A social drawback:  No stammerer but knows that his malady marks him for the half-suppressed 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 stammering.  That is all I am after.  Please excuse this awful writing.  I am so nervous I can hardly get the pen into the Ink bottle.”

Here is a letter from one man: 

“I am 36 years old, and have stammered for 28 years.  I don’t stammer so bad, but just bad enough to spoil my life.  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 committing 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 country who would not work night and day to be cured of stammering if he realized the hopelessness of trying to be a success in a business way, handicapped by stammering, unable to talk fluently, clearly and intelligently.

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 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 illiterate simply because he is unable to express himself in words.  His knowledge 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: