STAMMERING
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STAMMERING
Its ORIGIN and the
c/ldvanced Natural
Method gf CURE
LIBRARY EDITION
COPYRIGHT 1920
LEE WELLS MILLARD
MILWAUKEE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Cramer-Krasselt Co
Press
MILWAUKEE
STAMMERING
Its ORIGIN and the
cAdvanced Natural
Method of CURE
SEVENTEENTH EDITION
By
LEE WELLS MILLARD
Formerly an Inveterate Stammerer for Over Twenty Years;
President and Founder of The North-Western School for
Stammerers; Originator, Principal Instructor and Demon-
strator of the Advanced Natural Method for the Cure of
Stammering and Stuttering, and Lecturer on the Essential
and Practical Features Embodied in the Course of Treatment
and Instruction; Author of The Millard Instructor, A Key to
Perfect Speech and other works on Stammering; and Editor of
The Natural Speech Magazine, Published Monthly in the
Interests of Those Afflicted with Stammering, Stuttering and
Other Speech Impediments.
An Educational and Scientific Treatise on
the Origin and Effects of Stammering, to-
gether with an Outline of the Advanced
Natural Method of Cure.
IBREATH1
ITBAOE MAftK RE.OSTEBE0 j
The North- Western School for Stammerers
PUBLISHERS
2316 Grand Avenue Milwaukee, Wisconsin
OUR TRADE MARK EMBLEM
iTfiAOEMAftk RtCI STEREO]
C Our trade mark emblem, BREATH, VOICE AND SPEECH,
exemplify and contain the embodiment of our Advanced Natural
Method for the cure of Stammering.
d Without roots and a trunk the tree would bear no leaves.
Hence the tree emblem is the closest idea to the three essentials
that are symbolmatic of BREATH, VOICE AND SPEECH.
d The stammerer's greatest fault is in his haste for speech after
obtaining breath — he neglects voice. By paying close attention
to easy, continuous vocalization after proper inhalation of
breath, and articulating lightly so as not to block or obstruct the
voice, speech is comparatively a simple process under our Ad-
vanced Natural Method.
C Stammering is partially mental, thus mind training should go
hand in hand with the technical features of the cure. The
effectiveness of our speech training is because we have found that
the technical and psychological features are so closely allied
that one is inseparable from the other, in as cure that is to be
complete and permanent.
Hi
CONTENTS
Chapter Pa&e
Our Trade Mark Emblem 4
Preface 9
PART I
AN INVETERATE STAMMERER FOR OVER 20 YEARS
I My Early Experiences J?
II A Resolution 21
III What Our Advanced Natural Method Consists of 22
IV My Life's Work 23
PART II
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WESTERN SCHOOL
FOR STAMMERERS
I A Modest Beginning 24
II A Progressive Growth 25
PART III
STAMMERING AND STUTTERING DEFINED
The Causes, Tendencies and Effects
I Cause or Origin 26
Why the Stammerer is Ridiculed 27
II The Difference Between Stammering and Stuttering 28
III Intermittent Stammering 29
IV Stammering Not Hereditarily Transmitted 29
V Stammering Not Caused by Nervousness 30
VI Some Children Predisposed to Stammer 31
VII Stammering and Stuttering Seldom Outgrown 31
VIII Many Famous Persons Have Stammered 32
IX Fear and Worry Conducive to Starhmering 33
PART IV
THE CURE OF STAMMERING BY THE ADVANCED
NATURAL METHOD
I Continuity of Voice Indispensable 35
II Talking on Exhausted Breath 36
Stammering — Its Origin and
Chapter page
III Fresh Air and Health Hints 37
IV Breathing 38
V Mouth Breathing 40
VI Diaphragmatic Breathing 43
VII Articulation and What it Signifies 46
VIII Talking from a Too Close Position of the Teeth 47
IX The Tongue, an Unruly Member 48
X Habit 49
XI Stammering and Stuttering, a Spasmodic Habit 49
XII Pessimism a Habit 50
XIII A Scientific Method Cures Stammering by Removing the Cause 51
XIV Different Types of Stammering No Handicap 51
PART V
THE ADVANCED NATURAL METHOD DEFINED
I Facts About Our Methods 52
II Great Virtue in Our Natural Method — How a Cure is Brought
About 52
III The Advanced Natural Method Versus Hand-Swing, Time-Beat
or Unit Method 54
IV Our's a Progressive Method 56
V Average Length of Time Necessary to Effect a Cure 56
PART VI
A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF THE INSTRUCTION AND
TREATMENT
I Why You Should Attend the North- Western School for Stammerers
in Preference to Others — Especially if You Have Failed in Your
Efforts to be Cured Elsewhere 65
II Personal Attention Given Each Student 66
III We Develop Your Natural Powers 67
IV Unquestioned Supremacy 67
V Twelve Important Reasons for Selecting the North-Western School
for Stammerers, and Why it is the Best School in the World for
the Cure of Stammering 68
VI Some Exclusive Features of the North-Western School for Stam-
merers 70
VII Largest and Most Popular School 72
VIII Look Before You Leap 72
IX Don't Make a Mistake 73
X Enroll Now 73
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure
PART VII
THE STAMMERER'S FUTURE SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Chapter Pa2e
I The World Makes Way for a Determined Man 74
II Desire 75
Be an Optimist 75
III Will Power 76
IV Personality 77
V Personal Success 78
VI Poise 79
VII Power '80
VIII Know Thyself 81
IX Ignorance 82
X Faith and Loyalty 83
XI Your Conscience is Your Guide 84
XII Mental Engineering...' 85
XIII Mental Attitude 86
XIV Be Thankful 87
XV This is a Day of Action 88
PART VIII
IMPORTANT LECTURES
I The Proper Mental Attitude When Talking..... 89
By Lee Wells Millard
An Important Lecture Every Day 92
II The Fundamental Principles of Speech 93
By Frank D. Millard, M. D.
III Psychological Development of Will Power and Mental Attitude 95
By Edward C. Baroni, A.M., LLB.
IV There is No Such Word as Failure 98
By Harry W. Brown, Ph.D., A.M., LL.D.
PART IX
THE NORTH-WESTERN SCHOOL A BLESSING TO
STAMMERERS
I Plain Facts You Ought to Know 104
II A Home and School Combined 105
III A Few Words About Our Home 106
Stammering — Its Origin and
Chapter Page
IV What the North-Western School Can Do for You 108
Don't Give Up — You Can be Cured 108
V What the North- Western School has Done for Others 109
VI Stammering a Great Handicap 110
VII A Word to Lady Pupils Ill
VIII To Parents and Guardians Ill
Money Left in Trust Ill
PART X
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
I A Business-like Talk with Lee Wells Millard, in which a Few
Pointed Questions are Asked and Answered 112
PART XI
BUSINESS POINTERS AND SUGGESTIONS
I Tuition, Board and Room 116
II Liberty Bonds Accepted 117
III Why Our Tuition Charge is Moderate 117
IV Concerning a Guarantee 118
V Suggestions for Earning Board and Room 119
Evening Sessions 119
VI Stammering a Personal Matter 119
VII Send in Your Application Early 120
Y. M. C. A. PRIVILEGES 131
PART XII
HOW TO REACH THE NORTH-WESTERN SCHOOL
FOR STAMMERERS
Free Ride from Depot 137
Telephone Me Upon Your Arrival 137
Sign of Recognition 137
Map Showing Location of the North- Western School with
Reference to Depots, etc 138
ADVERTISEMENTS
The Millard Instructor 150
The Natural Speech Magazine 151
CARTOON
The Giant "Stammering" Overcome 152
PREFACE
IN offering you this, the seventeenth edition of my book on
STAMMERING, I do so with a greater sense of pride and
satisfaction than ever before. After nearly twenty years of
continuous effort and effective application of my Advanced
Natural Method of Speech Training, during which time thou-
sands were successfully treated under my personal supervision,
I feel that this institution has been true to its appointments.
C Speech is one of the attributes of the Divine Power that
elevates man from the animal kingdom. Human beings were
meant to talk — not stammer. It is not a pleasing sight in the
eyes of the Divine Creator to see a man or woman stammer.
It is contrary to the plan of the Supreme Architect of the Uni-
verse.
C Time proves all things, however, and a careful perusal of this
book on stammering will convince any reasoning person that the
scientific, practical and common-sense method employed by this
institution will cure the habit of stammering. It is backed by
all the physiological and psychological laws that underlie the
art of perfect speech.
—LEE WELLS MILLARD.
LEE WELLS MILLARD
President and Founder of the North-Western School for Stammerers; author of "Stammer-
ing— its Origin and the Advanced Natural Method of Cure." "The Millard Instructor, A Key
to Perfect Speech," and other works on Stammering, and Editor of "The Natural Speech
Magazine," Published Monthly in the Interests of those Afflicted with Stammering, Stuttering
and Other Speech Impediments.
10
MRS. LEE WELLS MILLARD
Whose entertaining features in providing school parties, etc., afford the students in at-
tendance much pleasure. Many regret the time of their departure, so pleasant has their
course at the institution been to them.
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15
STAMMERING
Its ORIGIN and the Advanced
Natural Method of CURE
PART I
AN INVETERATE STAMMERER FOR OVER 20 YEARS
CHAPTER I
MY EARLY EXPERIENCES
I WAS an inveterate stammerer for over twenty years, during
which time I had varied experiences with "professors" who
travelled from one city to another, as well as at several stam-
mering schools whose methods were too unnatural and embar-
rassing to follow.
H I obtained some relief at an enormous expense, but never lost
heart in the thought of some day enjoying perfect speech, and of
being entirely free from my fettered condition. It was my one
aim in life. Success, happiness and contentment of mind, all
depended on my cure.
CL I remember well the first stammering school that I attended.
It was the old Lewis school at Detroit, Michigan, an institution
which has since changed hands several times, Lev/is himself
having committed suicide Aug. 18th, 1915. At the time I at-
tended (1899) however, the school was at its best and but for the
embarrassing method taught, consisting of a hand -swing or
time-beat, accompanied by a sing-song monotone, the same to
be continued for six months or more after leaving the school,
I might have succeeded in getting cured. I was of a sensitive
nature, however, and the very thought of going home among my
friends, talking that way for months, gave me a shudder. It
was worse than stammering. One or two students of the class,
of a less sensitive disposition, followed the method for months
afterwards, but those whom I kept up correspondence with
failed to obtain results.
17
18 Stammering — lis Origin and
d, It was my first set back, and my faith was badly shattered,
but I still had hopes of some day being cured. At home I was
ashamed to go among my friends for I was supposed to be cured.
My father reminded me of the money uselessly spent. I de-
cided to earn more money and go back to the school where I
could follow out the unnatural method without so much humili-
ation. In February, 1900, I returned to the school again, fully
resolved to do or die. But Mr. Lewis was fond of money and he
insisted that I give him $50.00 more as a second tuition fee,
although I had been away scarcely two months. I was dis-
appointed again and I reminded Mr. Lewis that I was guaranteed
a cure, but still stammered badly. His only reply was : " Why didn't
you follow my method for the six months as prescribed?" I told
him of the terrible embarrassment attached to it and that it
attracted more unfavorable attention than stammering. He
only laughed at my predicament and told me if I felt that way
about it I could stammer or pay my second tuition and go in
class again. I told him I would think the matter over before
deciding.
H That same evening I met several students of the school,
my classmates of two months previous, who were still time-beat-
ing in an arm-swinging fashion and attacking each syllable in a
sing-songing manner. One of them, a paper manufacturer's
son from California, had been at the school for about a year, and
he stammered even when he used the "method" (arm-swing,
time-beat.)
€[ I decided not to go back to the school a second time, but to
journey several hundred miles to the north woods, as far away
from civilization as possible and give the "method" a good try-
out among strangers.
C I finally reached Emerson, a village owned by a large lumber
company on the shore of Lake Superior. But my attempts to
follow the "method" were futile. The rough, but good natured,
lumber jacks would gather around whenever I would start to
talk with the sing-song, time-beat or arm-swing method, as
prescribed by Lewis, and they would cast knowing looks at one
another as though the prize freak of the universe had struck
town. In fact my manner of speech supplied a novelty pastime
the town had long been in need of. In a short time I was con-
vinced that a town farther south, where law and social order were
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 19
more advanced, would be the logical place to practice the
"method."
d Leaving a good position as lumber grader, I journeyed south
until I reached Vanderbilt, Michigan, a lumber town of larger
proportions, where I secured a good position. But it was im-
possible to use the "method." People would look at me in a
pitying way — a look that the stammerer seldom thanks you for
— and I considered that I had done my share in "advertising"
the Lewis school and would make a freak of myself no longer.
Ct About that time Mr. Lewis sent out a form letter to his ex-
pupils, one of which was forwarded to me from my home town,
asking for a testimonial or indorsement of his school, in which he
stated that a valuable book which he had just gotten out en-
titled, "Methods of Attack," would be sent to me without charge,
if I would send him a letter indorsing his work.
CL Thinking the book (which I still have as a souvenir) might be
of benefit in helping me out of my speech dilemma, I wrote Mr.
Lewis as good a letter as I could, not saying that I was cured,
but that I thought others could be if they followed his "method."
I received little or no help from the book, which in part consisted
of poetical selections and pieces of prose, and I turned my at-
tention elsewhere for a cure.*
C[ I was employed at Vanderbilt, Michigan, with Yuill Bros.,
during the winter and for Chesbrough Bros, at Emerson, Mich.,
*The remarkable incident of the testimonial, however, is that after 20
years, it has been "unearthed" by the successors of Geo. Andrew Lewis and
they are giving it a place in their book called "Success," and various other
literature sent out by them, as though I were really cured there. The testi-
monial is dated "Oct. 15th, 1900, at Vanderbilt, Michigan." One has only to
write to Yuill Bros., Vanderbilt, Mich., where I was employed until 1903, and
ask Mr. John Yuill or Mr. Thomas Yuill, my employers, how inveterately I
stammered, for three years after that testimonial was written.
That is part of the present Lewis school owner's scheme to deceive the
public, however, and is only paralleled by them in publishing the halftone of
the late Geo. Andrew Lewis in their book which they send out to prospective
pupils as though Mr. Lewis really lives and is still at the head of the school.
Mr. Geo. Andrew Lewis committed suicide Aug. 18th, 1915. I am curing
nearly two dozen ex-Lewis pupils in my present class, and they tell me the
present owners of the school still have the same old arm-swing, time-beat,
sing-song drawl method, which must be kept up after the student returns
home from the school. Moreover, a large percent of the names they give in
their book called "Success" have since attended my institution in Milwaukee
with gratifying results under my Advanced Natural Method of Speech Training.
20 Stammering — 7/5 Origin and
during the summer months. At certain intervals I would select
a stammering school and attend for a few weeks but I could not
seem to get a cure. I attended six different stammering schools
in all and purchased a home course in my efforts for relief. My
last summer at Emerson, however, was an eventful one. I
analyzed the different methods of schools I had attended and
decided that a method to be successful must be a natural one,
because the majority of stammerers were sensitive. My study
of psychology also taught me that the stammerer lacked proper
co-ordination from mind to muscle, and that the negative mental
condition must be changed to a positive one.
C The deeper I went into the matter the more convinced I was
that a method more scientific than any evolved could be perfected.
I soon lost all interest in the lumber business and concluded that
I was in Northern Michigan, because my stammering had driven
me there, and that perfect speech would bring me among my
relatives and friends.
WAS CURED IN THREE DA YS
Butte, Mont., March 9th, 1919.
Mr. Lee Wells Millard,
Milwaukee, Wis.
My Dear Sir: — As I have been away from your institution for over a year
and my cure is as perfect as the day I left there, I take this opportunity of
writing you and expressing my heartfelt thanks and gratitude for the wonder-
ful results obtained.
Although I was one of the most severe cases of stammering when entering,
not being able to have my trunk sent to your school without writing it down,
I believe I hold the record for a quick cure. As you remember, I was actually
cured in THREE DAYS and never have experienced any further difficulty
since. I remained there a few days longer than that but did not need to.
What I have done, others can do, if they will put their whole mind to it and
use their will power and go into the work with enthusiasm and determination.
Your method is very easy to follow and the condition of school life there is
to enhance quick and permanent results. Your daily lectures to the class are
highly appreciated by all the students. They put "pep" and "ginger" into
the pupil and he goes into the work each day with renewed vigor and zeal to
go home with the most perfect cure possible.
Really, Mr. Millard, I cannot find words of praise good enough for your
great and worthy institution, but you can depend on it that I will always have
the kindest thoughts and remembrances of the time I spent there, and al-
though short, it was the most profitable of my life. Thanking you, I remain,
Yours very sincerely,
FRANK McGEE.
205 Pearl Street.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 21
CHAPTER II
A RESOLUTION
C I tendered my resignation to the lumber firm at Emerson,
and immediately began to formulate a new method for the cure
of stammering, along natural and practical lines.
€[ I was able to profit by my past experiences, steer clear of
others' mistakes and develop a scientific method decidedly dif-
ferent from the rest — a method that could be put into daily use
and practice, without attracting the unfavorable attention of
other people.
C The result of my experiment and investigation proved beyond
a doubt that I had perfected a natural, scientific method of
treatment, destined to not only eradicate my own stammering,
but to prove a boon to thousands of others in a like condition.
€L I gave myself about ten days constant and intensive training
and the results were truly marvelous. I decided to go to Mil-
waukee and review my method before my brother, Dr. Frank D.
Millard, a practicing physician and surgeon. He told me I had
perfected a method that would appeal to all sensitive and refined
people that stammered, and would in due time attract world-
wide attention.
€[ To say that his prediction has proven true would be putting
it mildly. He saw his prediction realized in a shorter time than
was ever dreamed of, and has delivered lectures before students
of our classes who come here from almost every clime — from
Greenland's icy mountain to India's coral strand.
{[ The world is entering on a new era of accomplishment that
will far exceed anything heretofore imagined. The world war
has brought about great changes and America now has her right-
ful place among the great nations of the earth and as time goes
on, more and more will she be revered and respected for her
sound principles and ideals.
{[ The North-Western School for Stammerers today is the larg-
est and most successful school of its kind in the world — and still
growing.
Plan your work, then work your plan.
V
22 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER III
WHAT OUR ADVANCED NATURAL METHOD CONSISTS OF
4[ Everything is embodied in my course of speech training to
make the cure permanent and complete. Perfect speech can
be had before the student leaves here — with nothing to leave off
or add on, and no exercises or "method" to follow afterwards.
H My Advanced Natural Method goes back to fundamental
speech principles and combines the technical or physical with the
psychological or mind training. The order in which the method
develops the cure is as follows: Relaxation, breath control,
continuity of voice between syllables and words throughout
the sentences — in a natural manner, and light articulation.
The student is taught the science of concentration, and visualiza-
tion and the relationship of mind to body. A positive mental
attitude is brought about, the will power developed, the fear of
stammering killed, confidence fully restored and personality
brought back to a natural state of perfection.
4[ Moreover, our students are taught the difference between
positiveness and negativeness and how one enhances stammering
and the other enhances the cure. Why mental energy is more
potent than physical effort in talking. How to be their own men-
tal engineer. How to concentrate the mind so as to co-ordinate
properly between speech center and speech organs. From what
position of the throat to phonate voice. How far apart to keep
the teeth when talking. What position the tongue should as-
sume while talking and when not in use. How to stop forcing
the articulation. How to keep from compressing the diaphragm
and to not talk on exhausted breath. How to allow yourself to
talk instead of trying to talk. How to be self-confident instead
of self-conscious. How to keep a picture of perfect speech be-
fore the mind; to make the mind rule the body properly — and a
thousand and one other things generally overlooked or not
taught at other stammering schools.
The Institution is Endorsed by a Prominent Physician
I take pleasure in stating that I have personally acquainted myself with
Prof. L. W. Millard of the North- Western School for Stammerers, and its
methods, and that both made a very good impression on me from the scien-
tific as well as the practical standpoint. I frequently take opportunity to
recommend the institution to patients of mine asking for information.
233 Ninth St., Milwaukee, Wis. DR. PAUL J. KAPPES,
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 23
CHAPTER IV
MY LIFE'S WORK
C I know of no other work in which I could engage that would
bring about such manifold blessings in relieving a certain class
of mankind of misery and mental torture.
d My usefulness to humanity in curing thousands of the most
difficult cases of stammering, stuttering and other speech im-
perfections, has been echoed from every quarter of the civilized
globe. Blighted hopes, crushed ambitions, emaciated expressions
of sadness, all tell the story as nothing else can of the stammerer's
dilemma. Nothing else in the world has caused so much mental
depression, and negativeness of disposition as stammering.
t[ Once a sufferer myself, I can better appreciate the sorrow of
others unfortunately afflicted with stammering, and I can like-
wise glory in their cure. Hence, I like my profession, I never grow
nervous or impatient with any case, no matter how severe —
and that is part of the secret of my success.
C^ The stammerer has little or no chance in our great hustling
and bustling nation. To be a success the stammerer must free
his fettered tongue. No matter from what angle you view it,
stammering closes every avenue to a successful career. It keeps
the unfortunate in the mediocre class and denies him or her
from partaking freely of the fruits of business or social success.
Stammering can be termed as a liability — not an asset. A per-
fect manner of speech is always the best letter of introduction.
€1 Thus, with the aim of devoting my entire future life for the
benefit of others in curing their stammering and correcting their
speech impediments, I have built my institution on the plan of a
school and home combined, and can today offer better facilities
for speech training than any similar institution in America.
H With continued encouragement of success, I hope still further
to be able to extend the blessings of this institution to dis-
heartened stammerers in every nook and corner of the earth,
and offer them a new life crowned with the joy, ambition and
success that radiate from a fluent tongue.
C Surely one of God's greatest attributes and noblest blessing
is the inherent faculty and privilege of perfect and unfettered
utterance — the free and accepted gift to mankind.
PART II
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NORTH-WESTERN SCHOOL
FOR STAMMERERS
CHAPTER I
A MODEST BEGINNING
COMMENCING in a modest way, nearly twenty years ago,
the North-Western School for Stammerers, was firmly
established in the city of Milwaukee.
Q Its founder had been a severe stammerer for years and had
struggled hard under many methods for relief. Finally curing
himself by what has since become famous as the Advanced
Natural Method, the school had its inception, destined to revo-
lutionize embarrassing methods and bring relief to a world of
speech sufferers.
C The success of the school is without parallel in the history of
similar institutions. Suffering from many different forms of
stammering and minor speech impediments, students of all ages
and of almost every nationality, have travelled from far and near,
some coming more than twelve thousand miles to avail themselves
of the school's wonderful system of speech training.
C Failure and disappointment are unknown quantities at this
institution and the school has proven a safe harbor of refuge to
thousands, who have laid down their heavy burden and gone on
their way rejoicing, to meet the success due to fluent speech, a
fighting heart and the indomitable spirit of "I can," and "I will."
HIS STAMMERING IS PAST AND GONE
Dear Mr. Millard: — Suppose you are wondering how I got along after
leaving your school, as my stay was so short. Am glad to say I have no trouble
at all in talking now. My stammering is past and gone. I never substitute
in the least and am perfectly at ease everywhere. I wouldn't take $1000.00
for the benefit I derived at your school. I do not fear the future now. I feel
at liberty to tie into anything in the line of talking. I am delighted with my
ability to talk. At any time I can be of assistance to you, I will be glad of
the opportunity. Yours very truly,
G. R. McGEE, McGee Drug Co., Dalhart, Tex.
24
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 25
CHAPTER II
A PROGRESSIVE GROWTH
C The career of the school has been one of steady progress, each
year recording a healthy growth over the preceding season, and
adding hundreds of enthusiastic boosters to its thousands of
friends.
Q About ten years ago, the founder of the institution, realizing
that the continuous growth of the school meant further expansion,
purchased a new home for the school at 2316 Grand Avenue,
amid stately surroundings, and erected buildings exclusively for
school purposes and the curing of stammering under the Ad-
vanced Natural Method.
C Thus the school has been true to its appointments and has
established a record for itself that is international in scope, and
joy has been brought to the hearts of thousands, who formerly
were constantly tortured by the fear of stammering and powerless
to gain relief from their handicapped and fettered condition.
€[ A glance into the future is encouraging, judging from what
has been accomplished in the past, and our policy of square
dealing, our modern scientific method of cure, our new buildings
and beautiful location, together with our popular tuition rate,
all bespeak a continuation of success, even greater than
that which has rewarded our efforts of years gone by, and in-
sures our prospective pupils, a course of speech training that is
true and tried, that is scientifically correct and unequalled else-
where at any price.
A NEIGHBOR'S OBSERVATION
WESLEY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Grand Avenue and 25th Street
Milwaukee, Wis.
To Who It May Concern: —
Living, as I do, in close proximity to the North- Western School for Stam-
merers, I have had an opportunity to observe the methods used and results
obtained, and am convinced of the correctness of the theories held and the
methods used in dealing with stammerers. I recommend the school to all
affected in this way.
