g it, eating it. I had not thought myself capable of such
concentration as I was putting in on the pursuit of the truth as
regards stammering and its cure.

With the knowledge that I had gained from celebrated physicians,
specialists and institutions throughout this country and Europe, I
extended my experiments and investigation. I had an excellent subject
on which to experiment--myself. Progress was slow at first--so slow, in
fact, that I did not realize until later that it was progress at all.
Nothing but my past misery, backed up by my present determination to be
free from the impediment that hampered me at every turn, could have
kept me from giving up. But at last, after years of effort, after long
nights of study and days of research, I was rewarded by success--I
found and perfected a method of control of the articulatory organs as
well as of the brain centers controlling the organs of speech. I had
learned the cause of stammering and stuttering.

All of the mystery with which the subject had been surrounded by
so-called specialists, fell away. In all its clearness, I saw the
truth. I saw how the others, who had failed in my case, had failed
because of ignorance. I saw that they had been treating effects, not
causes. I saw exactly WHY their methods had not succeeded and could
never succeed.

In truth I had BEGUN WHERE THE OTHERS LEFT OFF AND WON SUCCESS. The
reader can imagine what this meant to me. It meant that at last I could
speak--clearly, distinctly, freely, and fluently, without those facial
contortions that had made me an object of ridicule wherever I went. It
meant that I could take my place in life, a man among men; that I could
look the whole world in the face; that I could live and enjoy life as
other normal persons lived and enjoyed it.

At first my friends could not believe that my cure was permanent. Even
my mother doubted the evidence of her own ears. But I knew the trouble
would not come back, for the old fear was gone, the nervousness soon
passed away, and a new feeling of confidence and self-reliance took
hold of me, with the result that in a few weeks I was a changed man.
People who had formerly avoided me because of my infirmity began to
greet me with new interest. Gradually the old affliction was forgotten
by those with whom I came into daily contact and by many I was thought
of as a man who had never stammered. Even today, those who knew me when
I stammered so badly I could hardly talk, a