tutterer or stammerer to
show marked improvement at times.

This seeming improvement brings about a feeling of relief, the
unreasoning fear of failure seems for the time to have left almost
entirely; the mental strain under which the sufferer ordinarily labors
seems to be no longer present; there is but little worry about either
present condition or future prospects; the nervous condition seems to
have very materially improved, self-confidence returns quickly and with
it the hope that the trouble is gone forever or is at least rapidly
disappearing. With these manifestations of improvement come also a
greater ease in concentration, a greater and more facile power-of-will
and an ambition that shows signs of rekindling, with worth-while
accomplishments in prospect.

Hope now burns high in the breast of the stutterer or stammerer. They
go about smiling inwardly if not outwardly, happy as the proud father
of a new boy, at peace with the world. The sun shines brighter than it
has for months or years. Every one seems much more pleasant and
agreeable. Things which the day before seemed totally impossible seem
now to come within their range of accomplishment. Such is the feeling
of the confirmed stutterer or stammerer during the time of this
pseudo-freedom from his speech disorder.

In his own mind, the sufferer is quite sure that his malady has
disappeared over-night, like a bad dream and that freedom of speech has
been bestowed upon him as a gift from the gods on high.

The higher the hopes of the sufferer and the greater the assurance with
which he pursues the activities of his day, the greater is his
disappointment and despair when the inevitable relapse overtakes him.

For disappointment and despair are sure to come--just as sure as the
sun is to rise in the heavens in the morning. The condition of relief
is but temporary, and will soon pass away to be followed by a return of
his old trouble in a form more aggravated than ever before.

Fate seems to play with the stammerer's affliction as a cat plays with
a mouse, allowing him to be free for a few hours, a few days or a few
weeks as the case may be, only to drag the dejected sufferer back to
his former condition--or, as is true in many cases, worse than before.

THE RECURRENCE: With the return of the trouble, the bodily and mental
reaction are almost too great for the human mechanism to withstand.
Hope seems to be a word which has been lost from the life of the
stam