift — it is a wonderful investment. Should 
 you ask: "Does it pay to be cured of stammer- 
 ing?" the answer could be nothing but "Yes" — 
 and there is evidence aplenty to prove it. 
 
 One young man writes: 
 
 "I have never enjoyed life as I have since I left the Insti- 
 tute, both in a business and social way. I am to get a 25% 
 increase in my salary the first of the month, which is at least 
 partially due to my wonderful perfection of speech." 
 
 Does it pay — ? Does a 25 per cent, increase in 
 salary pay? Here is the case of a young woman 
 who was about to lose her position because of her 
 imperfection in speech — ^yet when she returned 
 
244 STAMMERING 
 
 home after being cured at the Institute, she 
 wrote : 
 
 "I was veiy much surprised when I went down to the office 
 yesterday to find that I was going to get my place back 
 
 again. This evening, Mr. told me that I was to get 
 
 a 33% % raise at the end of next week, so my stay with you 
 has already begun to pay dividends." 
 
 Freedom-from-Stammering pays — ^in dollars and 
 cents. On a cold business basis, it is one of the 
 best investments to be made. One man who at- 
 tended here a few years ago was a fireman in a 
 large factory, stoking boilers all day long. To- 
 day he is salesman — and the head salesman at 
 that — for the same firm — he makes as much as 
 the President of the firm. He works on com- 
 mission — and he knows how to talk so as to sell. 
 
 Another man was section foreman when he 
 took his course at the Bogue Institute. Today 
 he is manager of one of a great chain of big retail 
 stores and makes more in one day than he used to 
 make in two weeks. 
 
 Another case is that of a young man from New 
 York State, who gave up his position to come to 
 the Bogue Institute and be free from stammer- 
 ing. Six weeks later he went home. Like the 
 other young man mentioned above, he met with 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 245 
 
 a success-surprise — ^he was re-employed by his old 
 employers — and he, too, was given a 25 per cent, 
 increase in salary. 
 
 So, you see, freedom from stammering pays — 
 pays splendidly and continuously for all the rest 
 of your life. It pays in satisfaction, in content- 
 ment, in happiness and ability to associate with 
 others on a plane of speech-equality. 
 
 It pays in better salaries and bigger earning 
 power — ^in opportimities opened and chances 
 made possible to you that are closed to the one 
 who stammers. 
 
 The world's successful men and women do not 
 stammer. The happy, contented people do not 
 stammer. The money-makers do not stumble and 
 stick and stutter when they talk. 
 
 To be successful you must know how to talk. 
 If you stammer today, make your plans to get 
 out from under the handicap — ^remember that it 
 will pay you and pay you well. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE HOME OF PERFECT SPEECH 
 
 THE BoGUE Institute of Indianapolis is 
 truly the home of perfect speech. For in no 
 other place can be found the things that are found 
 here, Nowhere else is there that silent sympathy 
 with the moods of the one who stammers. No- 
 where else is there that home-like atmosphere, 
 that all-pervading spirit of helpfulness and cheer- 
 fulness and good-will. 
 
 No matter how discouraged the stammerer 
 may be, no matter how tired or nervous or self- 
 conscious — ^no matter how shy or shrinking from 
 the gaze of others — ^no matter how timid or fiUed- 
 with-f ear the mind, the attitude begins to change 
 within an hour after his arrival. 
 
 For this is the home of perfect speech. Suc- 
 cess is in the air. Every step I take counteracts 
 the tendency to fear and worry and strain. I 
 know what the stammerer needs. I know the 
 things that need to be done to quiet the hyper- 
 nervous case. I know what to do to banish that 
 intense self -consciousness and make the student 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 247 
 
 self -forgetful. These things have been learned 
 by experience. And these gained-by-experience 
 methods start the student in the right way from 
 the very first hour. 
 
 Pupils Are Met at the Train: We are glad 
 to meet pupils at the Union Station, where all 
 trains over steam roads arrive, if the student 
 informs us beforehand (either by letter or tele- 
 gram) the road over which he is coming and 
 the time he will arrive in this city. There is no 
 charge for this, it being merely a part of the 
 courtesy extended to students who are unfamiliar 
 with the location of the Institute. A small bow 
 of blue ribbon should be , worn as a means of 
 identification. 
 
 When You Arrive: If you have not written 
 or telegraphed us to meet you at the station, as 
 soon as you arrive go to the telephone booth and 
 call the Bogue Institute and we will send an 
 automobile for you promptly. 
 
 Your Baggage: The transfer of baggage from 
 the station to the Institute will be attended to by 
 our office. The Baggage Transfer makes reg- 
 
248 STAMMERING 
 
 ular trips to the Institute for the purpose of 
 looking after the baggage of new students as well 
 as those who have completed the course and are 
 leaving for home. 
 
 Entrance Requirements: It is necessary that 
 every student entering the Institute be of normal 
 intelligence and at least eight years of age. 
 Every student must also be of good moral char- 
 acter and must be able to speak the Enghsh 
 language sufficiently well to take the instruction. 
 When a stammerer has been cured in one lan- 
 guage, however, he is cured in all languages. 
 Rich and poor are here treated with equal kind- 
 ness, courtesy and respect. We believe in those 
 who are here to be cured, regardless of their 
 station in life, and we believe in helping them 
 accomplish that purpose in as short a time as is 
 consistent with the results which they desire. 
 
 Grounds and Buildings: The Institute Build- 
 ing and Dormitory stand in a large lot, ideally 
 located, in a desirable residential neighborhood 
 away from the dirt, dust, noise and clamor of the 
 city and yet not so far out as to be in the least 
 removed from the city's activities. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUKE 249 
 
 'Board and Room for Students: The Institute 
 maintains its own Dormitory and Boarding De- 
 partment under the direct and immediate super- 
 vision of the Institute authorities. To the right 
 of the Main Dormitory Building as you enter 
 will be found the Dormitory for girls and women, 
 while on the left are located the General Offices 
 and the Dormitory for boys and men. Every 
 facility has been provided for the comfort and 
 happiness of our pupils while at the Institute. 
 Room, board, heat, light, hot and cold baths and 
 all other comforts and conveniences are provided. 
 