Yours sincerely,
(Rev.) WM. W. MOORE,
(Rev. Moore is now pastor of the First M. Church at Eau Claire, Wis.)
PART III
STAMMERING AND STUTTERING
DEFINED
THE CAUSES, TENDENCIES AND EFFECTS
CHAPTER I
CAUSE OR ORIGIN
STAMMERING can be and has been, denned in different
ways, and many of these definitions are theoretically cor-
rect. In fact, it has been found more easy for some to
define the abnormality than to provide an adequate remedy or
method that will eradicate the difficulty and leave the individual
a pure, normal and natural manner of speech in its stead.
C Stammering is merely a negative state of mind — a mind with
a "reserve area" of negative thoughts of doubt and fear.
d Stammering can be termed the inability of the will to properly
co-ordinate and execute, from speech center to speech organ, the
thought and word pictures of the mind. A positive mental
attitude is therefore absolutely essential to counteract the
negative operation of the "mental machinery" that would other-
wise produce stammering.
CL The causes of stammering are many, and the person thus
afflicted usually stammers intermittently or inveterately, accord-
ing to his or her disposition.
€[ In looking over our descriptive form and record books, which
we keep of each pupil treated, I find that in many cases the
primitive cause is unknown. Stammering may have its cause
or origin in many different ways. It is oftentimes brought about
through fright, mimicry, association or protracted illness, and
may be caused by measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, typhoid
and scarlet fever. One young man in particular, attributed the
cause of his stammering or stuttering to the fact that he was
scalded when a child.
26
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 27
d The original cause of the impediment may have passed
away and have been obliterated for years. However, the length
of time which elapsed when the cause was most manifest, was
of sufficient duration to permit the organs of speech to form a
wrong and improper action. Thus, when nature removed the
cause, the habit had been formed and still remained.
WHY THE STAMMERER IS RIDICULED
4[ It is an easy matter for the critical and observing person to call
your attention to the fact that you talk too fast; that you do not
breathe properly; or that you use too much tension in your
talking.
€L In fact, it really looks to the person who has never been
afflicted with the habit as though the stammerer was to blame
for his difficulty of expression. This is the one and main reason
why some stammerers receive so little sympathy, and if they
have no financial resources of their own it is very difficult for
them to convince their parents that it is necessary to attend
and receive the training and advantages of an institution for this
purpose.
€[ The steam engine with 120 pounds of steam will run the
separator smoothly and thresh all the grain from the straw.
If the steam is low, poor work results. A positive mind acts the
same, in the execution of thoughts into sentences.
C Our Advanced Natural Method of Cure trains the mind to
be positive and confident. We teach our students to think
positive thoughts, read positive books and to associate in posi-
tive environments.
HIS CURE IS PERMANENT
Canton, So. Dak., May 6th, 1919.
Dear Mr. Millard: — I am completely, cured. You may use the following
testimonial in your next catalog. In my opinion, the North- Western School
for Stammerers is the best in the world. I was an awful stammerer up to a year
ago when I attended your school and received a perfect cure. I cannot re-
member a single pupil there who did not get cured. My cure is permanent.
I have taken part in several home- talent plays, and have done almost every-
thing to try out my cure. At present I am a salesman for Wear Ever Alumi-
num Co. Wishing you continued success, I am,
Sincerely yours, ERNEST LAWRENCE.
(Mr. Lawrence's father is principal of Public Schools of Canton.)
28 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER II
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STAMMERING
AND STUTTERING
C It often happens that persons not familiar with speech defects
class stammering and stuttering as one and the same. To a
specialist of these disorders, however, there is a marked dif-
ference.
CL The first stage in which the impediment manifests itself is
oftentimes termed stuttering, the case assuming the mental
phase of stammering as the years advance.
{[ In an endeavor to obliterate the confusion and to better dis-
tinguish the nature of these two defects, I will make as clear a
distinction as possible.
C Stammering is a defect exhibited in the organs of articulation »
while stuttering is a fault chiefly with the organs of respiration.
The rapid repetition of words in stuttering is caused by too loose
a tension, while in stammering it is the opposite. Stuttering is
manifested in the auxiliary organs of speech, vocalization, sing-
ing or declaiming being done with ease. On the contrary,
stammering is a difficulty manifested alike in talking, declaiming
and often in singing. This rule for stammering holds good, except
in complicated cases of stammering and stuttering combined.
In such cases the abnormality would show the characteristics
of both.
C. Thus, much might be said to disentangle these two disorders
that have in the past been treated as one, but, briefly, the two
are differentiated as follows: Stammering is an inability of the
will under various conditions to co-ordinate or control the or-
gans of speech, and is often accompanied by grievous contor-
tions of the face. Stuttering is a clonic spasm due to the in-
ability to form certain sounds, the fault arising mainly through
the organs of respiration and vocalization, the effect being the
alternate action of breath and voice heard in the rapid repetition
of a syllable or word before the following one can be uttered.
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL
W. H. Cheever — Political Science, Economics, Sociology
State Institute Conductor
To Whom It May Concern: — I have known personally several of Prof.
Millard's pupils and am pleased to state that their improvement has been very
marked. They themselves are very enthusiastic in their statements as to
what the institution has done for them.
W. H. CHEEVER, Milwaukee, Wis.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 29
CHAPTER III
INTERMITTENT STAMMERING
€1 Undoubtedly there have been times in the lives of all stam-
merers when their impediment would alternate in direct ratio to
their physical condition. This is termed intermittent stammering.
C^ It often happens, when the environments are pleasing and the
health in perfect condition, that they will barely exhibit their
defect for days.
<t Absurd, however, as it may appear to some, perhaps the fol-
lowing fortnight, suffering from some indisposition, a cold, for
instance, or some form of mental emotion peculiar to their dis-
order, they will stammer incessantly.
CHAPTER IV
STAMMERING NOT HEREDITARILY TRANSMITTED
$£ While the habit of stammering is not hereditary, a pre-
disposition to this malady is handed down from parent to off-
spring and may have passed through several generations. The
children of the same family do not all inherit this disposition
in the same degree, and some probably not at all.
€[ Usually one or two children will exhibit a tendency to stutter,
and if not carefully looked after and corrected in the right way,
will soon form the habit, which will become more firmly rooted
as the child advances in years.
f[ The predisposition to this defect is no doubt weakened and
eventually eradicated by the intermarriage of the negative and
timid natures to the strong and positive ones, and vice versa.
H It may be also well to add that impediments of speech are
found in families where their histories give no previous defect of
this kind.
Commendation of Prominent School Supervisor
Milwaukee, Wis.
It affords me great pleasure to state, from personal observation, that Mr.
Millard has been very successful in treating cases of stuttering.
MARGARET CANTY, Supervisor Public Schools.
30 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER V
STAMMERING NOT CAUSED BY NERVOUSNESS
€L Many writers have on various occasions tried to class stam-
mering as a nervous disease and trace the primary cause of the
defect to a disordered nervous system. While there are cases in
which the stammerer shows signs of nervousness under certain
conditions, he is not necessarily a person of weak nerves. Fur-
thermore, nervousness, being manifested only in connection with
his speech, is in reality a direct result rather than the cause of his
abnormality, and after the stammering is removed there will
remain no trace of his nervousness.
C The increased amount of effort and constant strain that stam-
merers are put to in expressing themselves always have a de-
pressing and exhausting effect upon the nervous system. This
unnatural amount of effort to perform a natural function of the
organs concerned in speech production causes unnecessary waste
and wear of the nervous system.
C Long continued worry and mental depression from any cause
is debilitating and hinders healthy nutrition and the proper
function of the organs of the body. Some persons can stand the
mental strain of stammering for a longer period than others
without any perceptible change in health, while in others there
is lowered vitality, emaciated form and drawn features.
C Our Advanced Natural Method makes the pupil feel at ease
and complete relaxation of nerve-tension is brought about
within a short time. The body gains in weight, under our treat-
treatment, and a calm, relaxed facial expression is noticeable
within a few days after the student enrolls.
DOING A SPLENDID WORK
CITY OF MILWAUKEE
Office of the Mayor
To Who It May Concern: —
It gives me great pleasure to indorse the North-Western School for Stam-
merers, of this city, located at 2316 Grand Ave., the institution is doing a
splendid work, and a great many students from this and other states are
attracted here each season to avail of the speech training it offers.
I am personally acquainted with Mr. Millard, the president of this in-
stitution and am also acquainted with some of his former students. From
the personal statements of the students that I have met, I know he is doing
a grand work and I can heartily recommend this institution to those who wish
to come for a course of speech training. DANIEL W. HOAN, Mayor.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 31
CHAPTER VI
SOME CHILDREN PREDISPOSED TO STAMMER
C Much might be said upon this subject. However, as space
does not permit, attention is drawn to a few cautions and to cite
instances where impetuous or scolding parents and teachers have
had a tendency to aggravate the evil instead of correcting it.
d The impediment may have its cause or origin in many dif-
ferent ways. It is oftentimes brought about through fright,
imitation, or protracted illness, and may be caused by diptheria,
typhoid and scarlet fevers, etc. ; but, in whatever way the cause
may start, it is best when helping the child over the difficulty,
to tell it what to do instead of what not to do. The latter would
bring a self-consciousness before the child's mind of its defect and
keep the organs of speech tensioned to an abnormally high degree,
which would be the worst possible condition for the child.
STAMMERING CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE PUNISHED
CI Moreover, parents, governesses or teachers should never
punish, scold or otherwise produce in the child a nervous dread
to talk.
CHAPTER VII
STAMMERING AND STUTTERING SELDOM OUTGROWN
C. One of the greatest mistakes that parents of stammering
children can make, is to give credence to the harmful and oft-
repeated advice of friends and relatives, "Your child may pos-
sibly outgrow the impediment," and some have even offered the
ridiculous suggestion that it can be overcome by keeping pebbles
in the mouth. The most that the pebbles could do would be to
keep the teeth apart.
C A careful gleaning of our record of statistics and from noted
government authorities, it has been found that less than one
percent of children who stutter or stammer ever outgrow the
impediment after reaching the age of eight.
An acre of performance is better than a land of promise.
32 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER VIII
MANY FAMOUS PERSONS HAVE STAMMERED
C Some mothers have entertained the idea that a mental de-
ficiency existed which caused the child its trouble to articulate
properly. This impression however, is entirely wrong and is
proved by the fact that some of the brightest minds the world
has ever known were afflicted with stammering, a few of them I
will mention.
Q The Bible speaks of Moses being troubled with an impediment
— history mentions Louis II and Louis XIII of France; King
Eric of Sweden; Mahomet-el-Rasser, king of Spain; Demos-
thenes, the famous Greek orator; Canon Kingsley, Charles Lamb,
Martin F. Tupper, the English poet; Curran, the Irish orator;
Plutarch, Aesop, Virgil, and Bossy d'Anglas, the famous artist.
Dr. Senn, and other famous physicians and public men of our
own country, such as the late Col. Theodore Roosevelt, who is
said to have stammered quite severely, and Hon. Wm. A.
Graham, U. S. Senator and Governor of North Carolina, was
afflicted with stammering, and numerous others could be men-
tioned. From the few names above, however, it can be plainly
seen that there is no truth whatever in the idea that stammering
or stuttering is the result of defective mentality.
CURED AND CURED PERFECTLY
Mr. Lee Wells Millard,
Milwaukee, Wis.
Mr. Millard: — I have been contemplating on writing to you for some time,
but wanted to wait and see how well I remained cured. I must say I am talk-
talking fine. I don't believe I will ever have trouble again.
Before I went to your school people called me stuttering John, but now
they call me the "Silver tongue orator." I made a 30-minute speech on New
Year's Day and did not have a bit of trouble. I am cured, and cured per-
fectly. I paid my full tuition, but still feel that I owe you a great debt.
The tuition you ask is nothing for perfect speech. If I were a rich man I
would donate a hundred thousand dollars to your school so that many poor
stammerers that are not able to pay, could come and get cured. I worked
and saved my money to come with, and now I am enjoying the fruits of it.
No money could buy my cure. I can only give you kind words. I wish you
all the success in the world for your good institution.
Your grateful student,
JOHN H. KURTZ,
R. F. D. No. 1, Box 49, Chester Ga.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 33
CHAPTER IX
FEAR AND WORRY CONDUCIVE TO STAMMERING
Q The great negative note in the lives of most stammerers is
fear. It is the one great bugbear stammerers have before their
minds. Fear is the mother of all negative emotions, and the
stammerer is too apprehensive and he is too often crossing im-
aginary bridges before they really appear.
CL The fear of stammering in the mind of the average speech
sufferer is the greatest handicap to be overcome. The memory
and experience of former defeat keeps the mind in a negative
state, until the reality of victory has been recorded a sufficient
number of times, to eradicate the old memory of the habit.
C Fear is a weak, negative attitude which should never have
been assumed, and the effects can be enumerated in many ways.
It has destroyed the finely budding characters of men and women
everywhere. It demoralizes character, destroys ambition and
has curbed or prevented numberless achievements aspired to
by man.
C Worry, lack of confidence, bashfulness, irresolution, timidity,
depression and all the rest of the negative brood of feelings and
emotions are the progeny of fear. Worry is the oldest child of
fear; hence, if we drive out the mental vampire of fear we will
cease to give out to others the negative suggestions of incom-
petency, lack of self-reliance and the other impressions that hurt
one's chances in getting cured of stammering, or of a successful
career afterward.
€L Perhaps the most phenomenal part of fear is the fact that
when one fears a thing he really attracts it to him — just as if he
desired it. The principal reason is this: When you fear stam-
mering you create a mental picture of the word or sentence you
are afraid of, which if repeated, has- a tendency toward materiali-
zation. WTith mental pictures of words you are afraid of con-
stantly before the mind, you are sure to think of them — which
thoughts take action and being, and are directly conducive to
stammering.
C To counteract this law of attracting fear, let the thoughts be
of courage, and victory. Keep the mind centered upon that
which you wish to attain. Thus when the feeling of fear at-
34 Stammering — Its Origin and
tempts to enter the mind, administer the antidote of fearlessness
and courage.
C. Whenever the stammerer can forget fear he speaks with no
difficulty. But every indulgence in stammering intensifies fear,
and every suppression of it increases his power to overcome the
defect. Hence, continued refusal to indulge in the old habit,
stammering, and persistence in fluent talking, which occurs
when the fear is allayed, will be the consequent means to recovery .
C. The "fluent spells" which naturally occur will supply suf-
ficient courage to dissipate the fear of stammering. Therefore
in order to bring about early relief from the stammering con-
dition, extreme care must be taken to not stammer once, when it
can possibly be avoided.
€[ With a feeling of courage and determination and a full
knowledge of our Advanced Natural Method, stammering can
be very easily avoided on every occasion, until you have gained
sufficient confidence that fear no longer enters the mind.
C. When the illusion of fear is once stamped upon the mind it is
a check to all human endeavor until it is removed by the reality
of truth.
C To sum it up in a word, fear is all evil, not having one re-
deeming quality, and, going hand in hand with stammering as
it does, it is the one great mental juggernaut that must be over-
come.
C[ Fear feeds on a lack of confidence. To gain confidence you
must win small victories each hour. By following our Advanced
Natural Method you can easily win them with every sentence
you speak.
C My "psycho-mento" or mind-training exercises kill the fear
of stammering and leaves the mind positive and confident.
The will power, under my system is strengthened fully 100
per cent.
Fortune smiles on the determined man; I can't is un American.
PART IV
THE CURE OF STAMMERING BY THE ADVANCED
NATURAL METHOD
CHAPTER I
CONTINUITY OF VOICE INDISPENSABLE
Q One of the most essential features involved in a course of
correct treatment is to center the key of voice to the fore part
of the mouth and keep the voice a trifle in lead of the words.
C The column of air from the lungs is set in vibration by coming
into contact with the vocal chords and produces voice. By
passing through various chambers — the larynx, the pharynx,
nasal cavities and mouth — and being modified and articulated
at the same time, speech is produced.
C Voice being the material of speech, it is obvious that the
stammerer should direct his efforts in this direction. Notwith-
withstanding his repeated failures, he will invariably try to force
speech by moving his head, his tongue and jaws, and often his
limbs, in a vain attempt to produce the sound which he is un-
consciously preventing by closing the passage through which
voice can only come. By this misdirected effort and undue
tension, continuity of voice is an impossibility.
C There can be no clear, easy conversion without a continuous
flow of voice. This natural phenomena depends on the organs
and muscles of respiration, which must be completely under
control.
NOTED MINISTER GLAD TO RECOMMEND SCHOOL
GRAND AVENUE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
To Whon it May Concern: — I am very glad to recommend an institution
that is successful in remedying any serious defect of speech. Having con-
versed with some of its graduates, I am convinced that The North-Western
School for Stammerers is accomplishing the work for which it exists.
2103 Grand Ave. REV. C. H. BEALE, D. D., Pastor.
35
36 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER II
TALKING ON EXHAUSTED BREATH
C One of the first and most important things to be done in a
cure for stammering is to properly regulate the breathing.
Stammerers, as a rule, have too shallow a form of breathing
which is not only injurious to the general health, but manifests
itself in a depressed condition of the chest after vocal effort,
causing palpitation of the heart, pains in the lungs, and shows
other symptoms of serious pulmonary troubles.
C The mismanagement of the breath is due to the stammerer,
instead of trying to speak after an inspiration, he usually at-
tempts to converse immediately after expiration.
C Talking on exhausted breath is a very common occurence with
certain types of stammering. It usually happens in this way:
The person thus afflicted with the habit, having something of
importance to say, starts the sentence and comes to a word or
syllable that appears at the moment insurmountable. Through
the misdirected effort to utter the word, he over-articulates and
expels the remaining breath, and the whole diaphragm seems to
have collapsed and stuck together, as it were. Partly gaining
control and equilibrium, he tries to finish the remainder of the
sentence on exhausted breath.
d In controlling this part of the defect there are a few principles
it would be well to bear in mind. Remember, that nothing of
importance is done in a hurry, and, as he has before him a world
full of air, to keep his respiratory organs supplied. Furthermore,
he should keep a constant check over his emotional nature and
clearly concentrate and visualize upon what he is saying, with-
out undue mental intensity or nervous strain.
CL The importance of breath control is immediately taught our
students and the habit of talking on exhausted breath is quickly
broken and diaphragmatic breathing takes the place of the former
incorrect manner of forcing, straining and talking on exhausted
breath.
Happiness is found in the state of mind.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 37
CHAPTER III
FRESH AIR AND HEALTH HINTS
{[ Fresh air is God's most bountiful gift to mankind. It is
about the only thing in the world you don't have to pay for. The
only time you pay is when you don't get enough of it. If it
were charged for, the pupil might take a deeper breath when
talking, for then he would consider it important.
C "He lives longest who breathes the most air," is more common
sense than poetry. When out for your daily walk, inhale for
five regular steps and then exhale for the next five steps. This
is a health suggestion, as well as a practice that will develop the
diaphragm.
Q Never sleep in a room where you cannot open a window —
from the top. This practice will lengthen your life, and you will
awaken each morning with vim and vigor, ready and better able
to perform your daily tasks.
€[ Avoid smoking — and the use of tobacco in any form. It acts
directly upon the muscles and nerves at the root of the tongue and
vocal chords. It enervates the system and keeps the nerves on
edge, hence, being especially detrimental to persons overcoming
stammering.
$[ Quiet the nerves by deliberate thinking and back your desire
for speech, with courageous thoughts and the positive mental
attitude. Strong nerves denote a healthy body, which can only
come through positive, constructive thought.
C^ So great are the benefits derived from our course of speech
training, that together with the cure, the average pupil gains
from ten to fifteen pounds in weight and sometimes even more.
SCHOOL HAS EARNED AN ENVIABLE REPUTATION
TABERNACLE BAPTIST CHURCH
261 Nineteenth St., Milwaukee, Wis.
To Who It May Concern: —
The "Exclusive Features" advertised and elaborated on the back of the
North- Western School for Stammerers' letter head, I have reason to believe
are absolutely correct. I base my belief upon the fact that I have visited the
school on several occasions, have talked with the students and instructors,
have addressed the school twice, and have furnished a pupil afflicted with
stammering, who graduated in time, cured.
The school has earned an enviable reputation, far beyond the confines of
Milwaukee, and is deserving of the same because of permanent results achieved.
(REV.) WILLIAM T. DOR WARD,
38
Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER IV
BREATHING
d The average person knows too little of breathing and pupils
of this school, when first enrolling, might think the breathing
exercises are merely to "fill-in" with. As a matter of fact, they
are inseparably connected with the cure.
C No person can stammer and breathe correctly. They must
either force the breath out or hold it back, or use diaphragmatic
compression, block or obstruct the voice with the tongue or lips,
in order to stammer — and do a "good job" of it.
H The oxygen taken into the system through deep breathing,
will in itself, pay you a hundred fold in health, to say nothing
about the importance of deep breathing from a standpoint of
raw material for good talking.
H Nervous people, especially, need the life-giving oxygen that
the body gains by forming the habit of deep breathing. The
nervous system is a glutton for oxygen, and it is estimated that
the brain itself uses one-half of all the oxygen we breathe. It is
little wonder that brain-workers, in poorly ventilated offices, have
a look of weariness and feel as if they are in need of a vacation.
Pure air and deep breathing is what they need most.
Side View of Thorax
and Abdomen
Showing the external
oblique and serratus
magnus, important
muscles of respiration.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure
39
H Always keep the window of your office or sleeping room open
from the top, so as to allow the impure air to escape and the heavy
air, loaded with oxygen and ozone, an opportunity to descend to
the lower portion of the room and constantly crowd out the
lighter air, at the upper part of the room, which is impure.
(grays anatomy)
The Diaphragm, Under Surface
Showing Central Tendon and Muscular Fibers.
This wonderful muscular apparatus contracts and expands for each breath
you take, when you breathe diaphragmatically.
Two Brothers Cured Over Nine Years Ago
Dear Mr. Millard: — Have been thinking for a long time that we owe you
a letter, but, you know, we never hardly get time to do much writing after
our spring work starts, but today will drop you a few lines to let you know that
we are both talking fine and cured to stay cured. We will never forget your
good school and the fine time we had while there getting cured. Wishing
you the best of success, and hoping to hear from you again, we are,
Yours very truly,
HARRY PHILBRICK, WALTER PHILBRICK.
Box 159, Turtle Lake, No. Dak.
40
Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER V
MOUTH BREATHING
€L Mouth breathing has become second nature with many.
The habit is often formed in babyhood, thereby unfitting the
nasal muscles for carrying out their function, making mouth
breathing become a fixed habit.
<L It is a decidedly wrong form of breathing, however, and certain
irritation and dryness of the throat is the result. Especially is
this noticeable with singers or public speakers, who, when nervous
are inclined to draw sharp, short breaths through the mouth.
€[ Perfect breathing develops perfect poise.
d To overcome the habit of mouth breathing, it is only necessary
to concentrate the mind upon closing the lips firmly and taking
in deep breaths through the nasal cavities. This should be done
often, for several minutes at a time, until nasal breathing is an
established habit. The nasal passages become narrowed from
mouth breathing.
€[ Mouth breathing, when done in a foggy, dusty or zero atmos-
phere, is a very unhealthful practice.
Side View of Thorax and Abdomen
Showing external and internal intercostal muscles and the internal oblique
muscles. These muscles are materially concerned in respiration.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure
41
External
intercostal
Internal
intercoetala
Infra-costalC8
(human anatomy)
Front View of Intercostal Muscles
This illustration shows a front view of the complete external and internal
intercostal muscles used in respiration (breathing.)
Observe that the internal muscles work in almost opposite direction
to the external muscles. One set of muscles expands while the other con-
tracts. Thus nature's law for human beings has provided this manner of
using fresh air for supplying the lungs with life-giving oxygen and enabling
you to utilize the "by-product" (impure air) as raw material for speech.
Life without a purpose, is a languid, drifting thing.
42
Stammering — Its Origin and
Side Sectional View
of Thorax and
Abdomen
Showing Diaphragm
and Various Plexuses
of the Body.
PHARYNGEAL PLEXUS
LARYNGEAL PLEXUS
DEEP CAQD/ACPIEXl/f
sffpwiau mm 'plexi/s
T/tOMCIC PLEXl/S
DMPffMGM
SOLAI?Pl£Xt/S
AOfiT/CPLEXUS
-HYPOCASTfiJCPLEW
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure
43
CHAPTER VI
DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING
4[ Diaphragmatic breathing is without doubt the most im-
portant of all, because it is the center of control for correct speak-
ing. The diaphragm, to be kept in a healthful condition, must be
well exercised and forced down and out when breathing. It is the
terminus of the pneumo- gastric nerve. You have, no doubt,
often felt a cold lump form in the pit of the stomach from sudden
fear of stammering. This is due to the action of the sympa-
thetic nerves through the solar plexus, which is located just
below the diaphragm.
