Stammering, Its Cause and Cure by Benjamin Nathaniel Bogue
Chapter 1 STARTING LIFE UNDER A HANDICAP
I was laughed at for nearly twenty years because I stammered. I found school a burden, college a practical impossibility and life a misery because of my affliction.
I was born in Wabash county, Indiana, and as far back as I can remember, there was never a time when I did not stammer or stutter. So far as I know, the halting utterance came with the first word I spoke and for almost twenty years this difficulty continued to dog me relentlessly.
When six years of age, I went to the little school house down the road, little realizing what I was to go through with there before I left.
Previous to the time I entered school, those around me were my family, my relatives and my friends-people who were very kind and considerate, who never spoke of my difficulty in my presence, and certainly never laughed at me.
At school, it was quite another matter. It was fun for the other boys to hear me speak and it was common pastime with them to get me to talk whenever possible. They would jibe and jeer-and then ask, "What did you say? Why don't you learn to talk English?" Their best entertainment was to tease and mock me until I became angry, taunt me when I did, and ridicule me at every turn.
It was not only in the school yard and going to and from school that I suffered-but also in class. When I got up to recite, what a spectacle I made, hesitating over every other word, stumbling along, gasping for breath, waiting while speech returned to me. And how they laughed at me-for then I was helpless to defend myself. True, my teachers tried to be kind to me, but that did not make me talk normally like other children, nor did it always prevent the others from laughing at me.
The reader can imagine my state of mind during these school days. I fairly hated even to start to school in the morning-not because I disliked to go to school, but because I was sure to meet some of my taunting comrades, sure to be humiliated and laughed at because I stammered. And having reached the school room I had to face the prospect of failing every time I stood up on my feet and tried to recite.
There were four things I looked forward to with positive dread-the trip to school, the recitations in class, recess in the school yard and the trip home again. It makes me shudder even now to think of those days-the dread with which I left that home of mine every school day morning, the nervous strain, the torment and torture, and the constant fear of failure which never left me. Imagine my thoughts as I left parents and friends to face the ribald laughter of those who did not understand. I asked myself: "Well, what new disgrace today? Whom will I meet this morning? What will the teacher say when I stumble? How shall I get through recess? What is the easiest way home?"
These and a hundred other questions, born of nervousness and fear, I asked myself morning after morning. And day after day, as the hours dragged by, I would wonder, "Will this day NEVER end? Will I NEVER get out of this?"
Such was my life in school. And such is the daily life of thousands of boys and hundreds of girls-a life of dread, of constant fear, of endless worry and unceasing nervousness.
But, as I look back at the boys and girls who helped to make life miserable for me in school, I feel for them only kindness. I bear no malice. They did no more than their fathers and mothers, many of them, would have done. They little realized what they were doing. They had no intention to do me personal injury, though there is no question in my mind but that they made my trouble worse. They did not know how terribly they were punishing me. They saw in my affliction only fun, while I saw in it-only misery.
Chapter 1 STARTING LIFE UNDER A HANDICAP
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Chapter 2 MY FIRST ATTEMPT TO BE CURED
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Chapter 3 MY SEARCH CONTINUES
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Chapter 4 A STAMMERER HUNTS A JOB
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Chapter 5 FURTHER FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO BE CURED
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Chapter 6 I REFUSE TO BE DISCOURAGED
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Chapter 7 THE BENEFIT OF MANY FAILURES
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Chapter 8 SPEECH DISORDERS DEFINED
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Chapter 9 THE CAUSES OF STUTTERING AND STAMMERING
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Chapter 10 THE PECULIARITIES OF STUTTERING AND STAMMERING
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Chapter 11 THE INTERMITTENT TENDENCY
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Chapter 12 THE PROGRESSIVE TENDENCY
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Chapter 13 CAN STAMMERING AND STUTTERING BE OUTGROWN
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Chapter 14 THE EFFECT ON THE MIND
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Chapter 15 THE EFFECTS ON THE BODY
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Chapter 16 DEFECTIVE SPEECH IN CHILDREN
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Chapter 17 DEFECTIVE SPEECH IN CHILDREN No.17
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Chapter 18 DEFECTIVE SPEECH IN CHILDREN No.18
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Chapter 19 THE SPEECH DISORDERS OF YOUTH
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Chapter 20 CAN STAMMERING REALLY BE CURED
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Chapter 21 CASES THAT CURE THEMSELVES
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Chapter 22 CASES THAT CANNOT BE CURED
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Chapter 23 CAN STAMMERING BE CURED BY MAIL
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Chapter 24 THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPERT DIAGNOSIS
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Chapter 25 THE SECRET OF CURING STUTTERING AND STAMMERING
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Chapter 26 THE BOGUE UNIT METHOD DESCRIBED
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Chapter 27 THE JOY OF PERFECT SPEECH
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Chapter 28 HOW TO DETERMINE WHETHER YOU CAN BE CURED
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Chapter 29 THE BOGUE GUARANTEE AND WHAT IT MEANS
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Chapter 30 THE CURE IS PERMANENT
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Chapter 31 A PRICELESS GIFT-AN EVERLASTING INVESTMENT
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Chapter 32 THE HOME OF PERFECT SPEECH
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Chapter 33 MY MOTHER AND THE HOME LIFE AT THE INSTITUTE
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Chapter 34 A HEART-TO-HEART TALK WITH PARENTS
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Chapter 35 THE DANGERS OF DELAY
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