 Sleeping Booms: The pupils' sleeping rooms 
 and apartments are large, well-lighted, and well- 
 ventilated. They are comfortable both summer 
 and winter, ample facilities being provided to heat 
 the entire building comfortably at all times. 
 
 All of the sleeping rooms as well as the entire 
 Dormitory and class-room are lighted with elec- 
 tricity. Each room contains bed, dresser, table, 
 chairs and all accessory furnishings necessary to 
 make the room comfortable and home-like. Bath 
 and face towels are furnished without extra cost, 
 as is all necessary bedding and linen. Commodi- 
 ous and spacious bathrooms, with running water, 
 
250 STAMMERING 
 
 marble washstands and modern equipment are 
 furnished for the exclusive use of pupils. 
 
 Dining Room: Two large, airy and well- 
 ventilated dining rooms are located in the Main 
 Dormitory Building. Here are served all meals, 
 made up in the most appetizing manner — ^whole- 
 some menus planned for the special needs of the 
 type of students who come here. There is no 
 dieting, but meals are carefully balanced and 
 highly-seasoned dishes or injurious food com- 
 binations are eliminated. 
 
 Every meal is prepared under the direct super- 
 vision of an experienced chef. Under this direc- 
 tion our pupils are served with some of the most 
 delicious and healthful viands which can be put 
 together — all of which is evidenced by the stu- 
 dents' enthusiastic approbation of the Institute 
 table fare. 
 
 Scrupulous Cleanliness: Every part of the 
 Institute Buildings is kept scrupulously clean — 
 every day in the year. In this respect the Bogue 
 Institute surpasses many of the best hotels. 
 
 Library: The leading papers and magazines 
 are constantly available and we encourage stu- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 251 
 
 dents to keep in touch with the world of events 
 by regular reading. 
 
 How the Time is Spent: The order of the day 
 is as follows: 
 
 6 :30 A. M Arise 
 
 7 to 8 A. M Breakfast 
 
 8 to 9 A. M Special Study 
 
 9 to 11 A, M Morning Treatment Period 
 
 11 to 12 A. M. . . .Progress Tests, Special Exam- 
 
 ination and Personal Instruction 
 
 12 to 2 p. M Luncheon Period 
 
 2 to 4 P. M Class Instruction 
 
 4 to 6 p. M Recreation 
 
 6 P, M Dinner 
 
 8 p. M . . . Children's Junior Class Retiring Hour 
 
 9 p. M . . . Children's Senior Class Retiring Hour 
 10 p. M Adults' Last Retiring Hour 
 
 There are no classes on Saturday afternoon nor 
 on Sundays or holidays. There are no evening 
 or night classes at any time and no student may 
 enroll who is not in a position to devote all the 
 needed time to the pursuit of the work. There 
 
252 STAMMERING 
 
 is no part-time course, permitting the student to 
 work or go to public or high school while attend- 
 ing the Bogue Institute. The work here is too 
 important to become a "side-issue." We insist 
 that it be the student's regular and only absorb- 
 ing activity. 
 
 Lectures: From time to time during the year, 
 open lectures are given by myself and assistant 
 instructors dealing with the fundamentals of 
 speech or kindred subjects aimed to make for the 
 students' rapid progress. These lectures are im- 
 portant and must be attended by every student. 
 
 A Carefully-Planned Course: Every step of 
 the student's course from the time of arising in 
 the morning to the time of retiring at night, is 
 planned for the best results. Experience has 
 taught us what is best and the day's program is 
 built upon the lines of greatest progress in a 
 given time. There are no haphazard steps in this 
 program — each activity accomplishes a desirable 
 and necessary result. These are the things that 
 make for sure and rapid success — and which 
 insure that every day shall show progress over 
 the day before. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 253 
 
 In the work of the Bogue Institute, every stu- 
 dent's course is under my direct and personal 
 supervision and direction. I am, of course, nec- 
 essarily aided by assistant instructors, each of 
 whom was selected with especial reference to 
 his fitness for the work which is entrusted to 
 him. 
 
 Every Teacher a Specialist: Each one is a 
 specialist — a master, backed not only by a 
 thorough experience in the Bogue Institute, but 
 also having served an extended apprenticeship 
 under my personal instruction. 
 
 Every specialist responsible for any depart- 
 ment of our instruction must meet certain 
 rigid qualifications. First, they must be well- 
 educated, refined and of the best character. They 
 must understand the stammerer's difiiculty from 
 a moral and mental standpoint as well as from 
 a technical standpoint. They must maintain a 
 naturally sympathetic, cheerful and helpful frame 
 of mind at all times and must be able to prove 
 that the training under my hand has thoroughly 
 qualified them to serve the pupils of the Bogue 
 Institute. 
 
 The long period of training and apprentice- 
 ship, which has always been an outstanding 
 
254 STAMMERING 
 
 feature of our methods, could be done away with, 
 should I desire to cheapen the instruction. In- 
 experienced instructors could be employed for 
 less than half the compensation of the experts 
 and speciahsts I now employ — but these things 
 could be sacrificed only at the expense of results. 
 For many years the superiority of the Bogue In- 
 stitute faculty has been nationally recognized and 
 this reputation we are today maintaining — and 
 improving, where this is possible. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 MY MOTHEB AND THE HOME LIFE AT THE 
 INSTITUTE 
 
 THE home life at the Bogue Institute can- 
 not be mentioned without also mentioning 
 my mother and the work she has done and is doing 
 to make this truly a home hfe. This is her work 
 and she has succeeded. She represents the pivotal 
 point around which that home life turns and she 
 is the guiding spirit that makes the Institute a 
 real home for those who come here. It is her 
 beneficent smile that makes you feel at home when 
 you arrive, her kindly influence which makes you 
 feel at home during your whole stay and her 
 smiling God-speed when you go, that makes you 
 wish it were not time to leave. 
 
 Under Mother Bogue's direction, the Institute 
 is a busy, happy, cheerful and well-ordered home 
 for the big and happy family that it houses. 
 
 Music is here for those who wish to play. 
 Games and books and magazines for those who 
 would thus entertain themselves and others. We 
 are acquainted with the truth that "all work 
 
256 STAMMERING 
 
 makes Jack a dull boy — and Jill a dull girl" — 
 and wholesome and worth-while amusements and , 
 diversions are provided for all ages and all occa- 
 sions. These amusements are for those who wish 
 them — ^those who do not can always find rest and 
 quiet in their own rooms. 
 
 Rowdyism is absent. The hoodlum is not here. 
 We find no difiiculty in establishing standards of 
 conduct that become the lady and the gentleman 
 — ^and the regulations that are in effect are based 
 upon the belief that those who come here can 
 and Will measure up to these standards. 
 
 Unity of Purpose: One of the distinct advan- 
 tages of the plan whereby all students live in the 
 Institute Dormitory is that all who are here have 
 come for a purpose and bear that thought in 
 mind. The student who sits beside you at the 
 table is here for the same purpose as yourself. 
 You are both working for the same thing — work- 
 ing earnestly, enthusiastically, seriously — and 
 withal, successfully — to be cured of stammering. 
 
 What does this mean? 
 
 It means that the very atmosphere of the In- 
 stitute is saturated with energy, enthusiasm and 
 the spirit of successful endeavor. Determina- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 257 
 
 tion, application, success — these things are in the 
 very air you breathe. The spirit that carries an 
 army to victory is here — ^to carry you to victory 
 and success. 
 
 Absolute Privacy in Treatment: There is 
 absolutely no pubUcity connected with the attend- 
 ance of any student at the Institute. Many stu- 
 dents have attended without even their families or 
 friends being aware of the fact. Others have 
 come leaving behind the impression that they 
 were visiting friends — which in truth, they were, 
 as they afterwards found those connected with 
 the Institute to be sincere and worth-while 
 friends, indeed. 
 
 Even in carrying on correspondence regarding 
 the course, no one need know anything about 
 your intentions, for upon no occasion does the 
 name of the Institute appear on the outside of 
 any letter or package addressed to you. Only 
 the name "Benjamin N. Bogue" appears to 
 identify the letter. 
 
 At no time will your name, address or any 
 information about you in connection with your 
 name be published or discussed in any public 
 manner whatsoever without your permission. 
 
 17 
 
258 STAMMERING 
 
 Care of the Health: Every safeguard is 
 thrown around the physical welfare of those 
 attending the Institute. The location and ex- 
 traordinary sanitary precautions almost preclude 
 the possibility of protracted illness — ^this was 
 evidenced by the startling fact that during the 
 severe and nation-wide influenza epidemic of the 
 fall and winter of 1918-1919, not a single stu- 
 dent of the Institute was taken ill. This speaks 
 wonders for the remarkably good physical con- 
 dition of the many students who were here at 
 that time. 
 
 In the event, however, that a student does 
 become ill, the Institute House Physician is at 
 once simimoned and in the case of a child, this 
 physician's opinion will be sent immediately to 
 the parents. 
 
 In illness as in health, the kindly, courteous 
 and yet unobtrusive services of Mother Bogue 
 are at the disposal of the student. Every care is 
 bestowed, special meals provided and every want 
 looked after with the same pains as if the student 
 were in his or her own home. 
 
 Christian Influences: Indianapohs is a city of 
 numerous beautiful churches of all denomi- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 259 
 
 nations, many of which are in the immediate 
 vicinity of the Institute. During the entire stay, 
 students are surrounded by the very best moral 
 and religious influences and each Sunday sees 
 groups of students leaving the Institute to attend 
 services at the different churches. 
 
 Children Properly Cared For: Children 
 placed in our care are given special attention. As 
 with the other students they are surrounded with 
 the most wholesome moral influences. Regula- 
 tions provide that they must remain inside the 
 Institute grounds except during the proper hours 
 of the day, following their regular work. It is a 
 very frequent occurrence to have parents bring 
 their children with the idea of remaining with 
 them during the course, only to return home 
 within a few days, leaving the children with us, 
 having satisfied themselves in that short time that 
 the children are being just as well cared for here 
 as if they were in their own homes. 
 
 Parents sometimes remark that children will 
 get homesick and want to go home, but our 
 experience with hundreds of cases proves that it 
 is usually the parent who gets homesick to see the 
 child instead of the child getting homesick to see 
 
260 STAMMERING 
 
 the parents. The home-hke surroundings of the 
 Institute and the care and attention which they 
 are given, allow small opportunity for children 
 to become homesick, especially when it is remem- 
 bered that they are busy for the larger portion of 
 the day, at work which is to them of absorbing 
 interest. In fact, we often find that children 
 make so many good friends that they are reluc- 
 tant indeed when the time comes for them to 
 return home. Many of our students can testify 
 that some of the finest friendships of their lives 
 had their beginning here at the Bogue Institute. 
 
 Care for Ladies: My lady-assistants, as well 
 as Mother Bogue, will see to the comfort and 
 enjoyment of lady-pupils. Ladies have their own 
 dormitories in a separate portion of the building 
 and find their stay a most enjoyable one. 
 
 A Reflection of Ideals: The congenial home- 
 life at the Institute, the minute attention to the 
 wants of the students, the care given to women 
 and children, the solicitude for those who are ill 
 or who for any reason need special attention — 
 this is but the reflection of an ideal-^that ideal is 
 to make the Bogue Institute, not only in instruc- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 261 
 
 tion and results, but in every way, just what I 
 would have liked to have been able to find when 
 I was searching for a cure from stammering, 
 more than twenty years ago. The comforts, the 
 conveniences, the atmosphere of helpfulness — 
 these things all contribute toward your quick and 
 certain success — and that, I may say, is why we 
 have them. 
 