C^ The diagram shown opposite, is a fairly accurate picture and
shows the diaphragm when distended. This great breathing
muscle must be kept under perfect control in order that we may
breathe diaphragmatically, which action forces out the dia-
phragm and abdomen. This is the only correct form of breathing.
Q If you are a "chest-breather" change to the diaphragmatic as
quickly as possible. It is absolutely essential to perfect speech
control.
■LAPYNXorVOICE'BOX
TRACHEA ox
WINDPIPE
MUSCULAR-
FIBERS
T&$DOAT
MiJSCULAZ
FIBERS
Front External View of Lungs and Diaphragm
Showing Muscular Fibers and Central Tendon of Diaphragm.
44
Stammering — Its Origin and
. -. - ';■'■ /'<■.. • ',?.
Vallecula —
Cushion of epiglottis
True vocal cord
Bima glottidis
Sinus pyriformis
Arytenoid commissure
(human anatomy)
BASE OF TONGUE
— Median glosso-epiglottidean
fold
EPIGLOTTIS
Fossa innominata
Aryteno-epiglottidean fold
— CARTILAGE OF WRISBERG
CARTILAGE OF SANTORINI
Pharynx
The Larynx
Interior view showing vocal chords in the act of inspiration.
VOCAL
CNOPD
VOCAl
CHORD
GRAYS ANATOMY)
Interior of the Larynx {Top View), Partly Dissected.
Showing the Vocal Chords, and Glottis, or the Opening Between Them.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure
45
BASE Of TONGUE
Median gloss o-epiglottidean
fold
Fossa innominata
True vocal cord
Sinus pyriformis
PROCESSUS VOCALIS
Pharynx
EPIGLOTTIS
Cushion of epiglottis
Ventricle
Aryteno-epiglottiaean fold
— CARTiLACE OF WRISBERG
— CARTILAGE OF SANTORINI
— Arytenoid commissure
UMAN ANATOMY)
The Larynx
Interior view showing vocal chords in the act of vocalization, producing a
high-pitched tone.
Vocal Apparatus
(As reflected from a mirror held in the back of the mouth.)
The interior of the Larynx can be easily observed from this illustration.
The mechanism of the vocal chords in the act of vocalization or respiration
are plainly visible if you will but place a mirror far back in the mouth with the
latter well illuminated.
46 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER VII
ARTICULATION AND WHAT IT SIGNIFIES
C Articulation is the action of the tongue and other organs of
speech by which each separate element receives its peculiar
character.
€t The word is derived from "articulus," meaning a little joint;
thus articulation signifies the ' 'jointing of speech." This term
arises from the natural law of alteration in speech.
C The fundamental conditions that underlie perfect articulation
are an exact knowledge of the peculiar character of each sound
and the rules or principles according to which these sounds are
combined.
d Proper exercises will tend to reduce the sluggish or clumsy
action of the lips, and, likewise, the muscles that control the ex-
pression of the mouth and face will be benefited. The eyes have
been called the "windows from which the soul peeps forth."
The mouth should be called "the door from which the soul ac-
tually comes forth."
4[ Stammering is partially induced by misuse or lack of control
of the articulative organs. Diaphragmatic compression and
physical effort when talking will cause these organs to over-
articulate, and a spasm of a greater or lesser degree, which in
time, would terminate in deranged nerve -function. The out-
ward manifestation of this unnatural muscular strain would be
to protrude the tongue, or to entirely block the articulation at
times, and cause the blood to collect in the outward surface of
the face and neck, which is anything but a pleasing expression
for one who is talking.
C Students of the North- Western School are taught relaxation
and light-articulation as soon as they begin a course of speech
training here. Other exercises given bring about complete
flexibility of the lips, alleviating the thick and clumsy feeling
experienced by stammerers.
Why stay we on earth, except to grow stronger?
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 47
CHAPTER VIII
TALKING FROM A TOO CLOSE POSITION OF
THE TEETH
C That the teeth should never come in contact during speech is
a rule to be borne in mind and strictly adhered to. It is a fault
to be found chiefly among stammerers. There are a few words,
however, commencing with S, Z, Th and Sh in which the teeth
come into close proximity. In practicing these elements a
paper cutter or some similar article may be used to retain the
teeth at a distance.
H The writer is reminded of an article in a well known recipe
book given as a specific for stammering, as follows: "Read aloud
with the teeth tightly closed one hour a day until cured." This
remedy, like many others, is worse than useless, as it is directly
opposed to the laws that underlie and control the art of perfect
speech, and only tends to aggravate the difficulty instead of
correcting it.
C By keeping the teeth apart, the volume of tone can come forth
plainly and have a more carrying effect. Additional to this, it
allows a free action of the tongue for articulation.
C Dropping the jaw also aids in lowering the tone of voice which
is another feature of the work not to be overlooked. Tension
and physical effort have incorrectly exercised the muscles of the
vocal chords to such an extent that it becomes necessary to
form a counter habit of lowering the tone of voice, as soon as
possible after you enroll.
C Particular attention is devoted to this phase of the cure and
our pupils are taught just how far apart to keep the teeth, there
being a difference in each case, according to whether the natural
formation of the pupil's jaw is square, receding or pointed and
whether the edges of the teeth overlap or touch evenly. Nothing
is overlooked at our institution that will enhance the cure and
increase the confidence of the student by making speech come
more easily.
Discouragement makes the brave more resolute to win.
48 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER IX
THE TONGUE AN UNRULY MEMBER
€L The tongue has often been termed "an unruly member," but
this is only meant figuratively, as representing the faculty of
speech. The tongue itself is one of the most alert and obedient
organs in the body in normal speech.
H At the bidding of the v/ill it throws itself into many different
attitudes with an untraceable rapidity and a dexterity that
would excite our highest admiration, could we but witness them.
€L This protean member, by its independent action and various
configurations, produces no fewer than eight of the eleven actions
of articulation, and forms sixteen distinct elements of speech,
namely: Th(in), Th(en), S, Z, Sh, Zh, R, L, T, D, N, H(ue),
Y, K, G, Ng.
€L Perhaps nearly all stammerers have tried to assist their
tongues by putting pebbles into their mouths. Such expedients
were recommended because Demosthenes, the renowned in-
articulate, is said to have practiced this habit. Persons with de-
defective speech might as well practice with pebbles in their
pockets. The only possible benefit to be derived from such a
practice is that it may assist in keeping the teeth apart.
€1 The tongue often assumes the wrong attitude, especially
with stammerers. A few simple rules are as follows : The tongue
should avoid touching the lower teeth ; this can be accomplished
in a very few trials. The tongue should never protrude between
the teeth nor be pointed dov/nward to the bed of the jaw; in
fact, it should never deviate from the center of the mouth, and
when disengaged should fall back naturally within the mouth
out of sight.
Now in Business for Himself
Mr. L. W. Millard, Wyandotte, Mich., June 1st, 1911.
Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Mr. Millard:— I just recollected that I have not written to you for
quite a long time, but want to tell you that I am talking fine and enjoying
good health. I am in business for myself now, as you will notice by the new
street number. How is everything at the school? I won't forget the good
times I had very soon. This will be all for this time. With best regards and
wishes to the school.
CHARLES J. SCHWARTZ.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 49
CHAPTER X
HABIT
C The Duke of Wellington, when told that habit was second
nature, replied: "Habit is ten times nature." The Duke was
right, for army drilling and discipline fashioned his men com-
pletely over again.
C Man is a bundle of habits and, in fact, all creation seem to
move along the line of habit. In wild animals, the usual round
of daily behavior seems a necessity implanted at birth, or by
instinct, but with man, it seems, to a great extent, the habits
are brought about by reason or education. Nature itself is the
continuation of immutable habits. It has become the custom
for the average man to wind his watch at bedtime and the habit
once formed, is seldom, if ever, forgotten.
C^ The habit of stammering was formed through continuous
wrong action of the muscles engaged in speech production, driven
by a mind filled with emotion and undue haste. The habit of
using physical muscular effort to bring the words out more
quickly, was formed in early youth, and the habit continued for
years, or until a systematic counter-habit of corrective breathing
exercises, changed or established control, through the new habit.
CHAPTER XI
STAMMERING AND STUTTERING A SPASMODIC HABIT
€1 This is a habit which is localized in the brain; the harmonious
action of the nerve centers which control the organs of speech
and respiration is interfered with. The voluntary act which
must be carried out to give expression to thought, by the phonetic
co-ordination of the muscles of the larynx, tongue, soft palate,
lips and respiratory organs, is not performed, the muscular action
of the diaphragm being chiefly at fault. This muscle remains in
a spasmodic contraction, instead of relaxing and contracting
alternately, as it does in normal speech.
Doubts are traitors and make cowards of us all.
50 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER XII
PESSIMISM A HABIT
C A life of stammering is likely to change the tenor of a happy
disposition, to ill-tempered pessimism and make the individual
fault-finding and moody. Slow progress toward relief from stam-
mering can be expected in such cases, until a reverse attitude
is cultivated and developed.
4[ Simply forget all the gloomy memories of the past, by crowding
in pleasant thoughts of the future. Remember that a smile is
contagious and that joy associates only with joy.
C Discontent shortens life, and a morose disposition injures
the nervous system.
€L Pessimism is a devitalizing force. The pessimist not only por-
trays the character of his thoughts and feelings in his countenance
but every cell in his body is affected by his destructive attitude
of mind. Optimism has a contrary influence. Happiness of
the wholesome kind, materially lengthens life and is both a
physical and mental tonic. By looking on the bright side of
life, you assist the process of digestion and the entire organism
of the body functions more harmoniously. Although the day
may be cloudy, the sun can shine in the heart. Therefore culti-
vate a happy disposition and a pleasant smile.
CI, He who insists that he has worries and remains enwrapped
in thoughts of the gloomy past, is simply digging his own
grave. He is shutting out the sunlight of life.
d Through the cultivation of a happy spirit, people find them-
selves enjoying more and more the pleasures of life. Hence,
eradicate the "glooms." Add to the length and to the joy of
your days, by an optimism so compelling, that discouragement
cannot possibly find a place in your mental realm. Lectures
along lines that encourage optimism are given to our classes
frequently.
The struggle of today is for a vast future.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 51
CHAPTER XIII
A SCIENTIFIC METHOD CURES STAMMERING BY
REMOVING THE CAUSE
€[ Strange as it may seem to many, the fact still remains that
the stammerer creates the cause of his difficulty each time he
stammers, after the first or original cause has passed away, and
the habit of talking incorrectly has once been formed. There-
fore, by practicing to talk properly under a scientific, natural
method, the wrong way of talking is supplanted by the correct
mode of utterance, and stammering is removed because there is
no longer any cause to stammer. The organs of articulation
have been trained to take their correct positions; the natural
equilibrium and control have been established, which are so
indispensable in perfect speech, and the cause for hesitation
having all disappeared through scientific and systematic training.
Stammering then seems absurd, inconsistent, uncalled for, and
contrary to manifest truth.
CHAPTER XIV
DIFFERENT TYPES OF STAMMERING NO HANDICAP
{[ Stammering varies according to the disposition, but as our
Advanced Natural Method has the whole force of nature behind
it and removes the stammering in a natural manner, one case
yields as readily as another when the pupil does his or her part
and gives the method reasonable attention. Therefore, don't
hold back because of the thought, "Perhaps he has never treated
a case like mine."
C Determine that you can do what others have done, and come
and give yourself a "square deal" under our superior method of
speech training, and the results will take care of themselves.
You will be cured just as sure as two and two make four.
C We have our method of cure systematized to such a point of
perfection that guesswork has no place in this institution. In-
dustrious application spells a cure.
Make your failures stepping stones to success.
PART V
THE ADVANCED NATURAL METHOD DEFINED
CHAPTER I
FACTS ABOUT OUR METHODS
d Our method is NATURAL, EDUCATIONAL AND SCIEN-
TIFICALLY CORRECT. The psychic, (mind training) is a
feature of our method, generally overlooked at other schools.
Our Advanced Natural Method conforms with all the laws and
principles, both mentally and physically, of perfect speech.
When starting the course, you are taught to relax — to gain com-
plete composure — without the ten day silence period of other
stammering schools. Then I teach you to breathe properly; to
vocalize easily and articulate lightly — so as not to obstruct the
natural continuity of voice. I teach you how to concentrate the
mind — for concentration is the great secret of all success. Scien-
tific concentration energizes the mind. I teach you to visualize
on a picture of perfect speech so completely that it is easy to
follow it out. Your will power is strengthened 100 per cent and
your mental attitude is made positive. Confidence is restored
and the fear of stammering forever eradicated. It is like learn-
ing to talk by note, instead of by guess.
CHAPTER II
GREAT VIRTUE IN OUR NATURAL METHOD— HOW
A CURE IS BROUGHT ABOUT
H To the critical observer coming to our institution the first
thing that would impress him most would be the naturalness and
ease with which our pupils talk. After being introduced to those
assembled for treatment, and after having personal talks with
each one, it would be further noticed that the majority of the
pupils enrolled had previously attended and were failures of
several other stammering schools, and this fact, perhaps, more
than anything else, would be meritoriously in favor of our Ad-
vanced Natural Method of speech training, inasmuch as these
pupils were, under our method, already practically cured.
52
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 53
C When the hours for class exercises arrived numerous other
surprises await this already favorably impressed observer.
He would find that the method employed is the latest scientific
and up-to-date system of advanced speech training.
CL First comes the breathing exercises, which are in advance of
any other known for the cure of stammering.
CL Next in order would be a combination of vocal-physical ex-
ercises specially adapted to keep the body in good health, to
build up the dormant or semi-atrophied tissues, which state is
due to years of misuse, and to bring about a normal or natural
co-ordination of mind and muscle which is so necessary in perfect
talking.
4[ Then comes the chart work, in which the student is
drilled in the correct placing of the speech organs, perfect articu-
lation, the proper focusing of the voice for each vowel sound.
Other charts are then brought into use, with exercises for the
perfect blending or continuity of the voice throughout a sentence;
exercises to promote mental energy and motive power; and still
others to drill the pupil in the initial production of all the conso-
nant and sub -vocal sounds.
CLProbably one of the most interesting features of the exercises,
however, would be the platform practice, in which each student
has a chance to get up and see what advancement he or she has
made, and as the speech of the pupil is always natural under our
method, a true and accurate record can be kept from day to day.
H The class exercises are usually brought to a close by a scientific
lecture in which the true light is turned upon the subject at hand
and the student is made to see how really absured it is to stammer
by explaining and demonstrating why he did so in the past by
misuse of the speech organs and misdirected effort, and how it
will be an easy matter to speak correctly and fluently in the
future.
H By this time I am sure the critical observer will be thor-
oughly convinced and satisfied that the stammerer has found a
safe harbor and haven of refuge in which to unload his heavy
burden, and can leave our school in due time, rejoicing oyer the
perfect speech acquired and with the knowledge that he is upon
a level with people who have never stammered, and perhaps
superior to them in many other ways.
54
Stammering — Its Origin and
THE
CHAPTER III
ADVANCED NATURAL METHOD VERSUS HAND-SWING,
TIME-BEAT OR UNIT METHOD
//ELLO, TO/% //&*£ AGA/M / 5EE .'
wnr voc//?e tal/c/h& r/Me; j
JUST AS WELL AS ANYONE. \
1
JT HAVE NO O/FF/CULTY
what eve/?; t//at'S mat
THE NO/tTff-WESTEfiN SCHOOL
TEACHES, A NO A CORE _
MEANS NATURAL SPEECH.
H These are typical illustrations of the manner in which gradu-
ates talk who have been cured under our Advanced Natural
Method, as compared with those who have attended stammering
schools using the time-beat, hand-swing or unit method.
C Remember if you attend a school which employs the time-
beat, hand-swing or unit method, you are absolutely sure to
return home discouraged and with bitterness of heart, your
manner of speech attracting more unfavorable attention than
stammering.
C None of the several widely advertised stammering schools
that guarantee a cure, dare stipulate in the guarantee which
they offer, that they do not use the time-beat, hand-swing,
sing-song or unit method.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure
55
C Such a manner of speech is not only ridiculously humiliating,
but absolutely impossible in business life and extremely mortify-
ing in social life. The "cure" under such a method is worse
than stammering because the stammerer is likely to become dis-
couraged and lose faith in all stammering schools. Those who
lose heart easily are therefore likely to prolong attending The
North- Western School for Stammerers, a long established and
absolutely reliable institution, which cures by the Advanced
Natural Method.
€1 We cure scores of ex-pupils from the several time-beat, hand-
swing and unit method schools each season, who regret the fact
that they did not understand the vast difference in the methods
of cure, until they had paid an exhorbitant tuition at a "guarantee
to cure" school. Then, after attending classes and learning of the
unnatural method taught, they were of course, disappointed
but it was then too late to do anything other than try and follow
the unnatural method and make the best of it.
WELL, ALE*, YOU/?e //OAfE^ ^
4r z/isr 4/?e you?
Gtl/E ME VOUK M4ASO- }
H/WT'S r//E Af/tTTE/? ? (
rA-x-E- /f-r l-eet //-mo. >
GOT TO 6E4-T T/ME M/V-r// 1
THE P/GWT OME FOR
r-ME ME-X'T S'/X HUA/T//S.
56 Stammering — Us Origin and
CHAPTER IV
OUR'S A PROGRESSIVE METHOD
C Surprising as it may be to some that a method for the cure
of stammering can be so constituted that something new can be
constantly added without in any way changing from the first
principle upon which the method was built, yet this is never-
theless true with the Advanced Natural Method taught here.
While our method as it is, excels others to a very broad extent,
hardly a season passes without something further is added to its
efficiency. To keep abreast with the times, a school must do
this lest in future years it be counted with the "has beens."
We are glad to say that our Advanced Method of training is
such that we can add to it at any time, whereas, schools with
old-time methods, where the "swing" or time-beat of the hand
constitutes the main part of the treatment, it would be difficult
to alter them much.
CHAPTER V
AVERAGE LENGTH OF TIME NECESSARY TO EFFECT
A CURE
C On an average, students have remained with us for four weeks.
Some pupils enter who are very severe stammerers at the time,
but in the short space of three weeks' time are entirely
over their stammering. Others, again, who are but mod-
erate cases seemingly, will remain seven and even eight
weeks before they have gained perfect control over their
speech organs. Where the disposition is stubborn and un-
impressionable, the stammering is also obstinate and slow to
yield, and hence such cases require a little longer time and much
personal attention, which is always cheerfully given in all cases
when needed. One great advantage of our Advanced Natural
Method is that the pupil can tell just how far he has advanced
each day, and he may time his stay accordingly. No pupil
is ever urged to leave before he or she desires; we give our best
advice as to how long the pupil should stay, and after that it is
optional with the pupil himself. Many talk well after being
under our instruction for two or three weeks, but stay several
weeks longer in order to confirm and thoroughly establish the
cure.
5 7
58
JS c
■p o
II
o o
c* 6
3 £
u 2
o 5
1
*
59
60
61
i~
63
64
PART VI
A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF THE INSTRUCTION
AND TREATMENT
CHAPTER I
WHY YOU SHOULD ATTEND THE NORTH-WESTERN SCHOOL FOR
STAMMERERS IN PREFERENCE TO OTHERS— ESPECIALLY
IF YOU HAVE PREVIOUSLY FAILED IN YOUR EFFORTS
TO BE CURED ELSEWHERE
W
HEN the stammerer comes to this institution for the
scientific correction of his speech defect, he is more or
less constitutionally deranged because of his stammering.
t[ Certain muscles have been brought into use and developed,
while other sets of muscles have been misused and undeveloped,
and right here is the chief cause of stammering. These muscles
which are undeveloped in the stammerer are fully developed in,
and regularly used by, people who talk perfectly and never stammer.
4[ The breathing has become shallow and the voice tensioned
and strained. The diaphragm has become rigid and the inter-
costal muscles are knotted and drawn — in fact, the muscles of
the whole body have become accustomed to an abnormal strain
and are acting in direct sympathy with the muscles of the
diaphragm, chest, throat, tongue and face.
<L Facial contortions, the bulging out of the tongue in some cases,
or the contraction of the muscles of the throat and chest are not
uncommon in many cases of stammering and stuttering.
4[ In order to intercept and remedy this condition of muscular
contraction, a perfect system of relaxation and rest is necessary.
Hence, relaxation is the first step toward the cure.
Ambition, like a torrent, should never look back-
65
66 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER II
PERSONAL ATTENTION GIVEN EACH STUDENT
C In direct order, after muscular relaxation through bodily
repose has been accomplished, the value of deep breathing is made
known to the student through our scientific course of breathing
exercises.
C The next three necessary elements of speech are vocalization,
continuity of voice and articulation. The student is taught from
what position of the throat and at what pitch of tone the voice
should be started in order to bring about a full, round tone of
voice. The correct placing of the speech organs for light, easy
articulation so as not to interfere or obstruct the continuity of
voice while forming words, is a technical feature of the cure which
is soon thoroughly understood by the student.
d The personal attention given each student, aside from the
class drills and exercises, is in a great measure, reponsible for the
splendid results accomplished by this institution.
€[ The relaxation of the lower jaw and the correct position of the
tongue during articulation is another feature of our method
which is of vital importance in most cases. Thus, after the phy-
sical and technical features of the cure have been taught the
student and the difficulty of stammering from that standpoint
overcome, the psychological part of the cure next receives at-
tention.
€L Because of the fact that any stammerer can read or converse
with himself fluently when alone, it is quite evident that the
mental or emotional disturbance which takes place when in the
presence of others, must also be remedied before the cure is
complete.
d The mind is centered in the topmost portion of the body to
govern and control all below it. If it does not do so, psychological
training is necessary. This institution was the first to compre-
hend this phase of the cure and our students are taught that mind
is more powerful than matter, and once the mind is trained to
govern the organs of speech, it will do so involuntarily forever.
C. The proper mental poise and positive attitude of the mind are
dwelt upon until every student has become quite familiar with the
relation of mind to body and the function it has to perform in
perfect speech.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 67
CHAPTER III
WE DEVELOP YOUR NATURAL POWERS
d Thoroughness has become a science in this institution, and
the smallest detail receives due consideration. Aside from curing
stammering and bringing about a normal and natural condition
of speech before the student leaves our institution, it fits him or
her for leadership in many other walks of life.
d When the will power is developed to a high degree of per-
fection, it becomes an invaluable asset to its owner in any pro-
fession or business. Our method not only does this, but it de-
velops his power to think — to think face to face with other men.
It gives readiness of utterance, dignity of bearing and confidence
of poise, and makes the graduate of this institution a more active
participant in the affairs of life.
CL The most immediate and most important way of arousing men
to common ideals, common interests and to co-operation with
each other, is by the appeal of man to man, by the presentation
of truths through word of mouth. In every turn of life, fluent
speech is necessary and the stammerer who continues to go on,
indifferent to his impediment, spurning genuine offers of cure,
is more in need of pity than censure.
H He surely has not awakened to the fact that life holds out
golden opportunities to the man with perfect speech, who has
good habits and a moral knowledge of right and wrong to go
with it.
CHAPTER IV
UNQUESTIONED SUPREMACY
C For a number of years past actual experience has proved
beyond a doubt that the North -Western School for Stammerers
is the recognized leading school for the cure of stammering in
America. There is an old axiom, "A straight line is the shortest
distance between two points," and if you stammer and want to
reach the goal of perfect speech in the shortest length of time,
consequently at the least expense, there is but one sure pathway
open — attend this institution.
Let your slogan be, I came, I saw, I conquered.
68 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER V
TWELVE IMPORTANT REASONS FOR SELECTING THE NORTH-
WESTERN SCHOOL FOR STAMMERERS, AND WHY IT IS
THE BEST SCHOOL IN THE WORLD FOR THE
CURE OF STAMMERING
First — We teach the original Natural Method and a complete
cure can be perfected before you leave the school — with no ' 'meth-
od" to continue or follow out for months afterwards.
Second — Our institution is incorporated under the State
Laws and is thoroughly reliable — backed by nearly twenty
years of unprecedented success in curing stammering — and
school property valued at over $50,000.00.
Third — Our buildings were erected exclusively for our in-
stitutional purposes, thus affording every facility for speech
training, under our Advanced Natural Method.
Fourth — Our method is void of all sing-songing, time-
beating with the arm or hand, nodding the head, heel and toe
movement, monotone drawling, sniffling, and of substitutes
and subterfuges of all kinds.
Fifth — We have two separate school dormitories on the same
grounds with the main building, and the ladies' dormitory is
under the direct supervision of Mrs. Lee Wells Millard.
Sixth — To obviate any personal feelings and protect all re-
ligious beliefs, debates and arguments of a religious or socialistic
nature are barred from discussion in our institution. All stu-
dents are urged to attend their various churches regularly and
thus keep up the high moral influence this school has established.
Seventh — The president and owner of the school was a
severe stammerer himself for many years and now teaches the
Natural Scientific Method through which he wrought out his
own cure. All the instructors here have been cured under the
same method, and understand their business thoroughly.
