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 stammering—then you don't realize the Magic Power of Perfect Speech. You don't realize what perfect 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 talk freely and fluently without difficulty, hesitation or fear-of-failure.

And here are the words of a young man who has just found his speech: "The Bogue 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-five years is wonderful."

And another young woman—this time from Missouri:

"That six weeks was the beginning of life 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 sums 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 feeling 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!!

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 feeling—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 relatives seem closer, kinder and dearer than ever before.

The Joy of Perfect Speech!

No words can paint the picture, no tongue describe the lofty feeling of elation which crowns the man or woman or boy or girl who has stammered and has been set free.

CHAPTER II

HOW TO DETERMINE WHETHER YOU CAN BE CURED

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 opportunity, the fruits of success—if you can be completely and permanently cured of the trouble which handicaps you and holds you back?

Why should you live a HALF LIFE as a stammerer, if you can be cured and live the complete, joyous, happy, overflowing life?

Why should you be content with failure or half-success if the triumphant power to accomplish, 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 definitely and accurately whether you are in a curable stage of your trouble and whether you can be completely and permanently cured.

These things you cannot determine for yourself. You have no facilities for determining the facts. You lack the scientific knowledge upon which such conclusions must be based. You cannot diagnose your case of stammering any more than you could accurately diagnose a highly complex nervous disease. In order, therefore, that the most important of all questions, viz.: "Can I be Cured?" may be correctly and authoritatively 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 question. This description must be accurate and reliable 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 information necessary to determine the durability of the case, as well as to furnish much other valuable information about the individual's condition.

In no case, will I undertake to pass on the curability 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 report on the actual facts as they exist. I must make a careful study of your symptoms, determine what your peculiar combination of symptoms indicates, find out the nature of your trouble, determine its severity.

When you have returned the blank—and when I have furnished 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 GUARANTEE 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 your case or whether you believe it to be curable—if I have diagnosed your trouble and pronounced it curable, then I can cure YOU.

By the application of the Bogue Unit Method, I can eradicate the cause of your trouble at its very source, and re-establish normal co-ordination 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 your articulation under perfect control, how to make the formation of words an easy process involving no apparent mental effort 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.

I can show you how to talk without stammering—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 treating 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 refund 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 be the sole judge as to whether or not you follow instructions.

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 your money unless I have given you a dollar's 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 followed 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 understand 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-operative 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 bestowed 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 effected, 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, fifteen, twenty years ago. A woman cured at the Institute ten years ago writes:

"At 14 I was a very bad stammerer. I then attended the Bogue 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 office 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, numbers 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, fracturing 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 probability from exposure as much as the wound. I was evacuated 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 experience I went through, stammering 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 Institute."

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 cure 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 doctor 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." 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 EVERLASTING 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 priceless gift—it is a wonderful investment. Should you ask: "Does it pay to be cured of stammering?" 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 Institute, 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 home after being cured at the Institute, she wrote:

"I was very 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 1/3% 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 attended here a few years ago was a fireman in a large factory, stoking boilers all day long. Today 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 commission—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 stammering. Six weeks later he went home. Like the other young man mentioned above, he met with 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 contentment, in happiness and ability to associate with others on a plane of speech-equality.

It pays in better salaries and bigger earning power—in opportunities 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. Nowhere else is there that home-like atmosphere, that all-pervading spirit of helpfulness and cheerfulness 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 filled-with-fear the mind, the attitude begins to change within an hour after his arrival.

For this is the home of perfect speech. Success 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 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 telegram) 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 railway station, as soon as you arrive go to the telephone booth and call the Bogue Institute and a representative of the institute will be sent 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 regular 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 character and must be able to speak the English language sufficiently well to take the instruction. When a stammerer has been cured in one language, however, he is cured in all languages. Rich and poor are here treated with equal kindness, 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 Building 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.

Board and Room for Students: The Institute maintains its own Dormitory and Boarding Department under the direct and immediate supervision 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 Rooms: 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 electricity. Each room contains 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. Commodious and spacious bathrooms, with running water, 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—wholesome 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 combinations are eliminated.