 THINGS YOU WANT TO KNOW 
 
 Deposit Surplus Money: As a matter of con- 
 venience to those who bring with them extra 
 money, we grant them the privilege of depositing 
 it in our safe. Other valuables may be left for 
 safe-keeping when desired. If the students 
 prefer, they may deposit money with one of the 
 city banks. Pupils should not carry much money 
 with them ; they may lose it. 
 
 Pupils' Mail: Relatives, friends and others 
 addressing letters to persons in attendance at this 
 Institute should address all mail to students: 
 "c/o Ben J. N. Bogue," to avoid delay in de- 
 livery. 
 
 iForeign Students: It will be necessary for 
 those who speak foreign languages to learn the 
 
262 STAMMERING 
 
 English language before they will be admitted to 
 this Institute. The instruction is only given in 
 English, but persons of all nationahties can be 
 cin:ed if they have the proper knowledge of the 
 English language. When once cured in one 
 language, persons are cured in all languages, 
 however. 
 
 Companions for Pupils: Parents, guardians 
 or companions may accompany small children or 
 others, when they wish to do so. It is entirely 
 satisfactory for those accompanying the pupil to 
 be associated with the children during treatment. 
 They may room together, if desired, or they may 
 secure adjoining rooms. 
 
 When You Leave for Home: When neces- 
 sary, we secure railroad tickets for our young 
 pupils, check their baggage and place theni safely 
 aboard the proper train, when they leave Indian- 
 apolis for home, and otherwise take especial and 
 careful interest in having them properly started 
 homeward after their stay with us. 
 
 Rich and Poor Stand Equal: Claim is made 
 that this is one of the most commendable features 
 of this Institute. It is not so in all institutes. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 268 
 
 Fine clothes and freedom with money are not the 
 test by which the student secures his standing, 
 but by his earnest, faithful work and gentlemanly 
 or lady-like conduct. It is inward worth, not 
 outward adornment and display of wealth, that 
 wins friends and gives the student a place on our 
 roll of honor. The student is judged by what he 
 is, and not by what he has. 
 
 Neglected Education: No one need hesitate 
 to place himself under our instruction on account 
 of neglected education or advanced age. All 
 embarrassments are carefully avoided. Scores of 
 backward pupils, who do not even know how to 
 read or write, enter every year, and are entirely 
 and permanently cured by the Unit Method. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A HEAKT-TO-HEART TALK WITH PARENTS 
 
 IF you are the mother or father of a child who 
 stammers, you should first of all read Chap- 
 ters IX to XIV, inclusive, in Part Two of this 
 book. These chapters deal with the speech dis- 
 orders of children from before the first spoken 
 word up until the age of 21, when structurally as 
 well as legally the mind and body of the infant 
 merge into that of the adult. 
 
 No mother or father can understand their 
 child's disorder without having read these Chap- 
 ters. To fail to vmderstand is to multiply the 
 chance for error in deciding what to do. There- 
 fore, I repeat, if you are the mother or father of 
 a boy or girl who stammers, read the chapters on 
 Child Stammering before you go further. 
 
 There are three mistaken beliefs in the minds 
 of many parents of stammering children which 
 must be rooted out before the child will have an 
 opportunity to be cured of his trouble. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 265 
 
 These beliefs are: 
 
 1 — ^That the child will outgrow his trouble 
 and therefore need only be permitted 
 to "grow older," at which time the 
 trouble will disappear. 
 
 2 — That the child could stop stammering if 
 he would try — ^that the trouble is but a 
 malicious habit of the child's, which he 
 could put away from him if he would. 
 
 3 — ^That the child's trouble is incurable and 
 that nothing can be done for him. 
 
 All of these beliefs are entirely fallacious and 
 based purely upon ignorance of the cause and 
 progress of the child's trouble. There is not the 
 slightest scientific foundation for them, they are 
 not beliefs based on facts or upon experience — 
 yet in many homes, they constitute the chief 
 obstacle between the stammering child and his 
 complete and permanent cure. 
 
 As long as you believe that your child will out- 
 grow his or her trouble, you take no steps to have 
 the disorder eradicated. 
 
 What happens? 
 
 The trouble becomes worse from month to 
 month and from year to year, until in many cases 
 
266 STAMMERING 
 
 where the "outgrowing belief" persists, the 
 trouble passes into a chronic and incurable stage 
 and the stammering child becomes the stammer- 
 ing man or woman, condemned to go through life 
 under a handicap almost too great to bear. 
 
 Write it on your heart that your child will not 
 outgrow his trouble. Ponder over the informa- 
 tion given in the Chapters on Child Stammering. 
 This is not hearsay or guess-work but facts 
 gleaned from a lifetime of experience. 
 
 If you, as the father or mother of a stammer- 
 ing child, cling to the second belief, that your child 
 could stop stamumering if he would try, then I can 
 see from this distance that your child has stored 
 up for him in the future, more than his due of 
 misery. For as long as you believe that he can 
 stop of his own free will, you will be impatient 
 with him when he stammers. You will scold him 
 and tell him to "stop that kind of talking !" Thus 
 you will irritate him, and bring to his heart that 
 sickening sensation that he is totally helpless in 
 the grip of his speech disorder and yet — "Oh, 
 why will they not understand?" 
 
 Like the first belief, this belief that the child 
 could stop if he wanted to, is based upon igno- 
 rance. No mother or father who has ever expe- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUBE 267 
 
 rienced the sensation of fear that grips the heart 
 of the stammering child when he tries to speak, 
 will say that he could stop if he would. 
 
 I say to you — and I want to emphasize this — 
 that the first and foremost ambition of your child 
 who stammers, is to be free from it. The greatest 
 day of his hfe will be the day when he can talk 
 without that fear, without sticking and stumbling 
 and hesitating over his utterances. 
 
 I say to you again — ^if that boy or girl of yours 
 could stop their stammering, he or she would stop 
 it this very instant. They would never stammer 
 again — ^if they were endowed with the power to 
 stop. But they are not. That is the very seed 
 of their trouble — ^their inabihty to control the 
 actions of the vocal organs so as to produce 
 normal speech. They have lost the control of 
 those organs and they cannot of their own volition 
 re-establish that control. 
 
