“I tried to be cured of stammering at five different times by five different men at a total cost of more than one thousand dollars.  None of them cnred me.  Then I decided to try the Unit Method.  Nine years ago I did so—­a decision that I have never regretted.  It waa 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 fundamentals of speech.”

This man’s case is typical of the hundreds of failures-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 application of the proper scientific methods, the stammerer found freedom of speech without unusual 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 stammerers who have ever actually heard the man stammer before “his trouble cured itself” and then heard him talk perfectly 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—­that his trouble was something else—­ 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 himself unable to say words beginning with certain letters, begins the practice of substituting easy sounds for those that are difficult and thus, provided he has only a slight case, leads many to believe that he talks almost perfectly.  This fellow is known as the “Synonym Stammerer” and is usually a quick thinker and a ready “substituter-of-words.”  If he has stammered noticeably for some time until 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 impediment and lead certain of his friends to believe that he no longer stammers.