Eighth — This institution, during the past few years, has
rapidly forged ahead of all competitors, and today, has the largest
annual attendance of any stammering school in the world.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 69
Ninth — This is the only school for stammerers where psy-
chological features are embodied in the course of training, thus
developing will power and mental energy, and making the mental
attitude positive and determined for success.
Tenth — Our institution is located in the most beautiful sec-
tion of Milwaukee and our main school building has a "fresh air
park" on all sides, embodying a health feature unsurpassed.
Eleventh — Personal attention is given every student en-
rolled, and a careful record of the results obtained of each in-
dividual pupil, enables us to give greater assistance to those most
in need of it.
Twelfth — Our pupils are taught the difference between
positiveness and negativeness of mind, and why mental energy
is more essential than physical effort in talking. How to be their
own mental engineer. How to concentrate the mind so as to
co-ordinate properly from speech center to speech organs.
From what position of the throat to phonate voice. How far
apart to keep the teeth when talking. What positions the
tongue should assume, both while talking and when not in use.
How to stop forcing the articulation. How to allow yourself
to talk instead of trying to talk. How to be self-confident in-
stead of self-conscious. How to keep a picture of perfect speech
before the mind; to make the mind rule the body properly; and
a thousand and one other things generally overlooked or not
taught at other schools.
SORRY HE DID NOT WRITE SOONER
Mr. Lee Wells Millard,
Milwaukee, Wis.
My Dear Sir: — It has been now nearly three months since my son Charles
came back from your school. We are all well pleased with the results he
obtained while at your school. When he reached home and ever since he
came back, he has had no trouble whatever.
I am sorry that I did not write you sooner, but the receipt of the letter
from the other stammering school, on the other side of this sheet, prompted
me to write you without further delay. I am,
Respectfully yours,
H. A. SMITH,
Waverly, Ohio.
70 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER VI
SOME EXCLUSIVE FEATURES OF THE NORTH-WESTERN SCHOOL
FOR STAMMERERS
C A natural, scientific and educational method of cure offered,
whereby the student is enabled to talk as fluently and freely as
those who never stammered, by the time he is ready to leave
here.
€1 The cure can be fully completed when you leave our school —
with nothing to add on and no "method" to continue afterwards.
C Individual attention is given each student every day aside
from the exercises.
C Personal inspection by the Instructor, or President, of the
results obtained each day, is given in order to make sure that
each and every pupil fully understands the method of cure.
C We develop the natural powers of the student and bring about
a positive attitude of the mind.
C Through its psychological features, our method gives readi-
ness of utterance, dignity of bearing and confidence of poise,
and makes the graduate of this institution a more active partici-
pant in the life that is before him or her.
C Speaking of our school, we say "home," because we look upon
our institution as far more than a school where stammerers
assemble to get cured of their various speech troubles.
C Our two large school buildings make possible home dormitories
for our lady and gentlemen students.
C Aside from the fact that our institution is located in the most
beautiful section of Milwaukee, our main school building has a
"fresh air park" on all sides, embodying a health feature un-
surpassed.
H To obviate any personal feelings and protect all religious
beliefs, debates and arguments of a religious or socialistic nature,
are barred from discussion in our institution.
C That no "swing," time-beat or external movement of any kind
is resorted to in our method to effect the cure, is a feature that
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 71
cannot afford to be overlooked, and places our institution in a
class all its own.
C The president and principal of this school was a severe stam-
merer himself for many years and now teaches the Natural,
Scientific Method through which he brought about his own cure.
All the instructors here have been cured under the same method,
and understand their business thoroughly.
d Our pupils are met at the depot by our school automobile,
or given free carriage ride tickets from the depot to the institu-
tion, thus alleviating any anxiety of parents and relieving the
student of any inconvenience in finding the school.
STAMMERING A THING OF THE PAST
Edmonton, Saskatchewan, Canada, July 24th, 1$19.
Dear Mr. Millard: —
Just a few lines to let you know how I am getting along since I left Milwau-
kee. I enlisted in the Canadian Army and passed all tests O. K., and I went
from Vancouver, B. C, to Vladivostok, Russia, and had some experience,
I did not care for anyone or anything, because I have free speech. My stam-
mering was my greatest draw-back and worry of my life. Since taking a
course at your school, it is entirely a thing of the past and I now feel free to
say what I please.
The army doctor, who examined me, was surprised at my well developed
chest and general health. I told him all these were the result of my attendance
at the North- Western School for Stammerers in Milwaukee, where I had re-
ceived perfect speech, and that the development of a perfect physique was
included with the course they gave. If I had tried for the army or navy
before attending the North- Western School, I would have had absolutely no
chance in passing examination, on account of my speech and poor health.
The doctor that I mentioned, was very much interested in your school,
because he has a little boy who stammers. He has your name and address
and has probably written to you before this. He said I was a good advertise-
ment for the school. My friends and relatives were all delighted with my
perfect speech, and I defy my speech organs to do otherwise than talk per-
fectly. Before I left your school, I knew I would make good. There is no
need of anyone falling down under your method, after they leave your school.
I have a whole lot more that I would like to tell you, about how I push into all
the hard places, or in other words, where it would seem difficult for some people
to talk and there is nothing to it, as it is as easy to talk in one place as in
another.
With kindest regards, I am, Very truly yours,
THOS. A. JAGOE.
72 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER VII
LARGEST AND MOST POPULAR SCHOOL
C A cured pupil is the best form of advertising. I have brought
the work of this institution prominently before people in different
sections of the country by the many cured students sent out each
year. In this manner our school has become widely known,
cured students recommending our school to others, until today
we have the largest attendance in the world, and more stammerers
are cured here each season than in all other schools combined.
This fact is verified by numerous ex-pupils of other schools who
enroll here, bringing lists of their classmates who failed, because
of unnatural or non-sensical and ineffective methods used.
CHAPTER VIII
LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP
([ Hardly a day passes without some of my students saying to
me: "If I had only attended your school before going to the
B Institute in Indianapolis where that embarrassing, un-
natural hand-swing method is taught, I would have saved a great
deal of time and money." Others say: "You know I attended
the L School of Detroit, but I didn't get much good out of
it because I did not have the nerve to keep up the method taught;
it was worse than stammering." A short time ago I received a
letter from a young man in North Carolina. He says: "A
young man in this town and myself were coming to your school
last winter, but Mr. H of Chicago induced us to try his in-
stitute, but neither of us received a cure and the 'word' method
proved to be a farce. We are both coming to your school soon.
I am sorry we were 'side-tracked' at that institute in Chicago
last year. We both found out later that yours is the best school. ' '
Enjoyed Stay While Being Cured
Mr. Lee Wells Millard, Horicon, Wis., Dec. 21st, 1910.
Milwaukee, Wis.
My Dear Sir: — I have been greatly benefited by going to the North- Western
School for Stammerers for the cure of my speech impediment, and think that
persons afflicted with stammering could go to no better institution. I en-
joyed my stay at the school very much and met a fine class of students while
in attendance there. I will certainly call upon you whenever I come to your
city. Thanking you for the interest taken in me while there, and wishing you
much future success, I am, Yours very sincerely,
DELMAR L. DIETZ.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 73
CHAPTER IX
DON'T MAKE A MISTAKE
CL People will make mistakes, but the stammerer can ill afford to
make them. His money comes hard and it is often difficult to
hold a job while a stammerer. Every student at the North-
western School knows that our institution is the best after he
comes. Failures and ex-pupils of other schools will give him this
information immediately. We like to feel that our pupils are
delighted with everything in connection with our school. The
personal effort of the president of the institution to make every
enrolled pupil a success, has its reward. This school has not
grown to be the largest and most successful in the world by chance
or luck; by being constantly "on the job" and taking a personal
interest in each case has been the touch-stone to success. We
have ever felt that our future lies in our cured students and bend
every effort in that direction.
CHAPTER X
ENROLL NOW
€L This is advice worthy of your attention. Act upon it and you
open the door to innumerable opportunities that are closed to the
stammerer. You have been putting it off for a long time, but
what has it profited you? It has only added to your chagrin,
multiplied your embarrassment and kept the door closed to your
possibilities. Enroll now — and your success is assured; wait —
and you are a self-made failure.
Recommendation from a Noted Educator
OFFICE OF CONCORDIA COLLEGE
M. J. F. Albrecht, President
Milwaukee, Wis.
To Whom It May Concern: — Having had the pleasure of meeting Mr. L.
W. Millard, president of the North- Western School for Stammerers, Inc., and
seeing the results accomplished by his method of curing stammerers who were
personally known to me, I do not hesitate to recommend his school to anyone
hampered in fluency of speech by the ugly, embarrassing encumbrance of
stammering.
In a very short time the impediment is overcome under the guidance of
Mr. Millard. I was furthermore impressed with the good order and conscien-
tious control of this school, a circumstance which allays the uneasiness of par-
ents sending a child to a large city. I wish Mr. Millard and his school great
success. Very truly,
M. J. ALBRECHT.
PART VII
THE STAMMERER'S FUTURE SUCCESS
OR FAILURE
CHAPTER I
THE WORLD MAKES WAY FOR A DETERMINED MAN
41 The world is not slow to acknowledge superiority and efficiency
in any line of effort. If you are sincere and honest, if you are
scientific and a champion of your class, your deeds and good works
will proclaim you. A true note of genuineness will ring clear
throughout the universe no matter where struck. Ambition,
whose motto is: "Honesty — and a square deal to all," and whose
aim is for the betterment of humanity, cannot recognize an inter-
mediate goal. The man who stops to congratulate himself
upon third base seldom makes a home run. Our Advanced
Natural Method cures stammering better, quicker and more
completely than any other method or treatment known to the
world. Its founder is backed by originality, independence and
an indomitable will — a fitness to understand and successfully
grapple with the problems to which he sets himself. Curing
himself of stammering by the method with which he cures others
and thus assuring himself absolutely of being upon the right
track, he has never allowed a discordant feeling of fear or failure
to enter his mind.
C Place yourself under our guidance for natural fluency of speech.
The best is none too good for you. Run no chances of failure
elsewhere. We cure you to talk as naturally and perfectly as
any member of your family before you graduate from here.
€[ Don't allow another day to pass without writing to me,
mentioning the date you expect to enroll.
// you want a thing — want it real hard — and you will get it.
74
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 75
CHAPTER II
DESIRE
C Desire is one of life's greatest forces. Great personalities
always have strong desires. Nero's passions were to destroy;
John Wesley's desires were to construct.
C Perhaps you cannot prevent destructive desires, but you can
refuse to obey the impulse that would make others unhappy.
When good desires arise, encourage them and they will become
masterful and lead to success.
€L Abraham Lincoln had a great desire for learning when a boy.
The encouragement, application and realization of the fruits of
that desire made him President.
C The pupil must keep the desire for perfect speech ahead of
all other things. Let everything else be subservient to that wish
and desire.
€L Desire, backed by control, is the force that accomplishes all
things worth while. Lack of desire, because of fear, causes
hesitation and stammering.
C Desire is the father of action, and action is the result of desire,
controlled by conscience. Therefore, remember there must be
full fledged desire for speech, before the impulse, from speech
center to speech organs, ripens into action and realization.
Hence, your two best friends to a cure, are desire and conscience.
Since you cannot escape them, you had better make them your
friends.
C Your desire for perfect speech should be sufficiently great to
burn a path to that goal.
BE AN OPTIMIST
C Fear and failure go hand in hand and the doubters, like dead
fish, go down stream. Optimism and confidence are keys that
unlock the door to success. Faith in himself and in others is
what the stammerer lacks most. He is apt to be a doubter
mostly because he doubts himself. He must feel that he can
make good and then he will believe that others can. "Success
comes in cans, failure in can'ts."
76 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER III
WILL POWER
C Of God's created beings, man is the only one possessed of the
ability of constructive thought. After an idea is thought out,
the desire is then toward its realization. Right here is where
will power plays an important part in the connecting links of the
successful termination of the idea.
€[ With the stammerer, perfect speech is the goal of victory
that he or she desires to reach. The broken link of will power
must be welded together firmly by proper exercise and con-
structive thought.
IDEA ©DESIRE
C Visualizing and concentrating the mind on a picture of that
which you wish to gain, is also necessary.
ft Each little victory that you gain, strengthens the will power.
As illustrated above, the link of will power should join mental
desire with speech or physical action, but the co-ordination
which controls the process of articulate speech is disrupted.
Hence, the lack of harmony, thereby occasioned, results in
stammering.
d The mental energy of the will, therefore, must be developed
to such a positive state of perfection, that it will not fail to
generate to action the required stimulus of mind and body
necessary to the proper co-ordination and harmony of the func-
tioning concerned in the easy production of fluent speech.
H Our institution develops the student's will power and a posi-
tive mental attitude is brought about within a very short time
after the pupil enrolls. No stammering school in America can
give such complete and permanent cures in so short a time as
this institution.
Don't develop a wish-bone where a back-bone ought to be.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 77
CHAPTER IV
PERSONALITY
€[ Personality attracts success and wins when everything else
fails. How often have you heard the remark : "She is not good
looking, but her personality makes you forget that." No other
human quality has so influenced the careers of great men and
women as personality.
C. Stammering is the greatest destroyer of personality. It
stifles this magnetic quality early in life and leaves the speech
sufferer with a haunted expression, entirely void of this redeem-
ing attribute.
C[ Under our natural method of speech training, you can develop
personality. Think to yourself, "How would I talk if I had never
stammered," and then try to be your real self — the person you
must be in order to feel and act natural. The highest paid
actors are those who retain their naturalness and personality
before others.
C The presence of other people will often throw the pupil off
his guard and upset his poise and equilibrium to the extent that
he will resort to physical effort and undue force to bring his
words out. Personality vanishes and his face becomes hard and
strained and his eyes stare negatively. He is fighting within
himself the old fight of desperation, using physical effort and bull-
dog reason, instead of stopping instantly and taking in a good,
deep breath from the diaphragm, vocalizing easily, articulating
lightly — keeping the voice flowing — and concentrating positively
and earnestly on whatever he wishes to say.
C[ Don't feel inferior to others. You very likely possess good
qualities they lack. Don't hold yourself cheaply in your own
estimation. Be true to yourself and you will develop personality,
the great recipe for success.
C Our students begin to develop personality at once, because it
is part of the training here and by the time the course is finished,
the pupil is entirely free from self- consciousness and confidence
and personality are two of the outstanding features of the cure.
Don't dodge difficulties, meet them, greet them, beat them.
78 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER V
PERSONAL SUCCESS
d The good things of life do not come without effort. We are
only able to appreciate them when they represent a reward for
hard work. If success were not hard to attain, it would not be
worthy of its name. When weeks of striving enable you to
taste the fruits of victory, the experience is keenly appreciated
and the personal success thus attained, is an acquisition worth
while.
CL To attain perfect speech, you must fight for it. A certain
amount of the fighting spirit is always necessary to attain suc-
cess. But in the case of the stammerer, where the almost
lifetime habit has become deep-seated and confirmed, it often
means a real mental battle with one's self for days, until the old
habit of hesitating, forcing the words, using tension and physical
effort and diaphragmatic compression has been broken and ease
and fluency of speech has become second nature and automatic.
C Remember your instructor cannot breathe, relax or vocalize
for you. Neither can he articulate lightly for your benefit.
You must do all these things, and more. You must concen-
trate and visualize and develop a positive mental attitude, if
you would gain freedom of speech.
C. You must be keenly awake to the necessary qualifications for
a cure. Then when you understand what to do, fight the habit
and thought of stammering with the utmost determination and
courage. When you once start, never allow yourself to feel a
cowardly impulse, or to entertain a thought of failure. At the
end of each day don't let it be said: "Honors are about even,"
but pile up a margin of gains over your opponent, stammering,
until it can be said: "He wins the day by a wide margin,"
until you finally administer the "knock-out."
C Many of our graduates invarably write us that our institution
was the starting point of their success.
DonH make excuses, make good.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 79
CHAPTER VI
POISE
H Fortune smiles on those who are possessed of poise. Poise is
a certain feeling of confidence arising from within, born of cour-
age, fearlessness and truth. It develops from the belief in one's
ability to cope and make good with conditions as they arise.
d Any emotional disturbance, due to thoughts of uncertainty,
will upset the natural equilibrium or poise of mind. The logical
thing to do then is to practice calmness and mental ease. Never
feel hurried, and avoid excitement and argument as much as
possible.
4[ The "great within" which is ruled by our conscience, is the
guide-post that tells us of right or wrong, and whether we are
doing our full duty, or neglecting it. Neglect duty and con-
science holds you to account for it, but duty done is the soul's
fireside. Always do your best and be true to yourself and you
will- gain in mental poise and confidence.
C The brilliant, silver-tongued orator, faces his audience with
complete confidence and perfect poise, because he feels within
himself a power and a knowledge that courage and self-assurance
gives him. In direct contrast, the stammerer is full of fear and
doubt, lest he stumble in speech, which disturbing thought de-
stroys poise — and speech difficulty is the natural result.
d Anything that upsets the natural poise of mind and body,
sufficient to cause embarrassment, perplexity or distress, in-
hibits the action of the diaphragm, through the sympathetic
nerve, and reacts directly upon breath control.
d Continuously develop the positive, or success quality attitude
of mind, if you would gain in poise and power. Positiveness en-
hances self-assurance, a great factor in a cure for stammering,
and a controlled, well-balanced mind.
d, Naturalness is poise. Picture to yourself how you would talk
and act, if you had never stammered. Then act natural and
try to be your real self — just as though you had never lost per-
sonality and natural poise through stammering.
C. Nothing is overlooked at this institution in the development
of success qualities for the students and the very best within the
pupil is brought out by our course of speech training.
80 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER VII
POWER
C Everyone has some degree of power, otherwise he could not
exist; but to what degree is that power susceptible of develop-
ment?
C Those who succeed and gain in power, work either con-
sciously or unconsciously in harmony with natural law. Those
who fail to gain in power, violate natural laws of success and pay
the penalty in failure.
<t Successful men reflect natural laws of carefulness, thrift, tact
and organization, and increase in power as time goes on.
Specialists devote their lives to the study of human nature,
and the accurate classification of individuals from the viewpoint
of types and temperaments, mental and physical. Thus they
acquire a power of science and knowledge that few others possess.
€[ When a habit is once formed, the plasticity of nerve substance
is sufficient to hold it more or less firmly. Persistent power of
will is then necessary to reduce the action of habit to the point
where you can supplant it by something better.
C The man who stammers, lacks power. He knows it — and
feels it instinctively. Opportunity presents itself, but he stands
mute and hesitating, void of the power he must sooner or later
possess, if he would succeed in this twentieth century struggle
for existence.
H The possession of power enables you to accomplish whatever
you will. Lack of power, or the inability to put it into action,
means eventual extermination. Power is for life and advance-
ment. It always has been and always will be. Relaxation and
repose will give you power. Slow thinking and slow speaking
will enable you to use that power in the cure for stammering.
d David, slew Goliath, because he was possessed of the mental
quality of thought and scientific power, unknown to the giant.
The negative mental state, stammering, threatens you as the giant
did David, but if you employ courage, ambition, sincerity and
self-confidence as your weapons, you can grapple scientifically
and the eradication of stammering is inevitable.
€L Power being one of the great essentials that make up the cure,
it is developed to a high degree within our students before they
leave the school and they go forth into the world with a power
to cope with any situation.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 81
CHAPTER VIII
KNOW THYSELF
C Socrates gave that injunction a long time ago, which if
followed, would mean more personal success. People usually
analyze themselves in a critical sense, however, which instead of
building power, has a tendency to make them self-conscious.
C Psychology tells us that man is both objective and subjective.
That he is both concrete and abstract. The objective or con-
crete part of man is his physical body; the subjective or abstract
part is his mind. The body is a tangible thing. We can sensate
it by touch and otherwise subject it to the physical senses. The
mind is an intangible thing, but none the less real.
d To be analytical, you must know the physiological, as well as
the psychological. You must understand the laws governing
the latent power of the physical man and the psychic laws of
the mental man.
i[ Time is often spent to keep right physically, but too little
time is spent to increase the mental forces. The mind can be
divided into three different areas, that part of the mind with
which we know, the part with which we feel, and the part with
which we will. The kn°w area of mind controls thought,
imagination and memory. The feeling area of mind controls
justice, honesty, loyalty, earnestness, faith and enthusiasm.
The will area of mind controls decision and action. A cure for
stammering depends then upon how you feel physically, upon
what you know — or have learned here — and upon the action
of the will to execute or carry out desire.
€L Knowledge alone, is but stored power. It only becomes
dynamic when it is applied. The test of the student is not in
what he knows, but what he accomplishes. Remember that life
is governed by law — not luck. If you want heat you do not go
out searching for it, you build a fire and heat comes as a natural
consequence. If you want a cure — the enjoyable warmth of
perfect speech — you must build the fire of attention, desire and
action and normal, fluent speech will be yours, as a natural
consequence.
€[ The relationship of mind to body and its science of control is
taught our students from the beginning of the course, which
accounts for the rapid headway of our pupils toward perfect
speech and the development of a positive mental attitude
within a remarkably short space of time.
82 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER IX
IGNORANCE
C Stammering feeds on ignorance — the lack of knowledge or the
proper requisite or requirement necessary to counteract it. The
stammerer must know what to do — and then do it. Affirm the
knowledge or power gained — don't deny it.
C Work for an active knowledge of how to relax — and stay re-
laxed. Correct breathing, easy vocalization, light articulation
concentration and visualization must also be mastered, in order
to be free from stammering.
d Goethe, the German thinker, said: "Nothing is more terrible
than active ignorance." Active ignorance devours the future,
since it prevents accomplishment in the present.
€L A man weighing less than two hundred pounds can capture,
kill and bring to land a whale weighing many tons, because
the man knows more, thus proving that knowledge is power,
hulk and weight notwithstanding are considered of lesser im-
portance.
C Ignorance in a common sense, means disease, death and dark-
ness of mind; a condition that cannot be escaped except through
libraries, schools and other institutions of learning. To the
stammerer it means that he must suffer embarrassment, humili-
ation and the fear of failure at every turn, both socially and in a
business way, until redeemed by following the course of speech
training, as set forth by this school.
€[ Passive ignorance, appertaining to pupils enrolled at this school
might be explained as follows: The pupil's mind having reached
a susceptible state, it would be an easy matter for an ex-pupil of
another school here for treatment, to define our Advanced
Natural Method of cure incorrectly to the pupil, and thus get
him confused and started in the wrong direction.
C Full and complete knowledge of our Advanced Natural
Method should be obtained from the president of the school,
who is the originator of the method, or from the instructor in
charge of the class. Our instructors, who assist with the be-
ginners' class, must have a complete working knowledge of our
Advanced Natural Method, then ignorance will give way to
knowledge and the pupil will notice the progress of speech-
freedom more and more each successive day.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 83
CHAPTER X
FAITH AND LOYALTY
€L Faith is that mental quality which welds the present to the
future and enables the mind to picture and hold coming events
as realities. It is a firm conviction of the truth. Faith is a
belief in what another affirms to be true.
C History tells us Thomas Jefferson had an unquestioning and
an abiding faith in the people, which was accepted by but few
of his compatriots. Jefferson's faith made him a popular and
beloved president, and gave him an enviable position in the
political history of our country. Little is heard of his compatriots
who lacked faith.
C. The student's faith in the method is of psychological import-
ance to a rapid cure. If he lacks faith, he labors under a great
handicap, and will make little or no headway to a cure. He
must think what others have accomplished, he too, can do. What
is possible for one is equally possible for another, if he goes
about his duty with the same degree of faith as his predecessors.
C[ Faith conquers all things, both great and small. Asiatic
philosophy tells us "Faith removes mountains and crosses rivers."
Have faith in yourself and like Jefferson, have faith in others
and you will succeed.
€L Students of this school have faith in our Advanced Natural
Method the moment they come here and each day that faith is
made greater by the realization of victory.
€[ Loyalty is that quality which prompts a person to be true to
the thing he undertakes. It means a fixed purpose and stead-
fastness that cannot be swerved.
€L Success in anything hinges on loyalty to purpose. Be true
to this method and perfect speech will follow as a natural con-
sequence.
€L By being loyal to our Advanced Natural Method, you will
be loyal to yourself. The loyal man is never perplexed with
doubt; he does the thing at hand — and does it well. Don't think
of any other method, be loyal to this one and you cannot fail.
C Loyalty being the touch-stone to faith and success, our
students are rewarded for their zeal by receiving a cure at this
institution that enables them to go home, talking as though they
had never stammered, and no "method" or exercises to continue
afterwards.
84 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER XI
YOUR CONSCIENCE IS YOUR GUIDE
H The most marvelous thing in a human being is his conscience.
It is infinitely more important than anything else.
i[ A wild beast attacks another, kills it, eats it, and goes on un-
disturbed. From the beginning, it has not been so with man.
Cain killed Abel, his brother, and for him there was no more rest.
In his conscience, he felt the wrath of God following him as he
fled. Was it his conscience that said to him: "What hast thou
done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the
ground. And now thou art cursed from* the earth, which has
opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.
When thou tillest the soil, it shall not henceforth yield unto
thee her strength, a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be on
the earth?" As Cain fled, so flees the criminal of today. It is
his conscience that will help most in his capture, for the con-
science does not become criminal with the mind in which it
dwells. His conscience will so bother him, that should a de-
tective walk up quietly behind him and pronounce his real name,
he would quickly turn and reveal his identity.
C The power of conscience, from the beginning of human life
on this earth, has been the cornerstone of justice and progress.
Conscience is critic, rebuking our misdeeds. It is a supreme and
higher force that controls, rebukes and disciplines the mind,
however, and he who listens and is guided by the voice of con-
science will succeed.
d The pupil of this school feels and knows, when he has done his
full duty in following the method closely. When he retires for
the night, conscience will have its reckoning.
CL Following the method, when in private conversation, is where
strength of character shows up most. One may read aloud cor-
rectly for an hour, and a moment later, face a direct question
of an exciting nature and, sad to say, he will forget and often
resort to his old habit of forcing and compressing the diaphragm
and tensioning the throat muscles. Compunction of conscience
would naturally follow such a procedure, for not following the
method, if the pupil is open and impressionable to the instruc-
tions and has his heart and mind set on the cure. Conscience is
the judge and is the ever watchful eye that no man escapes.^ It
is a force that follows, watches, criticizes, condemns and praises
our every act and deed.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 85
CHAPTER XII
MENTAL ENGINEERING
€[ Be your own mental engineer and work for control and ease
of speech. If you should get off the (voice) track, don't force
and use muscular effort in your attempt to get back again.
H An intelligent engineer would not throw open the throttle,
if something were wrong with the track. He would slow down,
investigate the cause, and go easy until over the difficult place.
CL Work for a firm, easy voice production. A firm tone of voice,
with plenty of continuity between words, will sweep all before it.
A small stream of water trickling down the mountain side, meets
with many obstructions. Let it gather more force and it sweeps
all before it.
€[ The man who thinks right, eats right, breathes right,
and exercises right, will come close to being right, mentally
and physically.
€[ Plan your work, then work your plan, is a motto that no
student can afford to overlook. Everything of importance needs
engineering and you must let your intelligence pilot you to per-
fect speech.
$[ Check yourself up occasionally on what you are accomplishing
and analyze the way you are following the method. Compare
your gains with your former manner of utterance. It will be a
criterion to judge by, as to the length of time you must still
remain at the school, in order to gain perfect speech.
€L Build power and energize the mind by positive, constructive
thoughts. The negative mind lacks power and attracts weakness,
by keying itself in harmony to receive the negative thoughts
and vibrations of other minds, ^equally or more negative than
itself.
C Our students find it an easy matter to engineer a cure under
our Advanced Natural Method, because perfect speech is easily
restored when backed by the laws of natural science.
Opportunity never nibbles twice at the same hook-
86 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER XIII
MENTAL ATTITUDE
€[ No person wishing to be rid of stammering can afford to en-
tertain negative thoughts. Failure, discouragement, lack of
faith, unbelief and envy must be driven from the mind. The
assertive initiative of "I can and will," is a slogan you must adopt
if you are to succeed.
C Positiveness is always a beneficial nerve and mind tonic.
Fear and timidity act as a handicap or brake to desire and action.
4[ There is no normal action of the speech organism if you are
afraid you will stammer, because the co-ordination from speech
center to speech organ is held up by fear. In other words,
where there is fear there is no desire, and where there is no de-
sire, there is no motive action, directing the speech organs.
C Confidence begets confidence, and success attracts more
success. Therefore gain in confidence by winning small vic-
tories at first, then greater victories in speech, as you gain in
confidence. Say the easiest things first, neither forcing out the
breath, nor holding it back, keeping a picture of perfect speech
before the mind.
C Go with positive people, think positive thoughts, read posi-
tive books and magazines and you will grow like the things
you think about and associate with.
C^ Think along constructive lines, always with a view of forging
ahead, and don't allow your mind to dwell upon impossibilities
or failure. Otherwise you will be a foot-ball of fate, servile,
submissive and yielding, both to the stammering condition and
to other people.
C Mind training is embodied in our Advanced Natural Method
which develops a positive mental attitude; kills the fear of
stammering and complete confidence is fully restored.
Sow sorrow and you will reap it; sow joy and you will keeP #•
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 87
CHAPTER XIV
BE THANKFUL
4[ If you would succeed in life, cultivate a feeling of hopeful
thankfulness which in another sense, is an unconscious acknowl-
edgment of a higher power.
C If you find it hard to be thankful, read a little of history, and
thankfulness will come. Hundreds of millions of men before you
have lived, suffered and died, to make your existence more
bearable.
€L There are a thousand times more thinking, reading men and
women today, in America alone, than lived on earth half a cen-
tury ago. Knowledge is spreading at a rapid rate, and with it,
a love of justice and a sense of fairness, which means permanent
and indestructible development.
<[ Be thankful that today you can get cured under a NATURAL
METHOD, whereas in former years not so far distant, old
fogyisms and "tongue-butchers" were plentiful. Today, this
school has hundreds of living witnesses who bear testimony to its
successful treatment of stammering. The only remnant of
the "we guarantee to cure" stammering schools left are the two
or three schools still in existence which employ the sing-song,
time-beat, arm-swing or unit method, all of which are unnatural
and ridiculously embarrassing.
H Be thankful that our institution has provided a method which
enables you to graduate from this school talking perfectly and
as rapidly as you desire. That perfect speech, the coveted prize
of stammerers is no longer a lost possibility, since our institution
established its Advanced Natural Method.
C Be thankful that our school presents an advanced system of
speech training, different from the rest. That it is impossible
to stammer when following it. That culture of mind is em-
bodied in our treatment and that you are able, under our system,
to arrive at a degree of speed and perfection, when graduating
from our institution, hitherto unheard of under systems taught
elsewhere. With this knowledge as your guiding star, you can
look into the future with restful confidence, knowing that stam-
mering can no longer bar your path to success and happiness.
88 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER XV
THIS IS A DAY OF ACTION
CL "He waited too long" covers a multitude of failures. "The
tomorrow" habit has caused more losses, more poverty and suf-
fering, more snuffed ambitions, than any other word. Discard
it from your vocabulary. Only laggards use it. There are too
many people who dodge when fortune throws a prize package
their way. They are too indifferent to investigate. All the
failures of life have traveled in the same time-worn rut. The
man who has the will power to decide and act, is the successful
man. Plan your work, then work your plan, is the motto of the
mighty. Don't procrastinate; don't put off. The road of bye-
and-bye leads to the town of never. While doubt stands still,
confidence erects a sky-scraper. The average stammerer has
waited too long already; his education has been hampered and his
ambitions stifled and stopped. He has since begun to look for a
job, a profession or a business which calls for the least amount of
talking. His natural ambitions were high, and he will accept the
mediocre conditions with a sad heart and a bowed head, still
hoping for something better and feeling that he is not quite to
blame for his position in life. The sum total to be derived from
the foregoing is, not that he has waited too long, but that he has
waited long enough. The day has arrived for action. He must "go
over the top" and gain the victory while it is yet within his grasp.
4[ He must not accept knock downs for knock outs, but remember
that failure is only a resting place, on the road to try again.
Stammering has been his greatest enemy through life and must
be conquered. The spark of will power that is still smoldering
must be fanned into a fierce blaze, to work and win back the lost
laurels still lingering in his path. With perfect speech attained,
the rest will come easy. But he must act, NOW. He must set
his sails for the harbor of perfect speech and the battle is half
won. Getting started is the magic key to success. Taking the
initiative is the true test of real manhood. It is the oldest child
of good fortune.
C If you could fully realize that getting cured of stammering is of
the highest importance to you — that it must come first of all — it
would be a heaven-born inspiration, destined to bring you free-
dom of utterance and open every avenue heretofore closed to your
ambitions,* and surely success would then mark you as its own.
PART VIII
IMPORTANT LECTURES
CHAPTER I
THE PROPER MENTAL ATTITUDE WHEN TALKING
By Lee Wells Millard
A Lecture Delivered to the Students of the North-Western School for Stammerers.
A Similar Lecture is Delivered to Students Each Day.
IN my talk to you today I shall, for the benefit of those just
enrolled and others who may not be following the method
as closely as I would like, dwell upon some of the fundamental
principles that have to do with a cure.
t[ The first thing to be learned is relaxation of the entire body
and thus give to the nervous system rest and strength which it
has long been in need of. Therefore, I ask you to again make a
careful perusal of the rules handed you, especially those regarding
power through repose.
€[ Among the first essentials for laying a correct foundation for
perfect speech, breathing plays no minor part. Without proper
breath control and a full knowledge of the function of the res-
piratory and vocal organs in supplying breath and voice for ar-
ticulation, the stammerer is wholly in the dark as to the correct
procedure for a rapid and permanent cure. I say rapid cure be-
cause most of you have planned to stay only a month or six weeks,
and to counteract and exterminate a habit of almost lifelong
standing which has become mental in most instances and has
firmly imbedded a condition of fear in the mind, the proper
mental attitude must be assumed and acquired the first few days
you are in attendance.
€[ In acquiring a proper mental attitude you must first under-
stand the difference between positiveness and negativeness.
These two factors which rule the everyday mind can either bring
89
90 Stammering — Its Origin and
you health, wealth and happiness, and a complete recovery from
stammering, or can cause you to look upon the dark and gloomy
side of life and doubt yourself and others and cause you misery,
discontent and unhappiness and hamper your progress in the
matter of a cure. Therefore, you see the value of a complete
understanding as to the proper condition of the stammerer's
mind who wishes to overcome the habit of stammering. The
more mental the habit, the greater must be the will power to
correct it, and the more positive the attitude of mind in its de-
termination to win out. Each little victory makes it easier to
win the next. Confidence begets confidence, and success at-
tracts and brings more success. With the positive suggestions
you receive in these daily lectures, together with the chart ex-
ercises for developing will power, mental energy and motive
power, the negative side of stammering must appear to you as
something to be abhored and to be kept away from. You will
therefore see the value of positive auto-suggestions, for a quick
and permanent cure is largely determined by your mental
attitude.
CL While doubt stands still, confidence erects a sky-scraper.
A positive desire is your motive power in acting. That you are
afraid to begin a word and the mind is filled with fear because of
a particular consonant contained in the word, is the direct result
of a negative mental attitude toward the letter or combination
upon which you have previously experienced difficulty. Be-
cause of your fear you had no desire to say it if you could use a
synonym — a substitute word — and there was no normal speech
action until after you passed over the word and the desire had
become positive again. Therefore, keep the ashes of past fail-
ures, disappointments and discouragements well cleared away
so that you may have a good draught to keep the fire of desire
burning brightly. Don't develop a wishbone where a backbone
ought to be. Learn to desire the things you need; don't rest
content with a mere desire of wanting and wishing for them, but
keep you mind firmly and positively fixed, and if your desires are
legitimate they will respond and yield to your demand.
C The will power of a human being is that subtle, intangible,
and yet very real power that is inseparably connected with his
inmost desire to do and to have. You first have a desire to
act and then by a positive determination of the will you do so.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 91
The person of weak will is a negative, cringing weakling, who
magnifies his risks and multiplies his dangers. The strong willed
person is the positive, courageous, masterful individual who can
always be counted on to utilize his gifts when they count for
most; he whom Nature delights in and whom she rewards with
success. The direct action of the will depends upon belief.
Therefore, you see how absolutely necessary it is to believe in
yourself — and in the undertakings and success of others, if your
will is to receive the proper stimulus to spur it on to action.
The basis of all personal power is the predominating factors of
the will, and if you intend to accomplish what you came here for
in the shortest space of time, and win success in your under-
takings after leaving this institution, you must see the necessity
of developing a stronger and more powerful will.
<[ Stammering, in many cases, being superinduced by an inborn
negative disposition, the reason we have met with such pro-
nounced success in treating this disorder is chiefly through the
positive mental training given our students in connection with the
other essentials of the course. In order that you may fully
understand my meaning and do not get a misconception of my
words, let me here explain that will power does not mean stub-
bornness in any sense of the word. Some people who are very
stubborn are often spoken of as "strong- willed," whereas their
mulish attitude of mind is the progeny of prejudice and ignorance
and has nothing to to with the will. Character itself is the re-
sult of a perfectly educated will. Nothing can resist the will of
a man or woman who knows what is true and wills what is good.
It has been said that a perverse will is the beginning of suicide
to all the mental and physical factors of the body.
C Cultivate openness of mind and be receptive to all helpful
suggestions. Aside from will power, one of the greatest qualities
that the human brain can have is receptivity — that open,
impressionable character that makes the new idea welcome.
Overcome self-consciousness, for the moment you think of your
talking, instead of the subject you are talking about, your vision
of conception becomes narrowed and you lose the harmonious
vibrations of mind to mind, and you are unconsciously drawn
within your mental being, as a snail within its shell, and you would
become confused and your natural desire for speech would leave
92 Stammering — Its Origin and
you. Try and retain your individuality while in class and dur-
ing intermissions, and think of the old adage: "Geese flock to-
gether, but eagles fly alone." Cultivate originality of thought
and stand out by yourself, as it were, and not be controlled by the
thoughts and actions of others who may not present the correct
picture of perfect speech to your mind. Should one of your class-
mates not be talking as the method teaches and following the
rules properly, think to yourself: "I can do that better; I will
show him an example of correct talking when my opportunity
comes," and you will then be developing the mental qualities
which count for success. Try and be too big to be disturbed
by the little things and trifles of life. The caliber and broad-
mindedness of an individual are always estimated by his or her
control under the trying circumstances of life. Therefore, be
patient, persistent and determined to put the few simple rules
into actual practice every time you talk, for here you have the
opportunity and method to bring about a perfect, natural
manner of utterance. And let the strong, dominant desire to
dare and to do, possess your whole being and feel its potent in-
fluence surging through your very soul, and then don't stop
until you reach your goal. I thank you.
AN IMPORTANT LECTURE EVERY DAY
d One of the many advantages afforded the pupils of the North-
western School for Stammerers, is a scientific and comprehensive
lecture delivered before the class each day by the president of the
school. Unlike the arrangement of most schools of this kind, the
founder and president is in the class room every day, assisting
and supervising the work of curing those enrolled. The assist-
ant instructors are men who have previously stammered and
who have taken treatment under Mr. Millard, and understand
the work of curing others.
Daughter Was Cured in Three Weeks
Mr. L. W. Millard, Greensburg, Ind., July 1st, 1911.
My Dear Sir: — We have been home eight days and Laura has not had a
bit of trouble so far, and I don't think she ever will. She talks over the 'phone
all right and talks to strangers without any trouble. My wife and all our rel-
atives were surprised to see her talk so fine. They did not expect Laura to
come home so soon and talk so fine and never make a mistake.
Hope I can be of service to you and the school. I am glad my child is cured
and want to see everyone else cured. Yours very truly,
FRANK GRAY.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 93
CHAPTER II
THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF SPEECH
By Frank D. Millard, M. D.
C What is speech? It is the result of the combined forces of
breath, voice, articulation, each mutually dependent upon the
other. On analysis of this natural human phenomenon, we find
that these three physiological functions are so correlated that any
interference with their proper performance will result in inter-
rupted speech, and may be called first principles. Deep
breathing and easy vocalization are the foundation of voice and
speech.
C Everybody knows what breathing is, but the stammerer
must learn how to get enough air and how to control his breath.
The physiological act, involving muscular nerve force, must be
explained and understood. The action of certain muscles pro-
duces inspiration, and another set expiration; the combination
of these two is respiration or breathing. This vital function of
speech must be easily and rightly performed.
C Persons who have a stiff halting address are very faulty in this
respect. It requires a great deal of drill work and lectures to
teach them how to accomplish this art of correct respiration
necessary to easy, forceful and natural conversation. The next
step in order after breath is voice. Now, voice is not speech.
It is pure, full tones without articulation, and must immediately
follow the breath by which it is produced. Where does it come
from? It comes from the larynx, which is a small, cartilagineous,
boxlike structure found in the upper and front part of the throat.
The vocal chords are a part of it and stretch across this cavity
from front to back, forming a sort of floor with a cleft in the mid-
dle. This cleft or opening is called the "glottis" which means a
passageway or gate. As the breath is forced through this cleft
the edges become tense and vibrate, producing sound, or voice.
The tension required for high and low pitched tones is controlled
and regulated by the laryngeal muscles. Pure tones, like a, e,
i, o, u, ah, aw, etc., are what we mean when we speak of voice.
€[ Now, when these pure tones are modified by the lips, tongue,
teeth, palate, cheeks, pharynx and nasal cavities, assuming dif-
ferent positions, speech (articulation) is the result; a combination
of the three functions, breath, voice and articulation. The
94 Stammering — Its Origin and
cardinal points to bear in mind are full, well regulated breathing;
relaxation and opening of the glottis to let the breath pass through
to create voice, and easy, subtle articulation to form words.
Do not allow the tongue or lips to assume a firm, clinging posi-
tion; this prevents voice, and what is known as stammering
results. There is too much muscular tension. Relax, articu-
late lightly and easily. Allow your voice to blend smoothly with
steady flowing volume, always keeping the lungs well filled with
air. Take a deep, full breath whenever you feel yourself losing
power. Sit up or stand straight and bend the back in; throw the
chest out.
C The trouble with stammerers is that they do not understand
the fundamental principles of correct position and speech. They
are struggling with the first and third, viz: breath and articula-
tion; voice is blocked because the breath is not allowed to escape
through the glottis and set the vocal chords to vibrating, which is
the first principle of sound. Having taken the position of "k,"
"g>" "q>" or some other letter, an unsuccessful effort is made to
pronounce the word. The natural order is not followed; voice
is lacking, which should immediately follow such articulation.
Allow the epi-glottis to open a little, relax, and get your voice.
Learn to do this with the first outgoing breath, and do not lose
part of it in this attempt; otherwise you will find yourself in the
predicament of talking on exhausted breath. Trying to force
speech in this condition is a most common fault with the stam-
merer. In fact, his efforts are all too hard; that is the reason why
he defeats himself. The art of elocution is performed with ease,
pleasure and much satisfaction when the first principles are
mastered and followed, viz: breath, voice and articulation, the
co-ordination of these three producing natural speech.
AMERICAN SCHOOLS' ASSOCIATION
Chicago, 111.
Dear Mrs. Waterman:— June 18th, 1919.
We have carefully read your letter twice. There is one school in the West
that we would bank our reputation on as being able to cure your son. It is
a school to which all Chicago boys and girls of this kind are sent — though it is
not in Chicago. The school is "The North- Western School for Stammerers"
of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
We think there is a vacancy there for the coming term.
Yours truly,
AMERICAN SCHOOLS' ASSOCIATION.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 95
CHAPTER III
PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF WILL POWER AND
MENTAL ATTITUDE
By Edward C. Baroni, A.M., LL.B.
A Lecture Delivered by Attorney Edward C. Baroni to an Evening Class of Students
at the North-W ester n School.
{[ Ladies and gentlemen: — In order to clearly understand the
causes of stammering, we must first become acquainted with the
definition of stammering, so as to enable us to treat and remedy
this imperfection of speech.
€[ Stammering, briefly defined, is a want of co-ordination be-
tween the mental and physical factors of speech. This evening
we propose to dwell for a few moments on the mental part of
co-ordination. We will pass a few remarks regarding the mental
factor, the method to train the mind and the course to pursue in
order to attain mental co-ordination. To have co-ordination of
speech it must be borne in mind that first, last and always, we
must have a proper mental attitude, that is, a person must have
his mind trained in such a manner as to create a positive mental
attitude of his mind and a positive control of his idea, feeling
and beliefs.
€L You are constantly at work building up a mental attitude
which is not only making your character, but which is also having
its influence on the outside world, both in the direction of the
effect on yourself and upon others. It is most important, then,
that this building should be done with the best possible materials,
according to the best methods, and with the best instruction.
C Before going any further let us understand what is meant by
proper mental attitude. When we speak of mental attitude we
mean that the qualities necessary to form the same are faith,
confidence, energy, will power, perseverance, etc., which we must
develop in order to attain success, and when we refer to improper
mental attitude and want of co-ordination we speak of the lack
of faith, confidence, energy and other qualities which we must
have in order to obtain success.
96 Stammering — Its Origin and
€[ No doubt you all have these qualities, and it remains with
yourselves to develop them. By all means develop faith. I
do not mean credulity — that state of mind that will accept any-
thing that is told it simply because some one has said it, but faith
— that something which imbeds itself in the inmost parts of
our soul. Faith in ourselves is of primary importance, for unless
one has it he can never accomplish anything, can never influence
any other person's opinions on anything, and can never be able
to speak properly.
C Exercise the will power at all times; become positive and in-
vincible; determine to succeed; for, as Tennyson writes: "O, well
for him whose will is strong!" In speaking of the will, I do not
mean stubbornness. You will find plenty of people who are
stubborn as mules, and their friends will say that they are strong-
willed. This is a different attitude of mind, coming from preju-
dice and ignorance, and has nothing to do with the will. The
man with a strong will knows when to recede as well as when to
go forward. He never stands till; when the occasion warrants
it he steps back and considers, but only for the purpose of getting
a better start, for he always has a definite goal in view. In fact,
the mental attitude of "I can" and "I will" is the only proper
kind to have.
C Concentration must be cultivated and developed, for we can
never expect to win out in anything we undertake unless we firmly
concentrate our minds upon it. The first step in acquiring con-
centration begins in the control of attention. Master the atten-
tion and you have acquired the art of concentration.
d There is nothing like sticking to a thing. Many people are
brilliant and industrious, but they fail by reason of their lack of
persistence. One should acquire the tenacity of a bulldog and
refuse to be shaken off of a thing when he has fixed his attention
and desires upon it. Fix your minds upon your daily tasks and
duties in this school, and hold your attention firmly upon them
until you find yourself in the habit of resisting all distracting
influences. In following this natural course of instruction you
must specifically develop the qualities of faith in the instruction
and exercises given you. You must have a positive mental
attitude and a strong power of concentration and will power to
carry out the instructions as closely as you can. Having re-
viewed a few of these necessary qualities again this evening for
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 97
your benefit, I hope I have created an ambition in you that will
count for much in the execution of your daily tasks and duties
here. I have endeavored again to present a few of the essential
ideals before the mind's eye. I trust I have created within you
a mental hunger for a strong will power — not a mere wanting and
wishing for it, but a fierce, eager, consuming hunger which de-
mands satisfaction. There is no reason whatever why each of
you should not earnestly desire the strong elements of life; no
reason why you should not stimulate a hunger for attainment,
by painting mental pictures of what you need. Look around you
at the successful men of the world in any line of human effort and
endeavor and you will see that they all have ambition strongly
developed. They have the fierce craving of desire for things
and they will brook no interference with the satisfaction of that
desire. Bring for a moment before your minds the lives of
Caesar, Napoleon, Wellington, or our beloved Washington, and
their modern counterparts, the twentieth century captains of
industry, and you will see the glare of this fierce ambition burn-
ing brightly and hotly within them — some for glory, others am-
bitious to secure the rights of their fellow countrymen.
Ct The one great trouble with many of us is that we have been
taught to accept and take what was given him or her and be
content. But this is not Nature's way. She implants in each
living being a strong desire for that which is necessary for its
well-being. You should cultivate a strong will to gratify this
necessity. This natural law of development is here awaiting
those who will use it. If you prefer to leave it for other more
ambitiously disposed persons, very well; that is your own loss.
But the vital question is this : Can you afford to be without these
qualities if you expect to win in life's mad rush for success? The
wise, the sane, the strong men of today are reaching out for and
developing this mighty law and are accomplishing great things
by reason of its potency in the attainment of success.
CL Therefore, I want each and every one of you to not be afraid
to stand boldly out, crying: "I want this, and I am going to have
it! It is my rightful heritage and I demand it of the laws of
Nature which were made for my use," and I know you will not
only leave this institution with flying colors, talking naturally
and perfectly, but will win success in everything you undertake
after your departure. I thank you.
98 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER IV
THERE IS NO SUCH WORD AS FAILURE.
An Address Delivered to the N or th-W ester n School for Stammerers
By Harry W. Brown, Ph.D., A.M., LL.D.
C Students of the North- Western School for Stammerers: — It
surely gives me great pleasure to be able to come before you to-
night and to talk to you for a few minutes in an effort to bring out
and emphasize a few points with regard to your work here, which
may possibly have escaped your attention in your daily studies
and exercises here at the school.
C Whenever I have the pleasure of coming before one of these
classes of bright, progressive and energetic people, I feel as though
I were standing before people who are destined to really amount
to something in the world, for the reason that you are here in an
effort to make advancements in the world and because you care
enough for your personal progress to come to this institution
to seek a cure of an impediment in your speech in order that you
may be better fitted to meet the problems of today and to become
successful in life.