 The third belief, that stammering cannot be 
 cured, is so easily demolished that I shall devote 
 but httle tune to it. It, like all false beliefs, has 
 its foundation in ignorance. The mother or 
 father who knows the facts, knows also that stam- 
 mering can be cured. You may not know 
 whether your boy or girl can be cured, but you 
 
268 STAMMEEING 
 
 are offered a way to find out — definitely and 
 positively, by describing your child's case on my 
 Diagnosis Blank and returning it to me for a 
 thorough Diagnosis. 
 
 Put your beliefs to one side— whatever they 
 may be. You can get the facts if you want them. 
 You can leam the truth if you will. Truth is 
 better than false beliefs and facts are better than 
 superstition or hearsay, which in every case leads 
 to misery, dejection and despair — a ruined life 
 where a successful, happy and contented life 
 might have been — except for stammering. 
 
 You have a well-defined responsibility to your 
 son or daughter. You have a duty to perform — 
 that is, to equip that boy or girl of yours to go 
 out into the world as well equipped as any other 
 boy or girl — ^and that means equipped with per- 
 fect speech— without which they will be too 
 greatly handicapped to fully succeed. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE DANGERS OF DELAY 
 
 IN many of the cases which have come to my 
 attention in the past many years, the stam- 
 merer or stutterer has been aflflicted with a malady 
 more difficult to cure than stammering, viz : The 
 Habit of Procrastination. 
 
 "Oh, I will wait a little while," says the stam- 
 merer. "A little while can't make any differ- 
 ence!" And then the little while grows into a 
 big while and the big while grows into a year and 
 the years grow into a lifetime and he is still 
 stammering. 
 
 Several months ago, an old man, stooped in 
 stature, care-worn of countenance and halting of 
 step, presented himself to me for diagnosis. His 
 face was drawn into long, hard hnes. His eyes 
 shifted from side to side, glancing furtively here 
 and there. 
 
 . In his trembhng hands was a worn old derby 
 which he turned about nervously as he stood there 
 talking. The nervousness, the trembling of the 
 hands, the drawn face, the shifting eyes — all this 
 
270 STAMMERING 
 
 was explained by the story that this man told as 
 he sat there beside the desk. 
 
 "I fell from a ladder when I was ten years 
 old," he said. "After that, I always stammered. 
 My parents thought it was a habit — I can remem- 
 ber yet how my mother scolded me day after day 
 and told me to 'quit talking that way.' But it 
 was useless to tell me to quit. I COULDN'T 
 quit! If I could have done it, certainly I would, 
 for having stammered yourself, you know what it 
 means. 
 
 "School now began to be a burden. I think I 
 must have supplied fun for every boy on the 
 school grounds during recess-time, for if there 
 was a boy who didn't make fim of me and 
 mock me and laugh at me, then I don't know who 
 he was. 
 
 "Then one day I started back to school at 
 noontime, saw a crowd of boys on the comer a 
 couple of blocks away, thought of what a task it 
 would be to go into that crowd or try to pass it. 
 A mortal and unreasoning fear came over me. 
 Try as I would, I couldn't screw my courage up 
 to the point of going past that crowd. But I 
 had small choice. It was either go that way or 
 stay out of school. And stay out of school I did. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 271 
 
 "And then came the crucial day. I could not 
 ask my parents to vouch for my absence — I 
 dared not tell them I was not there. So I went 
 back without an excuse. The teacher was angry. 
 She tried to get me to talk, but I could not say a 
 word. So she sent me to the principal. She, too, 
 asked me to explain. Try as I would, I couldn't 
 get the first word out. Not a soimd. 
 
 "She, too, failed to understand. Result: I 
 was expelled from school — sorry day- — nobody 
 seemed to understand my trouble — nobody 
 seemed to sympathize with me — a stammerer. 
 
 "Although I pretended to be at school, before 
 the week was out, my parents found out. Then 
 a storm ensued. I tried to tell them the 
 truth. They wouldn't listen. Father stormed 
 and mother scolded. There seemed to be no liv- 
 ing for me there. So I ran away from home — 
 ran away because my parents wouldn't listen 
 - — because they wouldn't try to vmderstand. 
 
 "Then my troubles began in real earnest. I 
 won't worry you with the details. I got a job — 
 lost it. Got another — ^lost that. How many 
 times that story was repeated I do not know. 
 And remember — I was but a boy!" 
 
 Here the old man stopped, his head dropped. 
 
272 STAMMERING 
 
 his unkempt beard brushed the front of a tattered 
 shirt, that had seen its day. He seemed lost in 
 thought — ^he was living again those days and 
 those nights when he had wandered an outcast 
 from the world. He was living over a lifetime 
 in a moment. 
 
 He sat there several moments— thoughts far 
 away. Then he raised his head and there was a 
 tear in the corner of his eye as he said, "But why 
 should I go on? Look at me. See where I 
 am. See what I am. You would think I am 
 over 70 — I am not yet 50. But it is too late to 
 do any good. Here I am homeless, friendless, 
 almost penniless. Nobody cares what happens. 
 Nobody would notice if anything should happen. 
 Nobody has a job for me — a stammerer. If I 
 could talk, I could work. If I could talk— Oh, 
 but why tell it again? It is too late now — ^too 
 late to do any goodl!" 
 
 He was right. It was too late. Too late, 
 indeed. 
 
 This man was one of the Too-Laters — one of 
 the Put-It-Offs, one of the Procrastinators. His 
 might be called the story of the Man Who 
 Waited. 
 
 First, his parents refused to listen. His teach- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CUKE 273 
 
 ers, even, failed to understand his trouble. And 
 when he got out in the world he put it off, 
 this matter of being cured of stammering. He 
 Waited t He kept saying to himself that he 
 would do it tomorrow — ^next week — ^next month.. 
 And tomorrow never came. Next week and next 
 month ran into next year — and next year ran 
 into a case that was hopeless and incurable. 
 
