f my vocal organs had a complete rest, I
would be restored to perfect 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 proved to the satisfaction 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 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 somewhat
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 twenty-eight 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, however, 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 w