as, truly, that his life will not be a long one. Some may
smile at this assertion; let them think for themselves. How many old
people have they ever heard stammer! I have known but two. One is a
very slight ease, the other a very severe one. He, a man of fortune,
dragged on a very painful and pitiful existence--nervous, decrepit,
asthmatic--kept alive by continual nursing. Had he been a laboring man,
he would have died thirty years sooner than he did."

To the man who has never been through the suffering that results from
stammering or who has never been privileged to watch the careers of
stammerers and stutterers over a period of years, these final results
of stammering seem impossible. The inexperienced observer can only ask
in wonder: "How can stammering or stuttering bring a man or woman to
these depths of despair?"

To the stammerer who has but begun to taste the sorrows of a
stammerer's life these effects of stammering appear to be the ultimate
result of an UNUSUAL case--never the inevitable result of his own
trouble.

Doubtless if Charles Kingsley were with us today, he could look back
and tell us of the day when he, too, was sure that stammering was but a
trifle. He, too, could point out the tune when he felt that sometime,
somehow, his stammering would magically depart and leave him free to
talk as others talked. And yet, having gone down the road through a
long life of usefulness, Kingsley's is the voice of a mature experience
which says to every stammerer: "Beware--there are pitfalls ahead!" And
this man is right.

RESULTS OF STAMMERING: Experience proves that the results of continued
stammering or stuttering are definite and positive, and that they are
inevitable. Stammering is known to be at the root of many troubles. It
causes nervousness, self-consciousness and sometimes brings about a
mental condition bordering on complete mental breakdown. It causes
mental sluggishness, dissipates the power-of-concentration, weakens the
power of will, destroys ambition and stands between the sufferer and an
education.

There is no affliction more annoying or embarrassing to its victim than
stammering. No matter how bright the intellect may be, if the tongue is
unable easily and quickly to formulate the words expressing thought,
the individual is held back in business and is debarred from the
pleasures of social and home life.

Stammering is a drawback to children in school. To be unable to recite
means failure.