 He Waited 1! How tragic those two words. 
 He Waited ! And his waiting sounded the death- 
 knell of a thousand boyhood hopes. He Waited!! 
 And health slowly took wings and flew away, he 
 WAITED 1 1 And the insidious little Devil-of-Fear 
 piece by piece tore down his will-power, sapped 
 his power-of -concentration. HE WAITED II 
 And that first simple nervous condition turned 
 into something near akin to palsy. 
 
 On the tombstone of that man when they lay 
 him tmder his six-feet-of -earth, they might truly 
 inscribe the words: "A Failure" — ^and should 
 they wish to set down the reason, they might add: 
 "He Waited!" 
 
 To the stammerer's question : "When should 
 I begin treatment for my stammering?" and "At 
 what stage will I stand the best chance of being 
 most quickly cured?" there is but one answer. 
 
 18 
 
274< STAMMERING 
 
 The time for the stammerer or stutterer to begin 
 treatment for his malady is the day he discovers 
 his stammering or stuttering. The best chance 
 for being quickly cured exists today. 
 
 The stammerer, then, to paraphrase Emerson, 
 should "Write it on his heart that TODAY is 
 the very best day in the year." He should 
 remember that indecision, delay, uncertainty, 
 vacillation, lead to obhvion and that his only 
 redemption lies in that golden opportunity known 
 
 as — TODAY ! 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adenoids, relaxed palate following 
 
 operation for, 65 
 Adolescence, dangers of, 144-146 
 Advice to Parents, 132, 141, 264 
 Anatomy, author begins study of, 57 
 Aphasia, 
 
 case of, 113-114 
 
 defined, 67-69 
 
 in stuttering, 105 
 Association of Ideas, 122-125 
 
 "Baby Talk", 
 
 eradication of, 131 
 
 may cause permanent defect, 131 
 Bellj Dr. Alexander Uelvllle, 102 
 
 on outgrowing stammering, 112 
 
 successful mode of procedure, 186 
 
 value of early treatment, 143 
 Bogue Test described, 196, 197 
 Brain, 
 
 as controlling organ, 74 
 
 impulses improperly transmitted, 
 77 
 
 typical case of diseased, 169 
 Blooding, mark of adolescence, 146 
 
 Carelessness, cause of stammering, 
 62 
 
 Cases, Typical^ 
 
 adolescent girl, 215 
 aphasia, 113 
 attempted suicide, 147 
 believed incurable, 181-183 
 combined stammering and stut- 
 tering, 209 
 concealed symptoms, 198 
 disobedient, 172, 173 
 dissipator, 174, 175 
 failure in school, 154, 155 
 habitual alcoholic, 221, 222 
 imitation, 210, 211 
 insanity following stuttering, 68 
 minister, 223, 224 
 multiple thought, 203 
 physical improvement, 205, 206 
 Polish boy, 212, 214 
 prefix stammerer, 225, 226 
 procrastinator, 170, 171, 269 
 "seldom stammerer," 222, 223 
 severe spasmodic, 204 
 singer who stammered, 220, 221 
 speechless, 206 
 synonym stammerer, 226-228 
 thought lapse, 219, 220 
 unconscious imitation, 216-219 
 wrong methods failed, 162, 163 
 
 Children, Defective Speech In, 
 
 ( to'ee apeechf Defective^ in Children) 
 
 Children, Care of, 259 
 
 Child Vocabulary, echo of home vo- 
 cabulary, 128 
 
 Chorea^ Acute, as cause of stutter- 
 ing, 66 
 
 Combined Stammering and Stutter- 
 ing, defined, 71 
 
 Contortions, Facial, 
 
 in stuttering, 68 
 
 in spasmodic stammering, 70 
 Contractions, Muscular, 
 
 in author's case, 28 
 
 in choreatic stuttering, 66 
 
 in neurotic lisping, 65 
 
 in spasmodic stammering, 70 
 
 in spastic speech, 67 
 
 severe case of, 95, 96 
 Co-ordination, 
 
 defined, 191 
 
 cause of lack of, 79 
 
 lack of, cause of stammering, 77 
 
 illustration of lack of, 78 
 
 result of correct mental images, 
 122 
 Correspondence Courses, 
 
 (See Cures J Mail Order) 
 
 Cures, 
 
 additional results, 204 
 Alexander Melville Bell on, 186 
 author discovers successful method 
 
 of, 58 
 author's experience with — 
 
 divine healer, 48 
 
 electrical treatments, 46 
 
 elocution, 42 
 
 hypnotism, 44 
 
 magnetic healing, 45 
 
 mail order, 27, 28 
 
 osteopathy, 48 
 
 physician, 21 
 
 professor, 42 
 
 "rest cure," 32 
 
 surgeon, 49 
 
 traveling medicine man, 22 
 author successfully applies to him- 
 self 59 
 certainty of, 236, 237 
 division of time, 251 
 first step in, 199, 200 
 foundation of, 199 
 home, suggestions for, of children, 
 132-134 
 
276 
 
 STAMMERING 
 
 Cures — Continued 
 incurable cases, 167 
 mail order, 177-180 
 method at work, 199 
 method described, 196 
 method three-fold, 192 
 not hopeless, 162, 163 
 permanency of, 192, 239-242 
 psychic benefits resulting from, 
 
 206-207 
 reason for failures, 187 
 reasons for false beliefs, 160, 161 
 secret of, 187 
 self-cures questionable, 164 
 successful procedure, 186 
 surgery, 188 
 
 three units of instruction, 200 
 wrong methods harmful, 34 
 
 Deformity, 
 
 (See Organic Defect) 
 Delay, loss occasioned by, 272 
 
 Dentition, Second, period of dan 
 ger, 136 
 
 Despondency, result of stammering, 
 114 
 
 Diagnosis, defined, ISl 
 first need for, 142 
 important, 182 
 in written form, 183 
 need for, 198 
 what it should show, 184 
 
