The Washington herald., 1914-02-14
WON AN Il Nd THE HOME
WHO'S WHO AMONG
PROGRESSIVE WOMEN
Mrs. Elizabeth A. d. Foote Il 4 Won
der Worker in Cuins De-
fective Speech.
Dy NARY .. NULLErr.

81
Dy NARY y. HULLErF.
tcoyr1sst. isis b. Mscmrs Ne~sesp-z Asaieatsl
Taking the kinks out Of detective
speech" wouldn't be bad wsy % de-
scribing the special work Of Nfs. Elisa
beth A. ID. Foote, Of .Waveriey. Naas.
These kinks range from stammering.
and even less Troublesome impediments,
to entire inability to form spoken words;
and they are far-more common than most
people imagine.
Sufferers to- 60 serenely on their vocal
way without those agonixsng moments
which move their hearers to mingled
mirth and pity. She has robbed the letter
- of Its terrors for lispers- She has
cured half-grown boys and girls OF the
lingering results Of early over-indulgence
In baby talk" a,
People who speak SO fast that their
words tumble over ,one another until
they come to dead stop In the midst of
the vocal wreckage. have learned from
Mrs. Foote a new watchword: More
haste. less speech" There are many.
many others she has helped. And there
are some. 80 she says, who need help al
most az much. though they themselves
do not realize Il: people. for instance. who
Chew" their words until their CONVEX
sation 10 Fletcherized beyond all UNDER
standing.
It 10 said that the age Of miracles Is
past. But the people of the town where
Mrs. Foote spends her summers are al
most inclined to think that belated one
has happened In this twentieth century,
and In their own community. This Is
because q nine-year-old boy who had
never been able to utter an Ineligible
word. has been taught by Mrs. Foote to
speak 80 well that his playmates (who
used to call him Baby in derision), now
plead with him to talk some more" add
ing:
You talk 20 pretty. we like to hear
you.'
Not MiraesIo.s.
Even the experts in such matters con-
sider this achievement an almost unpar-
alleled thing. But there In nothing
miraculous about II. The result IL due
to months Of hard work on Mrs. Foote'S
part. and Of earnest effort by the child.
What II will mean in his life Is incalcul-
able. 1t has substituted happiness for
misery, probable success for almost GER
tain failure.
This boy was not mentally deficient
Quite the contrary. In fact. Mrs. Foote
does not undertake to cure the feeble
minded. She says she cannot make In
teliect." The mind must be clear and
the will to be cured must be strong. She
will not take a child who is not old
enough to understand what she tells him
to do. She declines such cases, but not
without prescribing treatment to be car
ried on under the direction of . physi-
clan.
Her treatment Is based on the fact that
speech Is mechanical; il Is merely the
using OF certain natural instruments Cthe
vocal organs) in certain definite ways.
Most OF us learn to play, so to speak.
on these natural instruments by mere i'm
itation. not really knowing how We pro-
duce the sounds We make so easily. But
In certain persons this initiative faculty
seems to be wanting. or not fully devel-
oped. Mrs. Foote teaches these persons
exactly how to use the mechanism of
speech. so that they can do consciously
what the rest of US do unconsciously.
She began the work by one of those ap-
parently haphazzard chances which play
so strange a part in our lives Her hus-
band had been reading OF q school for
stammerers and asked her IL she didn't
think II was wonderful.
Il could do 1t myself" was her calm
reply.
I'm that case. 1t is your duty to do IT,"
said her husband. possibly with a trace
Of incredulity in his tone
Understasds Her Work.
do you suppose" demanded Mrs.
Foote. that l have been studying the
voice under different masters for seven
years and yet don't know why some peo-
pie do no talk properly? Show me q
stammerer and I'll cure him.
As IL Fate itsef took her at her word
inside OF two weeks an eighteen-year- -oid
boy was Installed in her home as her first
pupil. He could not begin a sentence
with any definite prospect of being able
to finish II. Half the time he couldn't
even make a beginning. When he went
home at the end of three months, he could
not only speak any words he wished. but
he knew how he produced the sounds
That. indeed. was the secret OF his cure. |
Mrs. Foote does not believe in class in
since no two cases need pre-
cisely the same treatment. She some
times has three or four pupils. who are
well advanced, read aloud for each other |
and indulge in mutual criticism. But the |
real training Is a matter of severe un- |
remitting. individual drill
TT is the most wearing teaching |
know Of" says Mrs. Foote. "and the most |
Each case has to be studied |
separately to find out why one person |
cannot produce certain sounds while the |
next one perhaps can produce those par
ticular sounds but Is helpless before GER
tain others. I assure you there is never |
any prospect Of either pupil or teacher |
going to sleep at one of these lessonsi |
For their practice in reading-those who |
are sufficiently advanced-there is moth |
ing like the psalms. The solemn. state
ly movement Of the sentences and the |
tonal absence of anxiety on the readers
pert a. to how the story Is coming out |
calm the mind and leave II free to con-
centrate on the mechanical act OF enun- |
ciation-and that Is the vital point"