C Surely you are to be congratulated because you have the
strength of purpose to come here and work for this cure, and I
want to say to you now that if you will follow closely the scien-
tific methods which have been so carefully developed by Mr*
Millard, that ultimate success in this work is just as surely the
golden reward which you will claim for your efforts as it is sure
that one day will follow another.
C In attempting to accomplish a thing which requires work,
and study, and exercise, as this work does, one is very apt to
overlook some of the most essential details in the work and in
that way some of your most earnest efforts are very apt to be
largely wasted by a failure on your part to direct your efforts in
exactly the right direction.
€1 It is my purpose in this little informal talk to emphasize and
illustrate some of these points which are so often forgotten, and
to try and emphasize them in such a way that in your work and
your efforts here will produce the best possible results.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 99
C If we were to compare the different functions of human life
with respect to their importance to our everyday affairs, we would
be led to the conclusion that the functions and the workings of
the human mind are far and away the most important of them all,
and in this connection I wish to bring out the importance of some
understanding of the workings of the human mind and the in-
fluences which mental activities have upon human success. Psy-
chology is a scientific study of the human mind and its various
workings and activities, and the resultant effects of these mental
activities upon human conduct. A knowledge of psychology,
therefore, is very helpful in assisting you in your work here and
in bringing you to a position where you can accomplish the best
results in your studies at this institution.
C For the sake of this discussion, let us consider that the human
mind is divided into two separate organizations or departments,
one of which may be spoken of as the objective mind and the
other subjective. The objective mind may be considered as the
active mind, the mind that responds directly to the five senses,
of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling, while the sub-
jective mind may be considered as the seat of feeling, sentiment,
passion and emotion. It is that part of the human mind which
develops dreams and which is directly responsive to the peculiar
influences of hypnotism. It is the mind of perfect memory.
This subjective mind is capable of direct control by one's own
objective mind as well as by the objective mind of another, as in
the case of hypnotism.
C From this general explanation it may be somewhat clear to
you that a person may control the workings of his subjective
mind if he has been careful in developing sufficient mental
strength and sufficient will power in his objective mind to make it
powerful enough to keep in control. It is a psychological fact
that the objective mind cannot succeed in its work if the sub-
jective mind is controlled by arv idea of doubt, and it is this
principle which explains the fact that a person who doubts
absolutely the ability of a person to hypnotize cannot possibly
be subjected to the control of hypnotism. How important it is,
therefore, to understand the great influence which doubt, or
"adverse suggestion," as it is called in psychology, has in the
shaping of our lives, and how important it is for us to understand
that if we set out to accomplish a certain object that we must
100 Stammering — Its Origin and
first of all clear our minds of every shadow of doubt or dis-
couragement, in order to insure any degree of success.
€L Apply that principle to your work here, and during all of your
exercises and studies keep uppermost in your minds the idea that
you have the ability and the courage and the strength of purpose
to overcome whatever difficulties you may meet, and for no single
instant allow yourselves to become discouraged or to gain the
impression that you cannot succeed in this great work which
you have undertaken, and your success here will be absolutely
assured.
C Perhaps one of the greatest influences in human conduct is the
power of habit, and it is very important in your work here that
you develop the habit of thinking along the right lines, and in
developing this idea of the mastery of yourselves in order that
this thought may become a fixed habit with you, and in order
that your efforts from day to day may be assisted by a thoroughly
developed idea that no amount of difficulty is going to overcome
your desire to accomplish what you have come here to accomplish
— it is just as easy for you to commence at the beginning and form
this permanent habit of optimistic thought as to gradually de-
velop a tendency toward pessimism and despondency, and in
that way gradually get yourselves into a rut from which no little
amount of effort and study will remove you.
€[ If all of us could only come to understand how thoroughly
we are the masters of ourselves, what a wonderful world this
would be and what wonderful things we would all be able to ac-
complish. But if we let ourselves get into the habit of becoming
easily discouraged we will soon lose that grip on things which
means so much to us when we are struggling on in this fierce
battle for an existence and for success. Therefore, I say that
during all the time that you are in this institution keep this one
idea uppermost in your minds: that you have that great and
powerful personal mastery and that you are going to be success-
ful in each of your exercises from day to day and that failure is
an impossibility, and success will dawn upon you all with an
ease that you had never anticipated.
d No man in this day, or in any other day, ever amounted to
anything unless he had to face some opposition in life, and if we
will take the trouble to turn back the pages of history and glance
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 101
down the list of names of the world's people who have actually
accomplished things we will find that every great person of his-
tory has made a place for herself or himself only after the most
severe and discouraging struggles for an existence. The things
that are worth accomplishing in history or in life are only ac-
complished in that way, and the man that has met the greatest
hardship is usually the man in whom the world places the great-
est trust and the deepest confidence. Anyone can accomplish
things if the worry is borne by someone else or if the path is
greased to make the sliding easy, but it takes a man with brains
and will power and character to go against the current and fight
day after day the odds and difficulties that one must face in
trying to really amount to something.
C And it is therefore, young men and women, that I say that I
feel proud to be with you here tonight to speak to you, because
by the very act of your coming here you have demonstrated the
fact that there is a good lot of red blood in your veins and that
you have confidence in yourselves, and that you are here with a
determined purpose in your minds to overcome this annoying
impediment in your speech and that you are not to be easily
discouraged.
CL Let us look at some of the famous names in history and see
whether there are any there whose names we read with pride
who have had any personal difficulties to overcome in order that
they might be on a plane with those with whom they came in
contact. Let us see if there are any there who had to struggle
against physical odds in order to carve out their place in the world,
and if we can find any such, perhaps we may be able to learn of
their efforts to overcome their difficulties and of their final success.
f[ If we take the trouble to go back a number of centuries we
will find the name of the famous orator, Demosthenes, and if we
will take the trouble to look up his life's history we will find that
as a boy he was hardly able to pronounce his own name because
of that great impediment in his speech. Surely we are all
familiar with what he did and the patience and courage that he
displayed; how, day after day, he would go down to the sea-
shore and fill his mouth with small pebbles and try to talk with
his mouth so filled; how his efforts were first in vain and how,
through patience and persistent practice, he finally began to
show some slight improvement, until finally, after years of that
102 Stammering — Its Origin and
same patient effort, he became one of the world's greatest orators
and one of the foremost figures of his time. Did he ever have
cause for discouragement, do you suppose? Was his success
gained without a struggle?
d Then there is Senator Gore — totally blind — the world a
blanket of darkness — the printed page an unknown picture to
his darkened vision. Was life a shining hope to him when, as a
young man, he started to grope his poor, blinded way to do things
in the world? Did he ever give up because of his infirmity?
Did he say that it was no use anyway, because he could not read
the printed page? Did he shift the burden of his existence on to
a struggling brother or an aged mother? Not he! Through
persistence, patient study, and constant effort be began to work
out his future and to build up his own career, until today he
stands in his place of honor in the Senate of the United States —
one of the most brilliant and able fighters that we have. Did he
accomplish this through luck? And yet we must not say that he
did not have discouragements, for his whole effort was one mighty
discouragement.
€t Perhaps the greatest example of this sublime courage is
demonstrated in the life of that valiant fighter, Helen Keller.
Born into this world deaf, dumb and blind, she has spent her
life, day after day — alone and unaided — in slowly and carefully
making a study of means of overcoming her infirmities, which
were of such a nature as to discourage the most of us. And yet
today she is able to read and write and to make herself under-
stood in a manner which has been startling to the world, which
has stood patiently, yet doubtingly by, and watched her slow
and patient progress for a score of years.
d, When we look upon the lives and accomplishments of such
heroes of hope as these, have we any right to say that we will
falter in the path? Have we any right to say that we will stop,
and without an effort or a struggle lay down the reins and say,
"I cannot win?" No, young men and women, while a breath of
life remains within you, take advantage of such wonderful
opportunities as you have here, use every second of your time to
the best possible advantage, follow with zealous care the thor-
oughly scientific methods that Mr. Millard has perfected for you
here, and the dawn of the new day will begin to cast its shining
rays upon you ere you fully realize that you have begun to try.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 103
C Young men and women, you have a golden reward awaiting
you; you have, by coming to this institution, surrounded your-
selves with the most perfect and the most ideal conditions for the
accomplishment of the great object which you have in view, and
under these circumstances there can be no such word as "failure."
C I have tried to breathe a spirit of hope and good cheer to you
who are here tonight, and if I have in the slightest degree uttered
a word which you may remember as a word of help, my object
in coming to speak to you has been accomplished a hundred-
fold. I thank you.
WONDERFUL SCHOOL A RESULT OF EFFORT AND IDEALS
Clipping from The Wisconsin- News, May 1st, 1920.
It was something over eighteen years ago that Lee Wells Millard, who was
at that time an "inveterate" stammerer, sought every means in his power to
eradicate the impediment which had for over twenty years retarded his
progress and set him apart from his associates. He followed every path that
seemed to lead toward the attainment of that goal only to find that they led
him around in a circle, bringing him back to his starting point, still facing the
handicap from which he had tried to escape.
But his persistent desire to enjoy natural speech led to the conception and
the evolution of a plan based on the physiological and psychological laws
underlying the laws of perfect speech. This plan, knows as the Advanced
Natural Method, proved a success from the time of its inception and at the
present time the North- Western School for Stammerers, 2316 Grand Ave.,
is a monument to the ideals and the efforts which led its founder and present
head to overcome his own difficulty and finally to establish the school which
now enjoys the distinction of being the largest of its kind in the world.
It is located in one of the most beautiful sections of Milwaukee and the
environment provides a peaceful and home-like atmosphere which in great
measure aids in making the student forget his self-consciousness and places
him in the proper mental attitude so necessary to the completion of Mr. Mil-
lard's Scientific Method. Large buildings erected for institutional purposes,
and two separate school dormitories, with one for ladies coming under the di-
rect supervision of Mrs. Lee Wells Millard, afford every opportunity and facil-
ity for speech training.
To do away with all personal feeling and protect all religious beliefs, de-
bates and arguments of a religious nature are barred from discussion. All
students are urged to attend their respective churches regularly, thus keeping
up the high moral standard established and maintained by the school since
its founding.
To anyone who has the privilege of visiting the institution it is a revelation
to note the various stages of improvement marked in each pupil from the day
he enters until he is discharged, entirely cured, with no "method" to continue
or follow for months after. Will power and mental energy, a result of the
psychological features which play so important a part in the advanced
Natural Method, are developed to a remarkable extent and the student
leaves the school to go back into a newer and richer life.
PART IX
THE NORTH-WESTERN SCHOOL A BLESSING
TO STAMMERERS
CHAPTER I
PLAIN FACTS YOU OUGHT TO KNOW
STAMMERERS attending the North-Western School for
Stammerers enroll from all parts of the United States and
Canada. A number each season come from foreign coun-
tries, including Australia, India, New Zealand, England, Ber-
muda, Hawaiian Islands, Cuba, Philippine Islands and the
West Indies.
d, Every pupil who enrolls is assured of all necessary personal
attention until satisfied with his or her cure. We want the satis-
faction to be mutual — on the student's part as well as on the part
of the school. A pleased pupil is the best advertisement.
€[ Popular prices are charged for tuition and accommodations.
Our business motto is "Live and let live." All pupils are ac-
cepted on even terms. We have no pets. Our work is to cure
one and all, regardless of sentiment. If a student lags behind,
we find out the reason and remedy same immediately. We do
our best to perfect a complete, natural cure as soon after the
pupil enrolls as possible. At the same time, no pupil is ever
urged to leave the institution. That part is entirely optional
with the pupil.
CL Our evening class has proved a boon to many stammerers.
After being in our regular day class for ten days or two weeks,
any pupil is privileged to accept a position in Milwaukee and
finish his course in our evening sessions. One tuition pays for
both day and evening classes. As our pupils talk naturally at all
times while taking treatment here, they are thus able to secure
good positions around the city should they wish to economize
on expenses. It also gives them an opportunity to meet and
converse with strangers in order to further develop the faculty
of free and easy speech and realize that they have really become
cured of the habit of stammering.
104
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 105
CHAPTER II
A HOME AND SCHOOL COMBINED
C No institution for the cure of stammering can claim to be
first class unless it provides a home and school for its students
combined in one institution. The North-Western School pro-
vides a veritable home for those receiving our training. By
dwelling under the same roof and being in daily association all
the students become members of one family, as it were, and con-
versational practice is stimulated in this manner which no
other course could supply. The "help one another" policy is
here put into effect and the more advanced student is always a
willing and efficient tutor of another less advanced, should he be
carelessly inclined in his talking.
d Despite the fact that there is "no place like home," the great
majority of our students are reluctant to leave the school, so
pleasant has their stay at our institution been to them. The
student at this school is led, not driven, and the pervading spirit
of generous emulation and good fellowship actuates them to do
their very best, both in the school and during intermission of
class exercises. The leisure moments between exercises are very
necessary for proper relaxation, but our students really enjoy
the class-working hours more than the time spent in leisure, which
is obviously apparent by the deep interest and devotion v/hich
they give to the school work.
WOULDN'T SUSPECT HE EVER STAMMERED
Mr. L. W. Millard,
Milwaukee, Wis.
My Dear Sir: — I attended your school four years ago and received a per-
fect cure and have not had a re-occurrence of speech trouble from that time
since. All it takes is a little nerve and confidence and your school puts these
qualities within the students if they do not possess them. I have always
been very well satisfied with my cure and people whom I have met in the last
few years never suspected that I ever stammered. I recommend your school
to all in need of it because I know you can cure, and I believe your institution
to be the largest and best in America. You have beautiful grounds and a
splendid location for the school and I notice your attendance grows larger
from year to year. I should think everyone would want to attend your school
if they have any speech trouble. Hoping these few words may put cheer and
incouragement in the hearts of those who read them and lead to a cure at your
school, I remain, Very truly yours,
EDGAR GIEGEL,
610 Tenth Ave., Milwaukee, Wis.
106 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER III
A FEW WORDS ABOUT OUR HOME
C I say "home" because I look upon our institution as far more
than a school where stammerers assemble to get cured of their
various speech troubles. This is not a cold-blooded business
enterprise where the commercial end alone is considered. Our
new institution is a veritable school and home combined, where
our students are treated as friends and companions. You not
only get cured of stammering, but you enjoy life while taking the
course and are made to feel that you are one of the units of a great
institution, erected and equipped exclusively as a school and home
for stammerers.
€[ While good discipline is maintained and the correction of your
speech impediment is first to be considered, the social side of life
has not been overlooked nor forgotten. There must be musicales,
debates, literary programs and park and theater parties arranged.
These things, when supervised in an orderly manner, add to the
strength of the course by allowing time for relaxation. There-
fore, when you join our classes, you will never have a lonesome
moment, or feel that you are in any way ostracized because of
your stammering.
€1 Without boasting in the least, I can say without fear of con-
tradiction, that the North-Western School for Stammerers now
has the finest, most convenient and best equipped buildings of
any school for stammerers anywhere in the world, and is a fitting
monument to the success of my enterprise. The building which
is being used as the main home and dormitory for the lady
students is beautifully equipped and finished in the most costly
wood obtainable and is sure to meet the approval of pupils from
the most refined homes. The other building contains the main
classroom and lecture hall, which is of extra large proportions
and is especially adapted to meet every requirement of our
Advanced Natural Method of curing any and all cases of stam-
mering.
€1 The dormitory rooms for the gentlemen students are located
in this building, which is fireproof, airy and spacious, cool in
summer and warm and comfortable in winter. The grounds
between the two buildings have been carefully laid out by land-
scape artists and decorated with the finest park shrubbery.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 107
Nothing has been left undone which would add to its beauty.
€L At this institution the dormitories for the ladies and gentle-
men students are on the same grounds with the school building
— a feature that is sure to appeal to all. The ladies' dormitory
is under direct supervision of Mrs. Lee Wells Millard.
C We have arranged the dormitories to take care of
a large number of students, it being desirable that the students
associate with each other as much as possible, because
all are greatly helped thereby, we therefore require that
students occupy rooms in our dormitories unless you arrange
otherwise with us before enrollment. If you have friends or
relatives in Milwaukee, take up with me the matter of rooming
with them before coming. However, our dormitories are modern,
cozy and comfortable, and, everything considered, I believe you
will find it greatly to your benefit to take advantage of the many
special accommodations they afford.
MANY STAMMERERS ARE NOW BEING CURED AT THE NORTH-
WESTERN SCHOOL
Clipping from The Wisconsin- News, June, 1919.
The North- Western Institute for Stammerers, located at 2316 Grand
Ave., emerged from the war stronger than ever and the attendance during the
past six months has been the largest in the history of the school. Ninety-
three stammerers are there getting cured at the present time. Nearly every
state in the Union is represented with students, as well as different parts of
Canada. The school has accepted applications of students to enroll this
summer from Australia, New Zealand, Cuba, Hawaiian Islands, Jamaica and
Bermuda.
The institution has its own buidlings, erected and fully equipped for curing
stammering, and other forms of imperfect speech, and the length of time re-
quired is from three to five weeks. The school is mailing out a beautiful,
instructive booklet of sixty-four pages which fully covers the subject and gives
much useful information to stammerers and to mothers of children afflicted
with speech impediments.
This splendid school has been located in Milwaukee for sixteen years
and has grown to be the largest of its kind in the world, through the enter-
prising method of its management and because of the merits of its work in
curing chronic cases of all known types of stammering. Lee Wells Millard,
the school's president and manager, was an inveterate stammerer for over
twenty years and visited all eastern schools of this nature before starting his
own institution. The school brings thousands of dollars to Milwaukee each
season from all parts of the country and is an institution of which this city can
well feel proud.
108 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER IV
WHAT THE NORTH-WESTERN SCHOOL CAN DO FOR YOU
C What our institution has done for others it can do for you.
But if you continue to put the matter off from season to season
and procrastinate, little can be done. "The road of by-and-by
leads to the town of 'Never'." Remember, that "Manana"
(tomorrow) is the permeating, directing force in the average
Mexican's mind. He meets every task and duty with a "Manana"
and in consequence the Mexican's task is never done. He has
never caught the vital importance of the word "NOW," the word
of decision, action and accomplishment.
d, What our school has done for others it can do for you, and
the renowned high standard of our institution is still in the
ascendancy and your most sanguine hopes and expectations will
be fulfilled when you come here if you come with an impression-
able mind and a desire to do your duty.
DON'T GIVE UP HOPE— YOU CAN BE CURED
C If you have failed in your efforts elsewhere, that is no valid
reason why you should give up and let stammering be your
master for all time to come. The North-Western School for
Stammerers has an Advanced Natural Method that will bring
about a complete cure in your case, no matter where you have
failed or of how long standing your impediment.
HAD EXPERIENCE AT OTHER SCHOOLS
Dear Mr. Millard: —
In my opinion the North-Western School for Stammerers is the best in-
stitution for the cure of stammering and for the treatment of other speech
defects in the world. Your school is sure to grow and prosper, because you
are fair and square to everyone and your method of cure is superior to any
other.
I had experience in the L — School at Detroit, before coming to you, and
for the benefit of others will say my course at the Detroit school nearly wrecked
my life. I gave up all hope for a cure and became nervous and despondent.
I did not approve of the "Jessie James" and "Judas" method of business
tactics at the L — School which fleeced the stammerer in a manner contrary
to justice, and their method used was unpractical and unnatural, and few had
the nerve to continue it after leaving that school. I was glad to find none of
those tricks at your school and no papers of any kind to sign. With best
wishes for the success of your school and its excellent method, I remain,
Very truly yours,
EARL COCHRAN, Atlanta, Indiana.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 109
CHAPTER V
WHAT THE NORTH-WESTERN SCHOOL HAS DONE
FOR OTHERS
€[ When I say that the North-Western School for Stammerers
has effected more genuine and lasting cures than all other stam-
mering schools combined, I am only reiterating the statements
and remarks of our pupils brought out from time to time on our
classroom platform — many of these remarks being from ex-
pupils who previously attended several other institutions for the
cure of stammering.
€[ "Why is the North- Western School able to bring about such
wonderful cures after others have failed?" you may ask. There
are many reasons for this. One of them is that the president of
this school was a stammerer for many years, and all the assistants
and instructors also were stammerers, and cured under the
Advanced Natural Method, originated by the North -Western
School for Stammerers. Another reason for such splendid
results obtained is because of the beautiful location of the in-
stitution and its home-like and wholesome surroundings and en-
vironments. Another reason I will mention, is becuase of our
natural method, which is far in advance of any other. To fully
explain the Advanced Natural Method, by which we cure, would
take considerable time and space. To be brief in the explana-
tion I will say, the technical features of our. method, are control
of the breath, proper adjustment of the throat when phonating
— continuity of the voice, lightness of articulation, and the correct
placing of the speech organs for fluent talking. In other words,
the student is enlightened as to what is technically meant by
breath, voice and speech. The next feature of the cure is the
pyschological part of our method, pertaining to the necessary
positive mental attitude, correct thinking and use of the will
power, and how to make the mind a continuous storage battery
of nerve energy, etc.
d Our institution has made possible the successful careers of
hundreds of former stammerers, who have gone out from our
school with fluent speech; calm, self-possessed and confident in
manner and with a will power and determination that spelled
success. Hardly a day passes but that some former student
calls on the school and expresses his satisfaction for the course of
speech training which he derived here. Others write to the
school and tell of their success.
110 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER VI
STAMMERING A GREAT HANDICAP
C No other condition of life causes so much mental misery, silent
grief and humiliation as a defective utterance. Of all ill habits,
stammering heads the list, and brings about more misfortune to
the one afflicted, than any other habit or infirmity. The stam-
merer is handicapped in getting and holding good positions where
talking is concerned, he is too full of negative doubt and mental
fear to get up and address an assembly of people and in school
and college life he is embarrassed and depressed to such an extent
that he loses interest and feels that his recitations are a bore, not
only to himself but his teachers.
C He cannot even go out with a lady friend to a theater, without
having difficulty in asking for a transfer on a street car, or in
purchasing tickets at the box office. He does not ask for sym-
pathy nor pity. He feels disgusted and very often ill-tempered,
and the exasperating part of it all is the mystery, of why he should
continue to stammer, when he tries so hard to talk correctly.
d The mystery can only be solved properly by one who has been
a stammerer and who now makes a specialty of curing others.
One who has had many years of experience in successfully treat-
ing stammering of every known type.
H It is always best to go to an institution where the surround-
ings are homelike and wholesome and the environments favor-
able. To a school whose buildings were erected purposely for the
curing of stammering, and whose every facility is to enhance and
bring about quick and permanent cures. That the Advanced
Natural Method employed at this institution, is conceded every-
where, as the best in the world, is a fact beyond dispute.
C A cure is absolutely certain, when a reasonable effort is put
forth by the pupil, and he is able to leave this school speaking as
easily, as rapidly and as fluently, as any person who has never
stammered, with no ''method" to continue or keep up afterwards.
Hence any stammerer owes it not only to himself, but it is a duty
he owes to his family and to his friends, to rid himself of this
distressing and humiliating habit at the earliest possible moment.
A scientific attitude toward the future is growth and wisdom.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 111
CHAPTER VII
A WORD TO LADY PUPILS
€[ At no institution are lady pupils made to feel so at home as at
the North-Western School for Stammerers. Mrs. Lee Wells
Millard is in direct charge of our Ladies' Dormitory, whose
interest in looking after the wants of the lady pupils, has been a
source of comfort and convenience long remembered by them.
C Our Advanced Natural Method appeals to the sensitive nature
of our lady pupils because there is nothing humiliating or em-
barrassing in connection with method. Particular attention is
given to the class order and the cultured and refined need have
no fear of any embarrassing situation in which they might be
placed.
CHAPTER VIII
TO PARENTS AND GUARDIANS
d Accommodations are provided by this institution for those
who desire to accompany their son or daughter, or who wish to
send a guardian. The large home of the president of the in-
stitution is located on the same grounds with the school, and a
number of pleasant rooms are available during the summer
months to parents of children taking the course.
4[ Parents can rest assured and feel satisfied that their children
placed in our care, will be well and properly cared for. Our
pupils are surrounded with wholesome literature and moral in-
fluences and the attention we give to the younger members of our
classes, is one of the important features of our work.
C Parents often accompany their children here, contemplating
staying with them during their course, but many of them return
home within a few days, leaving the child with us, being satisfied
within a short time that their children are being well cared for
here.
MONEY LEFT IN TRUST
C. Our students who bring with them surplus money with which
to defray expenses, deposit it with the school treasury. The
banking system at this institution enables our pupils to deposit
and withdraw their money the same as a savings bank, but with
the additional privilege of withdrawing from their account
Saturday afternoons, Sundays and holidays when the regular
banks would be closed.
PART X
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
CHAPTER I
A BUSINESS-LIKE TALK
WITH LEE WELLS MILLARD, IN WHICH A FEW POINTED QUES-
TIONS ARE ASKED AND ANSWERED
"Ti JTR. Millard, I am a stammerer; will you give me your
lyl best advice in the matter?"