 Disease^ as cause of stammering, 
 88, 89 
 
 Disobedience, prevents cure, 171- 
 173 
 
 Dissipation, 
 
 aggravant of stammering, 174, 
 194, 195 
 
 typical chronic case, 174, 175 
 Divine Healer, author's experience 
 
 with, 48 
 
 J^ducatlon, difficult for stammering 
 child, 138-140 
 
 Electrical Treatments, author's ex- 
 perience with, 46 
 
 Elocution, 
 
 author's experience with school 
 of, 42 
 
 books on, 177 
 Entrance Examination, 196 
 Ezbilaratiou, feeling of, when cured 
 
 230-282 
 
 Facts, Need for, 233 
 
 Failures, 
 
 due to ignorance, 189 
 
 mail cures a, 179 
 
 reason for, 187 
 Fall, as cause of stammering, 85-88 
 Fear, child's feeling of, 138 
 Feeble Iiip, 
 
 (See Up) 
 Formative Feriod, The, cause of 
 
 speech disorders arising in, 132 
 Fright, as cause of stammering, 83- 
 
 85 
 
 Gulick, Luther M., 
 
 Haiit of Success, 139, 140 
 
 S are-Lip, 
 (See Lip) 
 
 Health, 
 
 care of, 258 
 
 Oharles Kingsley on, 118-119 
 
 effect of stammering on, 117-118 
 
 Healer, Divine, author's experience 
 with, 48 
 
 Healing, Magnetic, author's experi- 
 ence with, 45 
 
 Hearing, Defective, 65 
 
 Heredity, 
 
 as cause of stammering, 88 
 infiuence on stammering, 52 
 
 Hesitation, Defined^ 69 
 High Falatal Arch, 65 
 Hirscbberg, Dr. L. K., on outgrow- 
 ing stammering, 110 
 
 How We Learn to Talk, 125 
 Hypnotism, 
 
 author's experience with, 44 
 
 not used, 199 
 
 IdeaSj Association of, 122-125 
 Images, Mental, How acquired, 122 
 Imagination, 193 
 
 Imitation, source of word-pictures, 
 128 
 
 Improvement, 
 
 conscious of, 202 
 
 in physicial condition, 205 
 
 Influence, value of moral, in cure, 
 194 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 
 
 277 
 
 Injury, as cause of Btammering, 
 86-88 
 
 Insanity, 
 
 result of Btammering, 116 
 
 result of stuttering, 68, 69 
 Instruments, dangerous in use, 180 
 Intermittent Tendency, The, 
 
 author's experience with, 26, 30 
 
 dangerous aspect, 97 
 
 dangers of, 101 
 
 period of improrement, 97 
 
 period of relapse, 99 
 
 recurrence 
 
 (See Period of Belavse) 
 
 Jaw, 
 
 overshot, 65 
 undershot, 65 
 
 fi.lngsley Charles, 
 
 effect of stammering, 152 
 effect of stammering on health, 
 118, 119 
 
 library, 250 
 Lip, 
 
 Hare, 65 
 
 feeble, 65 
 Lisping, 65 
 
 negligent, 64 
 
 neurotic, 65 
 
 organic, 65 
 
 Magnetic Healing, author's experi- 
 ence with, 45 
 
 Mail Order Oonrses, 
 (8ee Cures) 
 
 Mall Order Onres^ 
 (See Cures) 
 
 Mental Defectives, Few, 175 
 
 Mental Snggestlon, 
 (See Hypnotism) 
 
 Milk Teeth, 
 (See Dentition) 
 
 Mimicry, as cause of stammering, 81 
 
 Mind, 
 
 a case of aphasia, 113-114 
 effect of stammering on, 113 
 
 Moral Inflnence, 
 
 (Bee Influence) 
 
 Movements, Spasmodic, 
 abnormal case, 96 
 in aphasia, 69 
 in author's case, 28 
 in choreatic stuttering, 66 
 in neurotic lisping, 65 
 in spasmodic stammering, 70 
 
 If asal Passages, Obstructed, 65 
 
 Negligent Usping, 
 (See Lisping) 
 
 Nervousness, 
 believed cause of Btammering, 187 
 effect of stammering on, 153 
 
 Nervous Shock, as cause of stam- 
 mering, 83-85 
 
 Neurotic Usplng, 
 (See Lisping) 
 
 Newton, Eev. David F., on effects 
 of stammering, 152 
 
 rganlc Defects, 
 
 cause of lisping, 86 
 
 cause of speech disorder, 62 
 
 not cause of stammering, 76 
 
 statistics on, 76 
 Organic Lisping, 
 
 (See Lisping) 
 Osteopathy, author's experience 
 
 with, 48 
 Outgrowing Stammering, 
 
 absurd conclusion, 109 
 
 chances for during adolescence. 
 149 
 
 chances for in formative period, 
 134, IBS 
 
 chances for in speech-setting pe- 
 riod, 140 
 
 early advice given to author, 24 
 
 harmful advice, 109 
 
 "harmful doctrine," 110 
 
 Hirschberg, Dr. L. K., on, 110 
 
 origin of belief. 111 
 
 physician on, 141 
 
 reason for early belief in, 26 
 
 reason for failure, 111-112 
 
 statistics of cases, 109-110 
 
 Palate, 
 
 defective, 65 
 
 relaxed, 65 
 Falsy, Infantile Cerebral, as cause 
 
 of spastic speech, 67 
 
278 
 
 STAMMERING 
 
 Parents, advice to, 127, 141, 264 
 Fecullarltles, 
 
 cause of, 80 
 
 j»ing without difficulty, 90, 91 
 
 talk to animals, 31 
 
 talk when alone, 31, 91-94 
 Fhiladelplila, author's experience 
 
 in, 40 
 Fbysical Deformity, 
 
 (See Organic Defect) 
 Fhyalclan, author's experience with, 
 
 21 
 Pitch, variations in, 73 
 Plan-of-attack, 199 
 Position, author seeks for, 36-38 
 ProcrastluatoxSj 
 
 example of, 272 
 
 incurahle, 169 
 
 typical case, 170, 171 
 ProgiesB, 
 
 concealed, 103 
 
 daily record of, 201 
 
 tests to determine, 202 
 Progressive Tendency, 
 
 concealed progress, 103 
 
 manifested in author's case, 28 
 
 periods of transition, 102 
 
 usually present, 103 
 Fronnnclatlon, Detective, 64 
 Purpose, TTnlty of, 256. 
 
