me a habit,
just as eating and sleeping are habits. I was determined to be 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 believable. 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 distinguished precedent in attempting to cure stammering
by hypnotism. German professors in particular have been especially
zealous in following 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 subject 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
stammering, since my words were directed by the mind of the professor,
and not 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
dignity, 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, and went to him
regularly three t