Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/74

STAMFORD 48 STANCHFIELD, JOHN BARBY 13, from King John's time till 1839. Among its many interesting buildings should be mentioned St. Mary's, with a fine spire, All Saints, with a fine tower and steeple, St. Martin's, with Lord Burghley's grave, a town hall, corn ex- change, literary institute, a bridge, Brown's Hospital (15th century), and boys' and girls' high schools. "Burghley House, by Stamford town," is a magnifi- cent Renaissance pile, dating from 1575, with a noble park, carvings by Grinling Gibbons, and a great collection of pic- tures. The trade and industries are mainly agricultural. Pop. about 10,000. STAMMERING, or STUTTERING, an infirmity of speech, the result of fail- ure in co-ordinate action of certain muscles and their appropriate nerves. It is analogous to some kinds of lameness, to cramp or spasm, or partial paralysis of the arms, wrists, hands, and fingers, occasionally suffered by violinists, pian- ists, and swordsmen; to the scrivener's palsy, or writer's cramp, of men who write much. Stammering may be hereditary, and it may be acquired by imitation. It may be the result of mental strain or shock. Fever may bring it on, epilepsy, hysteria, and nervous affection, temporary failure of health, any excitement, soreness of the mouth. It rarely shows itself earlier than at 4 or 5 years of age. It usually begins in youth, but may be produced at any later age. Stammering occurs in the mouth, the organ of articulation. Its proximate cause is always in the larynx, the organ of voice. Sometimes the lungs, the organ of breathing, complicate the uncertainty and unsteadiness of the vocal cords and the vocal chink in the larynx. Stammering can be cured. It often disappears gradually without effort at cure. Improvement generally takes place as age advances. In some cases resolute endeavor is demanded. A wav- ing motion of the arms, tinie kept to a baton, were favored as cures at one time. They were on the lines of the musical methods of cure — intoning, chanting, singing — which were based on the fact that most stammerers can sing. These brief instructions should be tried. Regulate the breath. Work for a habitual use of the chest voice — i. e. for deeper, steadier vibration of the vocal chords — because people generally stam- mer in a head voice. Take exercise, in a chest voice, on the sound (seldom vowels) at which a stumble is apt to be made. Special attention should be paid to possible eye-strain, difficult nasal- breathing, adenoid growths, and diseased tonsils. STAMP, a term specifically applied to the public mark or seal made by a gov- ernment or its officers upon paper or parchment whereon private deeds or other legal agi'eements are written, and for which certain charges are made for purposes of revenue. The name is also applied to a small piece of stamped paper issued by government, to be at- tached to a paper, letter, or document liable to duty. See Stamp Duty. STAMP ACT, an act for regulating the stamp duties to be imposed on various documents, specifically an act passed by the British Parliament in 1765, impos- ing a stamp duty on all paper, parch- ment, and vellum used in the American colonies, and declaring all writings on unstamped paper, etc., to be null and void. The indignation roused by this act was one of the causes of the Revolu- tionary War. STAMP DUTY, a tax or duty imposed on pieces of parchment or paper, on which many species of legal instruments are written. In Great Britain stamp duties on legal instruments used to be chiefly secured by prohibiting the recep- tion of them in evidence unless they bore the stamp required by the law. By the Customs and Inland Revenue Act (1888), however, the not stamping of bonds, conveyances, leases, mortgages, or settlements, is held to be an offense punishable by a fine of $50. The inter- nal revenue acts of the United States of 1862, and subsequent years, required stamps for a great variety of subjects, under severe penalties in the way of fines and invalidating of written in- struments; stamps for tobacco are still in use. See Tax. STAMP MILL, a contrivance of great utility in reducing hard mineral ores to a pulverized condition. It consists of an engine containing a series of heavy iron shod pestles. STANCHFIELD, JOHN BARRY, an American lawyer and public official, born in Elmira, N. Y., in 1855. He graduated from Amherst College in 1876 and from Harvard Law School in the following year. In 1878 he was admitted to the bar and practiced at Elmira from 1878 to 1900. Dui'ing a part of the time he was a partner of David Bennett Hill. From 1885 to 1905 he was a member of the firm of Reynolds, Stanchfield & Col- lin, New York. His political career in- cluded service as mayor of Elmira from 1886 to 1888, and as assemblyman in 1895-6. In 1900 he was Democratic candidate for governor of New York and in 1901 was Democratic nominee for United States senator. He was one of