 Bscltations, 
 
 oral necessary to memory, 138 
 
 written not equal to oral, 138 
 Becnrrent Tendency, 
 
 ( nee Interrmttent Tendency) 
 EesponsibUity, of parents to child, 
 
 268 
 Ridicule, 
 
 author object of, 16 
 
 retards mental progress, 137, 138 
 
 School, 
 
 author's experience in, 16-18 
 
 beginning of, for stammering 
 child, 136 
 
 problems of stammering child in, 
 137 
 
 sending stammerers to, 138-140 
 Second Dentition, 
 
 (See Dentition) 
 Sounds^ Substitution of, 65 
 Source of First ^ord, 126 
 
 Spasmodlo Movements, 
 
 (t^ee Movements) 
 Specialist., every teacher a, 253 
 Speech, Defective, cause of, 75 
 
 Speech, Defective in OhUdren. 
 "baby talk," eradication of, 131 
 "baby talk," may cause perma- 
 nent defect, 131 
 dangers of adolescence, 144-146 
 education a difficulty, 138-140 
 formative period, 128 
 four periods of growth, 120 
 pre-speaking period, 120 
 proper procedure, 266 
 speech-setting period, 136 
 suggestions for home treatment, 
 132-134 
 
 Speech, 
 
 assistance needed by child, 129- 
 
 131 
 defined, 190 
 
 evolution of, in child, 129 
 how first produced by child, 121 
 how produced, 73 
 monetary value of, 243, 244 
 source of first word, 126 
 
 Speech, Spastic, 67 
 
 Speech, Stoppage In, 63 
 
 Speech, 
 
 success-value of, 244, 245 
 
 true principles constant, 40, 189 
 
 Speech Impediment, 63 
 
 Speech, Specialist, should have 
 stammered, 193 
 
 Stammering, 
 
 author's first books on, 11 
 
 author studies many books on, 57 
 
 bars education, 154 
 
 basic causes of, 80, 81 
 
 causes failure in business, 157 
 
 causes nervousness, 153 
 
 cause of insanity, 116 
 
 defined, 69 
 
 despondency resulting from, 114 
 
 disease as cause, 88, 89 
 
 effect on health, 117, 118 
 
 effect on will-power, 116 
 
 elementary, defined, 70 
 
 elementary stage, 105 
 
 fall or injury as cause, 85-87 
 
 fright or nerve shock as cause, 
 
 83-85 
 heredity as cause, 88 
 heredity in author's case, 52 
 mental strain tells, 115 
 mimicry, basic causes of, 81, 82 
 
ITS CAUSE AND CURE 
 
 279 
 
 Stammarlng — Coutiimed 
 
 Newton, Rev. David W., on ef- 
 fects of, 152 
 peculiarities of, 
 (Bee Pecvliaritiee) 
 primaT7 mental stage, 106 
 progress of, 105, 106 
 spasmodic stage, 106 
 stammerer appears illiterate, 157 
 successive stages of, 105 
 suicides regulting from, 114 
 weakening effects of, 29 
 
 Stuttering, 
 
 aphasia, 105 
 
 choreatic, 66 
 
 chronic stage, 104 
 
 definition, 65 
 
 first a physical trouble, 104 
 
 phases of, 66 
 
 progress of, 103 
 
 simple, 104 
 
 successive stages of, 103 
 
 thought, defined, 67 
 
 unconscious, defined, 67 
 St. Vitus Dance, 
 
 (See Chorea) 
 Snbstitation, a deleterious practice,!. 
 
 165, 166 
 Suggestion, Mental, 
 
 (See Hypnotism) 
 
 Suicides, 
 
 ages of most frequent, in stam- 
 merers, 114, 115, 146, 147 
 
 result of stammering, 114 
 Surgeon, author's experience with, 
 
 49 
 Surgexy, period of popularity, 188 
 Synchronlzatioii, result of, 193 
 Synonym Stammerer, The, 165 
 
 Table, author's experience at, 19 
 
 Teeth, defective, 65 
 
 Teet, 
 
 final cure, 202 
 
 first treatment, 202 
 Theories, half-baked English, 11 
 
 Thought Lapse, 
 
 (See Aphasia) 
 "Tic Speech," 
 
 CiSfee Choreatic Stuttering) 
 Tongnej 
 
 malformation of, 65 
 
 slitted for cure, 188 
 Tongue Tie, typical case, 168 
 Tonsils, Removal of, 
 
 recommended to author, 49 
 
 advice on, 49 
 Transition, Periods of, 102 
 Traveling Medicine Man, author's 
 
 experience with, 22 
 Treatments, 
 
 author's experience with elec- 
 trical, 46 
 
 home suggestions for, of children, 
 132-134 
 Turning Point in Life, author's, 55 
 Typical Oases, 
 
 (See Cases , Typical) 
 
 T Isltors, author's dread of, 19 
 Vocal Cards, 
 
 action of, 73 
 
 how used in speech, 190 
 
 in production of voice, 73 
 Voice, 
 
 how produced, 73 
 
 organs used in producing, 190 
 
 Wilson, President, faultless speak- 
 er. 129 
 Word, First, 
 
 importance of, 126 
 
 influence of heredity on, 127 
 
 source of, 126 
 
 Youth, 
 
 dangers of adolescence, 144-146 
 period of most frequent suicide, 
 
 146, 147 
 period of rapid progress, 147, 
 
 148, 149 
 
ADVERTISEMENTS 
 
The Bogue Institute 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA 
 
 N INSTITUTION for the successful 
 treatment of stannmering, stutter- 
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 employed. Bogue unit method used ex- 
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 are to be found in the dormitories which 
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 and in connection with the institute. 
 
 In continuous operation for more 
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THE EMANCIPATOR 
 
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 MONTHLY MAGAZINE devoted 
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 The Emancipator teaches and believes in 
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 to be what you wish to be, to do what you 
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