CL My advice to you is: Take a course of natural
speech training and be cured.
€[ "When would you advise me to begin such a course?"
C At once — just as soon as you can arrange to.
Ct "Well, really, I am too busy to come at present, Mr. Millard."
C I do not presume to know how busy you are at present but I
do know that the average person is always busy, and unless you
make it a business of putting other things aside you will find that
weeks and months will pass away and you'll still be "very busy."
€1 "I agree with you. But how and why is your school different
than other stammering schools nearer my home that I could
attend?"
t[ Because, when perfecting our method and establishing our
school, we did not follow the beaten paths of tradition. I had
attended other schools and realized the fallacy and lack of natural
science in their methods of treatment, and was thus enabled to
steer clear of others' mistakes. The outcome was the founding
of this institution and the Advanced Natural Method, where the
whole work of a perfect, natural cure is brought about before
the pupil departs.
C "That sounds very good to me. Will you tell me something
more about it?"
€L Our Advanced Natural Method disposes of stammering and
builds up a system of natural speech that is perfectly free and
112
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 113
easy to command, and when the pupil graduates from here he is
cured in every sense of the word, and not hampered by time-
beating and sing-songing his words, which characterizes the
methods of several well known institutions.
C "Why did these other institutions adopt such methods,
do you think?"
C Well, I presume they worked on the theory that "desperate
diseases require desperate remedies." And they seemed to
forget that stammering is a misdirection of energy and effort
and that Mother Nature is ready to do her part if the stammerer
will cease from forcing and striving in an unnatural manner for
speech.
d "Mr. Millard, who was one of the first to start this hand-
juggling or unnatural method?"
Q It seems to have been brought from Germany to Philadelphia,
Pa., by a Mrs. Schultz, about thirty years ago, and in the year
1884 became firmly established in Philadelphia by a former pupil
of Mrs. Schultz, who called it "The Pioneer School for Stam-
merers." Since that date a former pupil of "The Pioneer School
for Stammerers" brought it to Detroit and established another of
its kind in the year 1894, and some years later the method found
a home in Indianapolis and Kansas City.
C "Mr. Millard, what am I to understand by the Advanced
Natural Method?"
C The Advanced Natural Method is the latest and most scien-
tific manner of speech training known to the world and is char-
acterized by its ability to correct and cure stammering and leave
nothing unnatural in connection with the pupil's speech after the
stammering is removed.
C^ "That seems almost too good to be true. Pardon my in-
credulity, but is it a fact that the pupil may take a course in your
institution and never be embarrassed by his training under your
natural method and leave your school talking smoothly and easily
without further fear or thought of stammering.?"
C That is precisely what a course of natural speech training here
means. Our pupils are never subjected to humiliation in any
form, shape or manner, and this correct and fluent way of talking
can be brought about, on an average, in from three to seven
weeks' time.
1 14 Stammering — Its Origin and
d "How do you account for such rapid progress in your school?"
d By the simple fact that the North-Western School method has
the whole power of nature and science behind it, and that the
natural method of correcting a natural mistake is the easiest and
surest way of doing it, and the most permanent and enduring.
CI. "Is the tuition higher for a course of natural speech training
in your school than it is at a school where the unnatural method
is taught, and where the pupil leaves one of these others schools
half cured?"
d Not any higher and oftentimes not so much. It costs no more
to do a thing right than it does to do it incorrectly. An institu-
tion employing an unnatural method may be in the business purely
for the financial gains, and you may rest assured that a school of
that kind will ask all it can get. It has no set rate of tuition in its
catalog.
d "What is meant by an unscientific or unnatural method?"
CI A method that depends for success upon the substitution
of one form of imperfect speech for another. A method that is
employed to cure stammering by time-beating and sing-songing,
which attracts as much if not more, unfavorable attention than
stammering itself.
d "Then this is why so many pupils fail elsewhere and are
eventually cured of stammering to talk in a natural perfect man-
ner in your school?"
d It is. I can show you hundreds of letters from my correspon-
dents, who, having utterly failed, are today planning to enter this
institution. I can prove to you that what I have said is correct,
by the many testimonials I have on record from pupils of that
kind who have already taken advantage of our school and are
cured of stammering and have entered business and various pro-
fessions, made possible by the training under our natural method.
d "Is it best to notify you before coming?"
d It is not exactly necessary to do so, but it would please me
because our school is always well attended the year around, and
by sending in your application for admission in advance, you are
sure of good accommodation, and it enables me to reserve and
provide a good position for you in class.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 115
Ct "Mr. Millard, what do you mean by mind training or psy-
chology as connected with your system of cure?"
H Stammering is partially mental, and therefore, mind training
goes hand in hand with the technical features of the cure. Psy-
chology refers to the mind, and the psychological features em-
bodied in my course of speech training are absolutely essential
to the effectiveness and permanency of the cure. That is one
reason why we are successful when others fail.
€[ "Does your institution furnish a school and home com-
bined."
€L It does, and since erecting my latest new buildings, I have
ample room for all who enroll. My school buildings are so ar-
ranged that I can add to them, as my future business increases.
C "Can a pupil enter your school at any time?"
€[ Yes, my beginner's class is always open, and each week, a
number of new pupils enroll the year around.
C "Do you keep your school open during the holiday season and
during the summer vacation months?"
€[ My institution always runs full force during the holidays
and the summer vacation months. In fact, it has never been
closed for a day in sixteen years. (Sundays excepted.)
4[ "May a pupil enroll if he reaches there on Sunday?"
€L Yes, while there are no classes here on Sunday, I often enroll
pupils who arrive here on a Sunday. They are given the school
text book for perusal and are assigned to a pleasant room where
they may unpack their suit-case or trunk and get ready for the
first class on Monday morning.
H "I thank you, Mr. Millard, for this interview, and I hope to be
with you much sooner than I had at first planned, and I feel con-
fident that yours is the school for me to attend."
All architects of accomplishment must honor the law
of expression.
PART XI
BUSINESS POINTERS AND SUGGESTIONS
CHAPTER I
TUITION, BOARD AND ROOM
I BELIEVE this is the only stammering school in America
which has its tuition cataloged. This shows our intentions
are straight forward and honest, and that we don't "land pupils
at all prices."
C However, it does cost a reasonable sum to attend a first-class
institution for the cure of stammering, conducted along modern
and scientific lines.
TUITION
C The management of this school has established a tuition rate
of $150.00 for moderate cases and $300.00 for the severe or more
aggravated types of stammering.
TERMS
C Tuition is payable when the pupil enrolls, because of the fact
that our method is mostly on charts in our class room and easily
copied off.
BOARD AND ROOM
C The price of good board and a pleasant room is $9.50 per week
and upward, according to the size of the room and dependent on
whether the student wishes to occupy the room alone or share it
with another.
C The privileges of a furnished room in our institution includes
bed clothes, heat, electric light, towels, bath, and books and
magazines from our school library.
The presence of a positive character, inspires us to win.
116
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 117
CHAPTER II
LIBERTY BONDS ACCEPTED
C^ The North-Western School Treasury will accept Liberty
Bonds at their full value, on payment of tuition. If you have
a $50 Liberty Bond and you are a little short of money to take
the course here, hand it in the same as cash at its full market
value when paying your tuition. You have helped the govern-
ment by purchasing a Liberty Bond, now utilize the bond by
securing liberty of speech for yourself.
CHAPTER III
WHY OUR TUITION CHARGE IS MODERATE
€t As a matter of fact, our institution has always been very moder-
ate in its tuition rates. Having been an inveterate stammerer
for over 20 years, I can appreciate fully the handicap and em-
barrassment of all who are afflicted with a speech impediment.
C^ My enthusiasm over the wonderful results obtained by my
Advanced Natural Method in curing myself, prompted me to
resolve that I would devote the remainder of my life in curing
others shackled and handicapped by the habit of stammering.
4[ The manifold blessings echoed from all parts of the civilized
globe, have proven that my efforts have been a success without
precedent.
C Inasmuch as the majority of stammerers are of moderate
means and cannot afford to pay an exhorbitant tuition rate, I
have kept the tuition as low as possible, consistent with the high
standard of maintaining this institution, thus giving all an equal
chance of obtaining a perfect cure.
C As much personal interest is devoted to the stammerer of
moderate circumstances, as to those blessed with a greater
abundance of worldly riches.
€[ Thus I have proven that more good has been accomplished
by curing more students at a moderate price than a few students
at an exhorbitant price.
118 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER IV
CONCERNING A GUARANTEE
4[ We do not, as a general rule, guarantee a cure because it
savors too strongly of quackery for a reliable institution to do so.
€1 Invariably, when a stammering school boldly guarantees a
cure in its literature, their method consists of a hand-swing,
time-beat or unit method, and there is always a string tied to
the guarantee.
€L A number of stammerers, ex-pupils from other stammering
schools, who did not get a cure and could not bear the humilia-
tion of following out the "method", have given us their instruc-
tion or regulation blanks filled out and signed by those in
authority at said hand-swing, time-beat or unit method school,
whereby the pupil is instructed to give constant application
of the "method" at all times for each syllable spoken, and to
practice the exercises received at those institutions over an hour
each day, for a term of six months, after leaving the institute.
4[ The North- Western School for Stammerers is, in reality,
more capable of guaranteeing a cure than any other stammer-
ing school, because by following the Advanced Natural Method
it is impossible to stammer — and there is nothing unnatural or
embarrassing connected with the student's speech and no method
or exercises to be followed out after leaving our school.
WAS CURED IN TWO AND ONE-HALF WEEKS
Lee Wells Millard, Viola, Wis., May 25th, 1919.
Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Mr. Millard: — I want to write you a few lines to tell you about my-
self, because I know you are interested in all former students. I attended your
school for two and one-half weeks a year ago, and was cured.
I spent last summer in Idaho and had absolutely no trouble with my speech.
I was a senior in high school this year and completed the course with high
honors, thanks to your institution. We had a class play which I took a very
important part in and although my part contained many words which bothered
me in the past, I had no trouble at all in talking. I was valedictorian of my
high school class and gave a talk before a large assembly of people. Never be-
fore have I so realized the wonderful things your school did for me. I have
just directed a stammerer of Twin Bluffs, Wis., to go to your school, because
I know it is the best. I can truthfully say that I never spent such an enjoy-
able time before in my life as I did at your school.
Yours very sincerely,
DOROTHY FISHEL.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 119
CHAPTER V
SUGGESTIONS FOR EARNING BOARD AND ROOM
{[ Many pupils, whose means are limited, earn their board while
taking their course of treatment, as there is ample opportunity
for earning board and room without interfering with the class-
work.
C Others enroll at our institution and after being in our regular
day classes for a week, secure a position in this city, and finish
their course of speech training in our evening classes.
EVENING SESSIONS
C Our evening sessions have thus proven a boon to many a
stammerer who could not see his way clear to attend any other
way. One tuition pays for both day and evening classes.
€[ Because our method is natural and there is nothing notice-
able in talking different than other persons, our pupils can accept
any position while taking a course of training here and complete
the cure in our evening classes. Few pupils stammer after being
here the first week. Working while in this city gives them a
chance to try out the cure before going home.
C Pupils working in the city and attending the evening classes
can keep their room at the institution and thus be under the in-
fluence of the school.
CHAPTER VI
STAMMERING A PERSONAL MATTER
d Stammering is a personal matter and concerns yourself more
vitally than any one else. No one else stands the pain and mental
anguish of your impediment but yourself. In your present con-
dition you have nothing but foredoomed failure to look forward
to. Stammering if let run, gradually tightens its hold on you
until you fairly shun the society of your fellow beings. Life is too
short to waste any more time of if stammering. I am sure you
have resolved many times to be cured but have allowed something
of less importance to intervene. You have waited for a more
favorable time — until conditions at home were just right — but
you will never find things "just right" in this world. You must
plan your work, then work your plan. Don't wait for oppor-
tunity but make it. Set your sails today for the harbor of perfect
speech — this school.
120 Stammering — Its Origin and
CHAPTER VII
SEND IN YOUR APPLICATION EARLY
C All indications point toward a record-breaking attendance at
our school during each month of the year. I am prepared to
receive a larger number of students than ever before.
€1 You have nothing to gain by delay. By enrolling now you
will make a material saving, but most important of all, you will
have taken the first step toward perfect speech. The shackles
of stammering will begin to grow less binding the moment your
application for admission is sent to this school.
€[ No one else around you knows how you long to talk like
others — in a free, easy, spontaneous manner — without physical
strain or mental fear, entirely free from the self-conscious
negative state of mind in which all stammerers live. There-
fore it revolves upon you to assert your right to be cured — obey
that impulse — fill out the blank below and mail at once.
APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION
Please enter my name as an applicant for admission to your
institution.
Name
Street and Number
City or P. O. Address
Rural Route or P. O. Box
County State
I expect to enroll as a student in your school on or about
192
C Sending in your application blank does not in any way bind
you to enroll, but it enables us to determine the number of
pupils to provide for.
121
122
Stammering — Its Origin and
Snapshot of students at park just before picnic dinner is served.
Students entering Washington Park to enjoy a week-end half holiday. Tennis, Golf, Base-
ball and other out-door sports are provided for our students at the various parks in
Milwaukee.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure
123
Students of our school enjoying a swim at McKinley Beach, Milwaukee. One of the
pupils here shown, traveled all the way from Australia to get cured under our Advanced
Natural Method.
Students enjoying the half-holiday, Saturday afternoon, at one of Milwaukee's beauti-
ful parks. Basket picnics and other outing features are arranged for our students each week
during the summer.
124
Stammering — Its Origin and
Students of the North-Western School snapped by the camera while choosing sides
for a game of baseball.
One of the many attractions at the Milwaukee Zoological Garden. Polar bears
performing to the delight of our students.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure
125
A portion of our students, awaiting the dinner call, caught by the camera of another
student. Note their cheerful faces— happy with the thought that they are at the right school,
where perfect speech is brought about without embarrassment.
A group of our students caught by the camera on the lawn by the main school building,
during recess.
126
Stammering — Its Origin and
A view from one of Milwaukee's famous parks. No city in the
world has a greater variety of natural parks.
Buffalo quarters, Washington Park Zoo, Milwaukee. This Zoo is noted for its fine col-
lection and handsome specimens of the different animals, reptiles, birds etc.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure
127
Milwaukee River, within the city limits, affords much pleasure to
our students, who are lovers of the various water sports.
MM;
•
! .•£• ' ■■'-:
s^ "^yflil
V
?Wk^m
2 ; L'j 1
tC '• a.k. '*5i^*^r ■*-
3»Hte^,Bw^i^5rr«^(W^_«J^3^
The Xorth-Western School is lo<
section, among stately dwellings
tted on Grand Avenue in the most prominent residential
Milwaukee is noted as a city of beautiful homes.
128
Stammering — 7/5 Origin and
PICTURESQUE VIEWS OF BEAUTIFUL MILWAUKEE
You will be Impressed with the Beauty of Upper Grand Avenue
and the Convenience of the Many Churches Near the
North-Western School for Stammerers.
Upper Grand Avenue, showing Gesu Church in the distance.
The "Court of Honor," upper Grand Avenue, M. E. Church on right.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure
129
Wesley M. E. Church, 25th and Grand Avenue, just a
block from the North-Western School for Stammerers.
Milwaukee is the second largest industrial city in the United States. More than 150,000
people are employed in its factories. Many of our students of moderate means procure em-
ployment and complete their course of speech training in our evening classes.
130
Stammering — Its Origin and
TALKS FINE— DOESN'T STAMMER ANY MORE
Mr. Lee Wells Millard,
Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Mr. Millard: — I wish to inform you that I am talking fine and don't
stammer any more or have any kind of trouble in speaking. I started in high
school this fall and surprised my teachers with my talking. They thought it
wonderful.
Before I attended the North- Western School for stammerers, I was told
that I could not get cured of stammering. When I came back these same
people thought different. I spoke at a Ladies' Guild and never even thought
of stammering. I answered all questions they asked me with perfect ease.
I have told of my cure over and over again to many people, and I am very
glad to recommend your school to all who stutter or stammer, or have any other
kind of speech impediment. I had a severe case myself and could not say my
own name or relate anything, but I received a complete cure in your school
in six week's time. I will write to anyone I can hear of and tell them what a
wonderful school you have. Thanking you, I am,
Your grateful ex-pupil,
ROBERT M. MARTIN,
421 Duff St. Mitchell, So. Dak.
i »' rH< 'V
Skating at one of Milwaukee popular parks, affords our'students much sport and is a very
healthful pastime during intermission of classes.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 131
Y. M. C. A. PRIVILEGES
In keeping with the high morale at the North-Western
School, the social privileges of the Milwaukee Y. M. C. A., in-
cluding the lobby, lectures, checkers, reading and rest rooms,
and by special arrangement, the privileges of the excellent
swimming pool, showers, hand ball courts and large gymnasium,
as well as the pool and billiard rooms, afford our students many
pleasures and add to their social, spiritual and physical devel-
opment.
The Association buildings are located within a half block
of Grand Avenue and only a few minutes from our school.
Many interesting and beneficial lectures and talks are fre-
quently given to our students by noted Y. M. C. A. men,
statesmen, physicians, attorneys, as well as by prominent edu-
cators and clergymen.
The bible classes at the local Y. M. C. A. and various
churches afford our students spiritual development, besides
giving them an excellent opportunity of practice in talking
with strangers.
Jl*JPf
« PI! | |
.Milwaukee Association Buildings
132
Stammering — Its Origin and
Milwaukee Young Men's Christian Association
John P. Hillis, Secretary Special Activities
Milwaukee, Wis., June 14th, 1920.
Mr. Lee Wells Millard, President
The North-Western School for Stammerers,
2316 Grand Avenue
Dear Mr. Millard:
It has been my privilege to visit your school and address the students at
various times during the past two years. I have observed somewhat your
method of teaching and have noted the success therefrom amongst the boys
who have lived here in our building and others who come within our
membership.
Wishing you continued success, I remain
Very sincerely yours,
JOHN P. HILLIS,
Secretary Special Activities.
Excellent Swimming Pool— An attractive feature at the Milwaukee Y. M. C. A.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure
133
In the Y. M. C. A. Lobby by the Big Open Fire Place
Y. M. C. A. Gymnasium
134
Stammering — Its Origin and
TRAVELED OVER 15,000
MILES TO BE CURED
Melbourne, Australia,
April 30th, 1920.
To Mr. Lee Wells Millard:
In recognition and deep appreci-
ation and gratitude for many kind-
nesses and the permanent benefits
and perfect speech derived under
your effective and efficient method
of speech training.
Your system has transformed me
into a different man and has in-
creased my efficiency. I have found
the greatest blessing of life at your
school.
You have won and deservedly so
my sincere gratitude.
FRANK BOYD.
Note — Mr. Boyd is 51 years of age,
thus proving that our Advanced Natural
Method cures stammering as easily and
efficiently at middle age as in youth.
A FOND FAREWELL
("I gladly congratulate your school for
the work done and will continue to do for
man-kind. God bless you and your loved
ones. Good bye." FRANK BOYD.)
ALLAN LINE
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 135
TRAVELED FROM AUSTRALIA TO BE CURED
Hotel Atlantic, Chicago, 111., April 23rd, 1920.
Mr. Lee Wells Millard,
Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Mr. Millard:— Arriving today from St. Louis, I am looking forward
with considerable pleasure to a visit to the school. The school has supplied
a great want in my life — just what I needed most. Your effective methods are
as far reaching as the needs of humanity. It is a national asset. Increasing
the efficiency of the individual is increasing the efficiency of the nation. To
harmonize the mind is to harmonize the life. The power of a spoken word is a
mighty power. To think well and speak well is inseparable. As we think, so
we express ourselves and so we are. Prosperity is not estimated in dollars
and cents, but in ideas. The measure of a man's culture is in the richness
of his vocabulary. This is the standard by which he is measured. Timidity
slows down mental action and makes us less than we really are. Confidence
is essential — without it we lack all.
Your work is constructive — it is a work of overcoming mental limitations
and physical difficulties. You teach the pupil how to overcome by courage.
In this you use the greatest positive power. Courage is as positive as love.
"Perfect love casts out fear." You build a state of mental consciousness that
knows no fear. Your pupils forget their limitations and speak with fluency
and rejoice in freedom. You deal intelligently with every form of defective
speech and voice. The stage fright condition is general among business men.
They should demonstrate over their weakness by attending your school.
I desire for the school's success in its increased and inc easing efficiency.
It has enriched and is destined to enrich the lives of many.
I will know in a few days when it will be possible for me to visit Milwaukee,
and renew the happy days that passed all too quickly away. I trust yourself
and your dear ones are well and the school is in flourishing condition.
With best wishes,
Yours very sincerely,
FRANK BOYD.
Note — Mr. Boyd took his course in our. school in November and was cured
permanently in five weeks' time. His home is in Melbourne, Australia, and
after spending the winter in several of the large cities in America, he returned
home but arranged to come up to our school while passing through Chicago,
and visit a couple of days and give some positive talks to our present class,
all of whom were delighted to make the acquaintance of Mr. Boyd.
Speech is for now, silence is for eternity.
136
Stammering — Its Origin and
I am always pleased to meet pupils at the depots in Milwaukee
and bring them to the school in my automobile, if they write or wire
me in time.
The camera of a newspaper man snapped Mr. Millard at the Union Depot
while meeting students. Mr. Millard is seen, in the above halftone, greeting
Mr. Kuang Y. Chang, Kunghsien, Honan Province, China, who journeyed to
Milwaukee to be cured of stammering.
FAILED TO GET CURED AT DETROIT
L. W. Millard, West Bend, Wis., May 25th, 1920.
Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Mr. Millard: — My successful career started immediately after leaving
your school. I had about lost hope before coming to you, because three years
previously, I failed to get any good at the L— - School of Detroit, owing to the
crude method of hand-swing and sing-song used there. It was so embarrassing
that I did not continue it but a few weeks after leaving there.
At your school things were different. My fear soon left me and confidence
and mental ease were completely restored in a short time. When I arrived in
Milwaukee, I could hardly talk, but thanks to your natural, up-to-date method
of treatment, I was soon over my stammering. You may use this letter in any
way you please, because I am always glad to recommend your school. Wishing
you the best of success, I am, Sincerely yours,
GLEN D. BACON.
PART XII
HOW TO REACH THE NORTH-WESTERN SCHOOL
FOR STAMMERERS
CHAPTER I
FREE RIDE FROM DEPOT
IF you do not have one of my free carriage ride tickets, and you
have not previously written me when you expect to arrive in
Milwaukee, then wire me when you are about a hundred miles
from Milwaukee, (ten words for about 25c) mentioning what time
of day you will reach Milwaukee and over what railroad.
TELEPHONE ME UPON YOUR ARRIVAL
d If you do not write or wire me previous to your arrival in
Milwaukee call me up over the telephone, either at my residence,
West 3766, on Sundays or after office hours, or during office
hours, West 458, and I will come to the depot in my automobile
and bring you to the school in ten minutes' time.
C There are public telephones at all Milwaukee depots. The
telephone operators at the depots are always willing to telephone
me that students are waiting at the depot, if you feel fatigued and
unable to talk over the telephone after your journey.
C We are always pleased to meet pupils at trains and suggest
that they write or wire us in advance of their coming.
SIGN OF RECOGNITION
C The usual sign of recognition is to pin a small white bow of
ribbon or slip of white paper on your dress or coat lapel just be-
fore reaching Milwaukee, then I will know you immediately as
you step off the train, or see you in the depot.
LOCATION OF THE NORTH-WESTERN SCHOOL
The map on the opposite page shows the location of the
North-Western School for Stammerers, with reference to the
Union Depot, Northwestern Depot and Inter urban Stations.
CL The North-Western School for Stammerers is located at
2316 Grand Avenue, the main thoroughfare of Milwaukee, and
is easily found. When you come to Milwaukee, put this book in
your pocket or handbag and refer to the map on the opposite
page when you reach the depot.
137
WE5UY METHODIbT CHURCH
GRAMP AVLCOHG Ch<jM.h
CflOUiH HITHERAM t«WMH
MAaautTte con-eoe. l£J;""/,J!
ctau church
STjAtltS CHURCH
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 139
CURED OVER TEN YEARS AGO
Lee Wells Millard, Armington, Mont., Oct. 29th, 1919.
Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Mr. Millard: — It has been a long time since I have written you but
I have been kept busy managing my father's affairs the last few years and have
had little spare time for anything. You will remember me as having attended
your institution during the winter of 1910. The thought of stammering has
never entered my mind since I left your school and I have traveled around con-
siderable. I have helped organize the Society of Equity in Cascade County,
this State, and have often spoken before an audience of one hundred and forty
people without any thought of fear of stammering.