Every meal is prepared under the direct supervision of an experienced chef. Under this direction 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 students' 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 students 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:

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 is no part-time course, permitting the student to work or go to public or high school while attending 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 absorbing 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 important 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.

In the work of the Bogue Institute every student's course is under my direct and personal supervision and direction. I am, of course, necessarily 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 is 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 department 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 difficulty 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 apprenticeship, which has always been an outstanding feature of our methods, could be done away with, should I desire to cheapen the instruction. Inexperienced instructors could be employed for less than half the compensation of the experts I now employ—but these things could be sacrificed only at the expense of results. For many years the superiority of the Bogue Institute faculty has been nationally recognized and this reputation we are today maintaining—and improving, where this is possible.

CHAPTER VII

MY MOTHER AND THE HOME LIFE AT THE INSTITUTE

The home life at the Bogue Institute cannot be mentioned without also mentioning my mother and the work she has done and is doing to make this truly a home life. 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 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 occasions. 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 difficulty 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 advantages 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—working earnestly, enthusiastically, seriously—and withal, successfully—to be cured of stammering.

What does this mean?

It means that the very atmosphere of the Institute is saturated with energy, enthusiasm and the spirit of successful endeavor. Determination, 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 publicity connected with the attendance of any student at the Institute. Many students 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.

Care of the Health: Every safeguard is thrown around the physical welfare of those attending the Institute. The location and extraordinary 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 student of the Institute was taken ill. This speaks wonders for the remarkable good physical condition 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 summoned 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: Indianapolis is a city of numerous beautiful churches of all denominations, 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. Regulations 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 the parents. The home-like 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 remembered 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 reluctant 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 instruction 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 for stammering, more than twenty-five 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 convenience 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 BENJ. N. BOGUE" to avoid delay in delivery.

Foreign Students: It will be necessary for those who speak foreign languages to learn the English language before they will be admitted to this Institute. The instruction is only given in English, but persons of all nationalities can be cured 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 necessary, we secure railroad tickets for our young pupils, check their baggage and place them safely aboard the proper train, when they leave Indianapolis 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 the Institute. It is not so in all institutes. 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 HEART-TO-HEART TALK WITH PARENTS

If you are the mother or father of a child who stammers, you should first of all read Chapters IX to XIV, inclusive, in Part Two of this book. These chapters deal with the speech disorders 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 Chapters. To fail to understand is to multiply the chance for error in deciding what to do. Therefore, I repeat, if you are the mother or father of a boy or girl who stammers, read 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.

These beliefs are:

1—That the child will outgrow his trouble and therefore need only be permitted to "grow older," at which tune 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 where the "outgrowing belief" persists, the trouble passes into a chronic and incurable stage and the stammering child becomes the stammering 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 information 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 stammering child, cling to the second belief, that your child could stop stammering 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 ignorance. No mother or father who has ever experienced 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 life 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 inability 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 little time to it. It, like all false beliefs, has its foundation in ignorance. The mother or father who knows the facts, knows also that stammering can be cured. You may not know whether your boy or girl can be cured, but you 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 learn 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 perfect 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 stammerer or stutterer has been afflicted with a malady more difficult to cure than stammering, viz.: The Habit of Procrastination.

"Oh, I will wait a little while," says the stammerer. "A little while can't make any difference!" And then the little while grows into a big while and the big while grows into a year and the year grows 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 lines. His eyes shifted from side to side, glancing furtively here and there.

In his trembling 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 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 remember 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 fun 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 corner 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.

"And then came the crucial day. I could not ask my parents to vouch for any 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 sound.

"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 living for me there. So I ran away from home—ran away because my parents wouldn't listen—because they wouldn't try to understand.

"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, 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 good!!"

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 teachers, 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! 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!! 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!! And the insidious little Devil-of-Fear piece by piece tore down his will-power, sapped his power-of-concentration. HE WAITED!! And that first simple nervous condition turned into something near akin to palsy.

On the tombstone of that man when they lay him under 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. 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 oblivion and that his only redemption lies in that golden opportunity known as—TODAY!