If there is anyone who doubts that I am cured they would change their
mind were I to talk with them a few moments. A good proof as to how well
I am cured is the fact that I have had a display at the State Fair for the past
several years and people have a tendency to ask a great many questions
which I would have found very difficult to answer if I still stammered, but I
give them their answer as soon as a question is asked.
Trusting the school is getting along well and wishing you every success
and assuring you that I will always be pleased to recommend your institution
to all stammerers I come in contact with, I am, always,
Very truly yours,
FRED SIEGLING.
MY FORMER IMPEDIMENT IS ENTIRELY FORGOTTEN
Ravenna, Nebr., May 31st, 1919.
Lee Wells Millard,
Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Mr. Millard: — It has been several years since I heard from the dear
old school which I will never forget, but I wish to tell you how sincerely thank-
ful I am that I attended your institution. I shall never forget the home-like
and kindly treatment which I received while there. My former impediment
is entirely forgotten now. Your school done the work of curing me com-
pletely and I shall never forget it.
I have just advised a man in Omaha, Nebr., to attend your school. I have
interested several to attend your school since I left.
Your remember I attended a stammering school in Detroit, with no suc-
cess, before coming to you and would never have been cured, I am sure, if I
had not heard of your good school. I shall be glad to hear from you, at your
convenience, and would like to look through one of your late catalogs, for old
time sake. With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
JOHN H. BEUTLER.
Lock Box 584.
140 Stammering — Its Origin and
HIS CURE CHANGED HIS LIFE ENTIREL Y
Baltimore, Md., Feb. 11th, 1920.
Mr. Everett C. Nelson,
Dear Sir: — Your letter of the 6th inst. received, enquiring about the North-
western School for Stammerers of Milwaukee, Wis., and I take pleasure in
stating that I attended the school about twelve years ago with wonderful
success, and if you can possibly arrange it, would certainly advise you to go
there and take a course. I no doubt like yourself, hesitated for some time
about going, but could have "kicked" myself as a fellow says, afterwards for
putting the matter off, as after being cured of stammering, I was able to earn
more money and get much more enjoyment out of life; in fact I became a dif-
ferent person entirely. I was also very fortunate in going to the right school,
as I saw persons cured at the North- Western School, who had tried other
schools without success, proving thereby that the North-Western School must
be superior to the others.
I had the pleasure of visiting Mr. Millard last September and found the
school occupying large new quarters with a full attendance of students and
everybody satisfied with their course. It is certainly a fine institution in every
respect and is doing a great work, and I would advise any stammerer, who is
fortunate enough to hear of the North-Western School to go there and re-
ceive that which surely awaits him or her, namely, "A Perfect Cure," if they
will apply themselves to the rules and methods as prescribed for them. Stam-
mering is a great handicap and inconvenience in anyone's life, as I can speak
from real experience myself; also know the great benefits derived from a
permanent cure and sincerely hope you will be able to attend the North-
Western School and be relieved of your stammering and the mental torment,
which goes with it. I think I have answered your letter fully, but will be
glad to give you any further information desired.
Wishing you every success if you can arrange to take the course and again
advising you to do so by all means, as I know you will never regret it, I am,
Yours respectfully,
WM. E. RUTTER,
3011 W. North Ave.
Note—Mr. Nelson attended our institution this spring and received a
splendid cure.
Strong character and personal force never go out of fashion.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 141
HAS VISITED ALL STAMMERING SCHOOLS IN AMERICA
AND ABROAD
Atlanta, Ind., Feb. 26th, 1920.
Pres. Lee Wells Millard,
The North -Western School for Stammerers,
Milwaukee, Wis.
My Dear Mr. Millard: — Passing through your city and having paid you
a little visit, after an absence of several years when I attended your school,
I feel that I want to congratulate you on your great school.
To know, as I do, the wonderful spirit that prevails in a real equipped in-
stitution such as yours, I am reminded of an "attic" where one school in Chi-
cato is conducted, and of the "swing" and other kindred tricks to kill the morale
in the soul, and I am therefore glad to recommend an institution such as yours
that really does things.
To get down to "brass tacks," I have visited all the stammering schools
in America and many in Europe. I have investigated not only the schools,
but many claimed cures, and I am prepared to say that the only real school
with a scientific method, producing real permanent results, is your school.
Why others seek to mislead a poor stammerer and fleece him, I can't under-
stand. Some of people who conduct schools in Chicago, Kansas City and
elsewhere, claim they are ex-stammerers, but I find most of them still stammer
and only talk with the aid of easily detected tricks and subterfuges, and their
efforts to avoid stammering is often decidedly noticeable.
Being an ex-service man in the A. E. F., and past 40 years of age, I have
had opportunity to go into the different phases of methods both abroad as
well as in America and I tell you Mr. Millard, that I herewith make the un-
qualified statement that if the stammerer is after a cure and wants to attend a
real school, where kind treatment and an efficient method is found and a square
deal given to all, where the spirit of co-operation obtains genuine results and
where the prison walls in a stammerer's life are broken down and where he
tastes and retains the freedom of utterance, I warn him or her to make no
mistake but attend your institution.
Many others make misleading statements to get the business, but I advise
all stammerers to keep from being a victim of such places, where the mercenary
feature of the course is the main thought, and attend the North-Western
School at Milwaukee, where they will obtain a real and genuine cure. I
always found at your school, a deep gratitude in the hearts of your students,
but in a large class of a hundred or more, one can feel the very spirit of posi-
tive success, permeating the atmosphere when a school is conducted like yours.
I am now one of the traveling inspectors for the American Tin Plate Co., and
of course, as you know, never experience any more speech difficulty and travel
to all parts of the United States.
Thanking you from the bottom of my heart for the good you have done
and are doing, I am,
Sincerely yours,
EARL COCHRAN.
142 Stammering — Its Origin and
RECEIVED A PERFECT CURE IN THREE WEEKS
Mr. J. Lloyd Henderson,
Box 927, Milwaukee, Wis., Feb. 16th, 1920.
Dear Sir: — Your letter of the 6th inst., awaits me upon my return to the
city and I hasten to reply thereto.
With reference to the North- Western School for Stammerers would say
that I stammered from the time I was five years of age until I was sixteen years
old. I attended the North- Western School but three weeks and received a
perfect cure from this curse which has handicapped so many lives.
Mr. Millard teaches the Natural Method which enables one to leave his
institution with a permanent cure and without the necessity of any arm-
swing or time-beating method.
It has been my pleasure to meet hundreds of students in this institution
since I attended and although I have seen several very severe cases of stam-
mering, I have never seen anyone who ever attended his school and really
wanted to be cured but what they were able to leave this institution talking
in a natural manner so that even their closest friends could not detect any
impediment in their speech.
I consider Mr. Millard as one of my greatest benefactors in that he cured
me from one of the worst handicaps of my life and I feel absolutely sure that
if you attend his school that you will receive a perfect cure.
If there are any further questions you desire to ask I would be only too
glad to hear from you again. I hope to have the pleasure of meeting you in
person should you decide to come here for a cure.
Sincerely yours,
L. E. PACKARD.
Note — Mr. Henderson attended our school this spring and received a
perfect cure in a very short time.
STATE SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF
J. W. Jones, Superintendent
Columbus, Ohio
Lee Wells Millard, March 5th, 1920.
2316 Grand Ave., Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Sir:— Your pupil, Miss Edna Waggoner of Isleta, Ohio, stopped off
to visit her sister who is a pupil in our school. Miss Waggoner was on her
way home after spending one month in your school in an endeavor to correct
her stammering. I was surprised how well she speaks and that there was
nothing left to indicate that she ever stammered. You surely did that young
woman a wonderful good. She speaks in the highest terms of you and your
school and judging from what she has accomplished I doubt not that you are
doing a great work for these unfortunate people.
Sincerely yours, J. W. JONES.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 143
A VERDICT FROM A JUDGE
THE COUNTY COURT OF CALDWELL COUNTY
Wm. Ure, Jr., Presiding Judge
Kingston, Mo., Jan. 30th, 1920.
Mr. Lee Wells Millard,
Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Sir:— My boy Willie, who attended your school is completely cured
and talks fine as he has never caught on a word since he came home.
Through my recommendation Messrs. Morgan and Virtue of this town
will take a course at your institute in a week or ten days.
You may refer to me at any time if you wish, as I will be glad to assist you.
Respectfully yours,
WM. URE, JR.
Note — Both Mr. Virtue and Mr. Morgan have since attended our school
and received splendid cures. The judge is now recommending our school
more strongly than ever.
LIFE IS NOW WORTH LIVING
Gastonville, Pa., March 16th, 1920.
Mr. Lee Wells Millard,
2316 Grand Ave.,
Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Mr. Millard:— Just a few lines to express my appreciation for what the
North- Western School has done for me. My entire life has been reversed and
life is worth living now, since I attended your school. My only regret is that
I did not hear of your school before I was side-tracked to that L school
in Detroit, which really made me worse, as I became so discouraged and lost
all faith in stammering schools.
Without success after five or six weeks, I left Detroit, a discouraged stam-
merer, but a year later I heard of the North- Western School in Milwaukee and
decided I would take another chance. At that time I stammered so badly,
I could not ask for my own ticket to Milwaukee, neither could I say my name,
but after one week at your school, I could talk to anyone without even the
thought of stammering in my mind.
Whenever I meet a stammerer, I tell him or her of your wonderful school
and your Natural Method and that there is no use of stammering when it can
be cured so quickly at the North-Western School in Milwaukee.
Wishing you greater success than ever, I am meanwhile,
Very sincerely yours,
J. E. THOMPSON.
144 Stammering — lis Origin and
PERMANENTLY CURED HERE OVER 10 YEARS AGO
Racine, Wis., March 16th, 1920.
Dear Mr. Millard:
It has been a long time since I have written you a testimonial and I thought
I would surprise you. It has now been ten years since I first met you, as you
remember I was brought to your school by my oldest brother because I was
unable to talk well enough to buy a ticket to Milwaukee.
After attending the L — school and meeting with such poor results, we
were pessimistic about trying another school, but after being at your in-
stitution a week, I found for the first time in my life, how easy it is to talk.
I did not have to swing my arm and beat-time for every syllable and press the
thumb and fore-finger together, such as I had to do and was told to keep up
for months after leaving the L — school, but at your school everything was
natural and sensible. I began to feel like a man at last. How we all worked
and helped each other and how happy we were because your method was
natural.
You can imagaine how pleased my father, brother and sisters were to hear
me talk naturally, when they remembered how I came home from Waterloo,
Iowa, and from Detroit, swinging my arm for months. So after ten years I
find myself getting along fine and doing lots of talking every day in my busi-
ness and thought you would be interested in hearing from me again.
My brother who brought me to your school visited us last October, from
the state of Washington. He had not seen me for years. In one of our con-
versations he said, "Why Guy, how fine you talk. No one would know about
your old trouble to hear you speak. Aren't you glad we went to Milwaukee
that time?" I answered, "You bet I am and I know of hundreds of others
that are glad they went there too." Then he laughed about the time I came
back from Detroit, looking so depressed and serious, as though my very life
depended upon the time-beat or arm-swing, which Mr. Lewis told me to
keep up for months.
Please feel free to use my name at any time as I am always pleased with the
opportunity of recommending your school to others and hope I may be able to
keep some poor stammerer from going to one of those hand-swing and time-
beat schools and make the same mistake I did, because it is only time lost and
money wasted to fool with those kind of methods. They are too unnatural
and embarrassing.
Wishing you continued success in your good work and that your school will
continue to prosper, I remain,
Yours very respectfully,
GUY PATTON,
1334 Hayes Ave.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 145
Clock-Swing Method at Lewis School Disgusts Prominent
Clergyman
Phillips, Wis., June 10th, 1920.
To Whom It May Concern: — During June, 1910, I brought several young
men from the south to Detroit, Mich., with the object of placing them in the
Lewis School for Stammerers. After consulting with Mr. Lewis, I decided,
on the strength of the guarantee made by him to effect a complete cure from
the affliction of stammering to place the young men under Mr. Lewis' care.
I myself remained in Detroit and kept in close touch with the institution, call-
ing there frequently.
After one month's treatment I found that the young men had received ab-
solutely no benefit in their speech. Their system for the cure of stammering
employed was, as termed by the students, a clock-swing system, and was of
little or no benefit. After calling Mr. Lewis' attention to the fact, I was told
that the young men in question had to remain for a period of many months
and keep up the clock-swing (hand-swing, time-beat) method for months
after leaving Detroit.
Being thoroughly disgusted with the treatment given by Mr. Lewis, we
left Detroit and came to the North-Western School for Stammerers at Mil-
waukee, Wis., which is under the capable management of Mr. Lee Wells
Millard. We found no hand-swing method at the North-Western School,
but a Natural Scientific one entirely different from the Lewis method. Mr.
Millard immediately took a deep and fatherly interest in the young men and
after six weeks' treatment, the young men left the institution entirely cured.
I cannot recommend Mr. Millard's treatment for the cure of stammering
any too highly and I can safely say that anyone afflicted with stammering
would find him capable of dealing with the most severe types.
In all sincerity,
RT. REV. MSGR. F. C. NEISENS.
Rt. Rev. F. C. Neisens Adds Letter of Indorsement
Mr. Lee Wells Millard, Phillips, Wis.
Milwaukee, Wis.
I was very much impressed with your institution which I had the pleasure
to visit recently, especially the splendid location, and the high moral atmosphere
under which it is conducted.
Your work is a God-send to humanity and judging from the large number
of pupils under your care and the fine manner in which they are talking, your
efforts are being fully rewarded with success. I heartily recommend your
institution to any afflicted with stammering and from my knowledge of in-
stitutions of this kind at Detroit and elsewhere, will say your school is far
superior to them all.
Yours respectfully,
MSGR. F. C. NEISENS.
146 Stammering — Its Origin and
Was a Severe Stammerer — Now Permanently Cured
Manilla, Iowa, Dec. 18th, 1909.
Mr. L. W. Millard,
Milwaukee, Wis.
Your letter asking how I am getting along reached me this evening and I
wish to make it known that I attended your institution this autumn and have
been greatly benefited and I have a perfect cure, I am sure. I believe the
North-Western School to be the best institution for the cure of stammering in
the world. The method is simple and easy to learn. No time beating and
sing-songing such as is used at the Lewis school.
I also wish to state that I am an ex-pupil and wish to say that in my judg-
ment, and others whom I have spoken with, the Lewis and the North-Western
School methods are beyond comparison — one being so much different from the
other. Mr. Millard's method is Natural and Mr. Lewis' is Unnatural and
unscientific — or just a substitute for stammering.
I am talking fine and have lost all my old fear of stammering and shall be
glad to recommend the North-Western School for Stammerers to any pros-
pective pupil, as I feel that they will get a good cure if they attend this school.
I can assure them they will be treated right while attending. I remain,
Very sincerely yours,
HUGH S. THOMPSON.
Answer to an Inquiry from a Stammerer
Milwaukee, Wis., Nov. 16th, 1910.
Dear Sir: — Your letter received, and I am glad to answer your inquiry,
as I am also an ex-pupil of the Lewis school. I can assure you that I am satis-
fied with the results obtained at the North-Western School, which I attended
a couple of years ago, and I certainly advise you to go there if you are going
to take a course in speech-training. I am quite sure that Mr. Lewis would
charge you a second tuition, as I wrote him asking to go back to his school
after I left there and found I was not cured, and that I could not follow his
method away from his school, and he wanted a second tuition from me. So if
you have to pay another tuition you might as well attend a school where you will
get better results than you can at the Lewis school. I found the Lewis method
very embarrasssing after I got away from the school and was soon stammering
as bad as ever again.
The method used at the North-Western School is simple, natural and very
easy to follow, and it is not at all embarrassing. No one would know you were
attending a school for stammerers where instructions and method are so nat-
ural. I therefore advise you to attend the North-Western School, as you
certainly get a cure there if anywhere, and many ex-Lewis pupils are there at
present getting cured. If you follow the method at all, you can be talking
fine in a few weeks. Hoping this will answer your inquiry satisfactorily, I am,
Yours truly,
BENNETT LARSON,
Care American Express Co., 366 Broadway.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 147
Recommended by a Prominent School Principal
Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Sir:— In reply to your letter asking about the North- Western School
for Stammerers, I can highly recommend the school to anyone who is suffering
from an impediment of speech. I have had an opportunity to observe the
cures they are making and know of several who have been cured in that school
after having failed to get the desired results in several other well known
schools for stammerers. In fact, several former pupils of the Cream City
Business College have been cured of stammering in the North-Westem School
and I cheerfully recommend it. Yours very truly,
W. W. WAY, President, Cream City Business College.
Forty Years of Age — Cured in Four Weeks
Dear Mr. Millard:— In looking over some letters and papers, I just came
across some of your rules for perfect speech. They remind me again of your
school, and I must write.
I owe you my best and many thousand thanks for the cure of my stam-
mering and for my perfect speech. I am getting along just O. K. There is
nothing of so much importance to a man as to be able to talk well. My fear
has left me altogether and I feel like a new man; like a bird m the air— free to
talk to anyone. I have just received a letter from Mr. Thompson, saying he
is getting along fine in his talking. Well, I must close for this time, and wish-
ing you a prosperous new year, I remain,
B Yours faithfully,
F. W. WIGGERS,
Box 462, South Kaukauna, Wis.
Brothers Cured in a Few Days
Turtle Lake, No. Dak., March, 1st, 1911.
Mr. Lee Wells Millard, President,
The North-Western School, Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Mr. Millard:— My brother Harry and I attended your institution
for five weeks the past winter, and we are cured and feel greatly satisfied with
our course of treatment. We were both bad stammerers at the time we en-
tered you institute, but after following your advanced natural method a few
days we could talk nicely. We then remained long enough to confirm a good
cure. We were corresponding with the G. A. Lewis school, but hearing that
Lewis did not cure his pupils naturally and could not finish a cure at his school,
we decided to try your school. After coming to your institute we met a large
number of Lewis' failures getting cured under your method, and we were then
very glad we chose your school as the place to get cured. Your method is just
as described in your catalog. I will say that anyone troubled with stammering
should certainly go to your institution. Wishing you much future success,
I remain, Yours very truly,
WALTER PHILBRICK,
Box 159, Turtle Lake, No. Dak.
148 Stammering — Its Origin and
From Rev. Father Bernhard Traudt
Secretary to Most Rev. Sebastian G. Messmer, Bishop Catholic Diocese
of Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wis.
It affords me great pleasure to recommend the North- Western School for
Stammerers to any person afflicted with an impediment of the speech.
I believe this institution is well worthy of indorsement when its system of
instruction has been the means of uplifting the burden of stammering from its
students and giving them natural fluent speech.
The successful results obtained from the method pursued are the strongest
evidence of its advantage to those in need of its services, and I trust this school
may continue in its noble work of relieving the stammerer of his difficulty in
speech. Very truly yours,
REV. FATHER BERNHARD TRAUDT.
2000 Grand Avenue.
Attended Sixteen Years Ago
Waterloo, Iowa, Nov. 11th, 1906.
To Whom It May Concern: — This is to certify that I took a course of
instruction at the North- Western School for Stammerers during May and June
of 1904, and after two years' trial of my cure I would say that I am satisfied
and consider my time and money well spent. I had previously attended
several of the most widely advertised, many promise and "guarantee-
to-cure" schools in Detroit and other cities, only to leave them bitterly dis-
appointed and with my confidence in all badly shaken. Your methods used
are natural and scientific and far in advance of any that I know of, and you
are at liberty to use my name as reference at any time. Wishing you continued
success in your chosen work, I remain,
Respectfully yours,
JOHN A. WILDER, 424 Saxon Street.
Cured as Well as Benefited in Health and Body
Mr. Lee Wells Millard, Buffalo Lake, Minn., July 15th, 1911.
Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Mr. Millard: — I have been wanting to write you for such a long time,
but, as the saying goes, "It's better late than never." However, I beg to be
pardoned for waiting so long.
I often think of Milwaukee and the school, and especially the pleasant stay
I had at your institution. I shall never forget your kindness shown me and
also how pleasant Mrs. Millard made it for us. It seems I can imagine myself
back at the school now, talking pleasantly to you and the pupils. Hope to
visit you for a day or two sometime in the future, if I can.
I am getting along fine and dandy, both in talking and otherwise. I was
not only cured, but benefited and strengthened in body as well, thanks to your
school. I wish you continued success in your work. I am,
Your sincere friend,
LUKE D. BURGSTAHLER.
The Advanced Natural Method of Cure 149
Failed at Detroit School — Was Cured Here
Cowley, Alberta, Canada, Sept. 29th, 1912.
Mr. Lee Wells Millard,
Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Mr. Millard: — I was very glad to hear from you again and to learn
the school is prospering and that you intend to erect a large school building in
a year or so. Yes, I am talking fine and will be glad to recommend that anyone
attend your school. After failing at the Lewis school in Detroit and then get-
ting such a fine cure at your institution, it is only to be expected that I am
highly in favor of your system of natural training for the cure of stammering.
You make your students feel at home and use every one like a gentleman.
This was just contrary to the treatment I had received at the Lewis school I
attended before coming to you, and, of course, I appreciated it all the more at
your school. I engaged in many political arguments with my brothers and
friends after coming home and I can remember my mother saying: "Why,
James, you surely are cured; you could never talk that way when you came
from the other stammering school." Wishing you the best of success, I am
your sincere friend, _„
y JAMES DWYER.
Has No Trouble in Speech at All
Armington, Mont.
Dear Mr. Millard:— I received your welcome letter sometime ago, asking
me how I am getting along, and I was very glad to hear from you. I am sorry
I could not answer sooner, but have been kept quite busy since coming home.
The first thing I want to speak about is that I am talking just as fine as
ever, and having no trouble in my speech at all. Now that I can talk, I can
have a good time anywhere, no matter where I go. I got a letter from Mr.
Burgstahler, Buffalo Lake, Minn., and he says he is talking very fine, too.
He says he often thinks of the fine time he had at your school. I certainly
had a fine time also while there. It seems so good to be able to say anything
you want to without stammering. I went to Belt, Mont., the other day and
talked to the banker who wrote to you, and I talked with the mayor and to
some storekeepers, and they were all surprised to find me talking so fine.
My father is very much pleased with, my cure and is now very glad he sent
me to your school. With best wishes to you and the school, and all the students
there, I remain,
Yours best friend,
FRED SIEGLING.
Attainment is the golden chain that binds us to our duty.
The Millard Instructor
A Key To Perfect Speech
CLOTH BOUND, STAMPED IN PURE GOLD
f[ The contents of this book when properly applied are invalu-
able. It is a key to the Advanced Natural Method, and con-
tains an alphabetical analysis, and rules to follow for overcoming
difficulty on the different letters and hard combinations and
various elements of articulation.
€[ All the necessary requisites for overcoming stammering are
arranged and illustrated in a clear and practical, common
sense manner.
€[ This book is not for sale either by the author and publisher,
or by anyone into whose hands it may come as licensee.
€[ The privilege of using this text book is extended by the author,
only to those students enrolled at and who have paid their tuition
to the North-Western School for Stammerers, for the course of
speech training, under our Advanced Natural Method.
150
The Natural Speech Magazine
Published monthly in the interest
of those afflicted with Stammering,
Stuttering and other speech imped-
iments.
By
LEE WELLS MILLARD
Down through all the ages of time since man developed intelligible utter-
ance, stammering has been prevalent. Since the earliest stages of historical
record, speech impediments have handicapped a certain percent of the human
race.
Only during recent years, however, has any degree of perfection been
reached in the successful treatment of speech defects. The North- Western
School for Stammerers was founded by me nearly twenty years ago for the
cure of stammering and all speech imperfections by the Advanced Natural
Method.
This institution has published many valuable works on the origin of
stammering, its tendencies and effects, and the Advanced Natural Method
of cure.
ITS PURPOSE
The purpose of this magazine is to extend the influence of the North-
western School for Stammerers to the furthermost parts of civilization and to
impart to all speech sufferers the knowledge of the Advanced Natural Method
of Cure.
Each issue will contain interesting and scientific articles covering every
phase of the various imperfections of speech.
From time to time it will carry announcements of the North- Western
School for Stammerers, appertaining to the tuition rate and record the ad-
vancement and progress of the institution.
Hence the school will, in a larger sense, convey and impart a knowledge
of its work and bring to the home of every stammerer it can get in touch
with, a message of good cheer and articles of self-help, that will be instructive
as well as informative.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE
If you are not receiving this interesting and instructive magazine, write
me a letter signifying your interest in the Advanced Natural Method for the
cure of your speech impediment and I will put your name on our list to re-
ceive it regularly free of charge.
151
What young David did to the giant Goliath anyone can do to the giant
"Stammering," if they are possessed with the "weapons" of Relaxation, Deep
Breathing, Continuity of Voice, Visualization, Light Articulation and Will
Power— the ESSENTIAL QUALITIES necessary to overcome stammering.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY
RC424F20 BOSS
Stammering:
II
1 1711 DDM5E SA71
RC
F20
Millard
Stammering; its origin and the
advanced natural method of cure
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