© 1970 G. Vonne Meussling
Excerpt from A Dissertation
Submitted to the Graduate School of Bowling Green State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
December 1970
This study of William S. Sadler (1875-1969), physician, surgeon, psychiatrist, professor, and author of forty-two books, investigates that phase of his career devoted to oratory. It concentrates upon the period 1905 to 1926 when he was a popular lecturer on Chautauqua platforms. It traces the influences which molded his public speaking interest from a high school commencement address delivered at the age of eight to the decision to become a public lecturer. This was unprecedented in an era when concepts of the American Medical Association did not permit doctors to advertise. He was a student of Sigmund Freud, an associate of Alfred Adler, Karl Jung and John Harvey Kellogg. These associations were evidenced as influential factors in his career.
The purpose of this study was to analyze rhetorically those elements of Sadler’s speeches on preventive medicine which governed his oral contributions. His message focused on the education of the masses so as to counteract public ignorance, medical quackery, and harmful patent remedies. The study revealed that audiences were eager for authentic health information.
Sadler had no published biography; however, the writer had access to his personal papers and books. Letters attesting to his popularity as a speaker were found in Special Collections at the University of Iowa. Early speeches were discovered at The John Crerar Library in Chicago.
Sadler would not be classified as a great orator; yet, he gained audience appeal through a unique style and implementation of histrionics and humor.
William Samuel Sadler was born in Spencer, Indiana, to Samuel Cavins Sadler and Sarah Isabelle (Wilson) Sadler on June 24, 1875. His father was a graduate of the Chicago Conservatory of Music; he was a teacher and a performer.
Preparation for becoming an orator began early in young Sadler’s life. While living in Wabash, Indiana, he spent much time listening to a relative, General McNaught, one-time Chief of scouts to General U. S. Grant, tell stories about the Civil War. Further exposure to history came from General Lew Wallace, a close neighbor, who was at the time writing Ben Hurl Sadler was fortunate to have Wallace’s history books in which to look at pictures of battles and to read as much as a boy of eight could comprehend. He possibly was preparing his first speech as he thought about history and entertained himself by laying out battle plans in his back yard.[1]
His first informal speaking opportunity came while at a family reunion. For entertainment, General McNaught asked him if he would like to give a speech on the battles of history. A rain barrel was the platform for his first discourse. McNaught was amazed at his tremendous apperception.[2] Through associates of General McNaught, Sadler received the opportunity to deliver his first formal speech at the age of eight. Addressing a high school commencement in Indianapolis, Indiana, on “The Crucial Battles of History,” his public speaking career was launched.[3]
A few years later, while searching through the attic when he was twelve, he found an old Bible. Thinking about the old deserted church across the tracks from his house, he called his baseball buddies together and for several afternoons they “played church,” i.e. , his gang was the audience and he was the speaker. This small beginning of preaching in a vacated pulpit had its reverberations as he continued to prepare himself for a career of public speaking.[4]
Sadler’s mother would not allow him to attend the public schools following the death of his sister because she was afraid that he might contract a communicable disease; thus, he received most of his formal education from his parents, tutors, and through his own initiative.[5]
At the age of fourteen, Sadler left his home in Wabash, Indiana, and moved to Battle Creek, Michigan. He worked as a bell boy in the world renowned Battle Creek Sanitarium headed by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and attended Battle Creek College. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was influential in molding the lives of many young people “In those days he did much toward giving needed counsel, direction, and even financial assistance to . . . young men who were struggling to get ahead.”[6] Kellogg was to have more than a passing influence on the life of Sadler.
At the college Sadler organized a group of boys to study rhetoric under a Professor Bell. In order to study Latin, he organized another class under the direction of Professor Percy McGann; this class met at 5:00 a.m. before work started at the sanitarium. Sadler had a propensity for organizational techniques which can be observed through-out his career.
During this time when he was sixteen and was visiting a church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the minister extended an open invitation to the laity to speak; Sadler impulsively accepted the opportunity. After church the minister called him into his study and inquired concerning his knowledge of the Bible. The minister was planning a two-week vacation; he asked Sadler to preach for him during his absence. Sadler was eager to speak and for two weeks he preached both morning and evening sermons. He received letters of commendation concerning these efforts; a local newspaper called him “the boy preacher.”[7] His preaching as a boy possibly led to his later decision to enter the ministry.
On March 7, 1899, he became a licensed minister of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and in 1901 he became an ordained minister.[8]
However, he rarely revealed this facet of his career to his closest associates. In his youth, Sadler did not remain with one career for long; he adapted to new situations easily and was willing to apply his energies to new tasks.
When William K. Kellogg, Harvey’s brother, began the manufacture of health foods in 1893, Sadler was asked to be salesman and to present these foods to the grocery trade. In 1894, at the age of nineteen, Sadler began to demonstrate the use of health food. He became successful and did so well at the selling profession that the factory had difficulty filling his orders.[9] Undoubtedly Sadler drew upon this phase of his career for techniques in dealing with competitors, and it provided personal illustrations of how to attain sales from clientele.
He was later to recall this authoritative information in his speech, “What Every Salesman Should Know About His Health.”
While at Battle Creek, Sadler combined his organizational abilities and a penchant for detective work by forming the Young Men’s Intelligence Society. This was to lead to an interesting addition to the broadening experiences of his early career. Working in association with the Comstock Society for the Suppression of Vice and with United States Post Office Inspectors, Sadler figured predominantly in a number of successful exposures of illicit printers and purveyors of porno-graphic literature in the city of Chicago.[10]
In 1895, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, founder of the Chicago Medical Mission, sent Sadler to Chicago to be secretary of the medical mission. This mission was operated by the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Society. There were approximately a dozen centers of activity in the city that were under the direction of the mission. Some of these were the Mission Training School, Life Boat Mission, Free Dispensary affiliated with Pacific Garden Mission, Working Men’s Home, Day Nurseries, Chicago’s first free baths, and the News Boys’ Club.[11] In addition to his executive responsibilities, Sadler was the initiator of a magazine called The Life Boat. For six years he edited this magazine that reported the accounts of the Mission; the circulation reached 150,000.[12]
During the years that he worked with the “skid row,” Sadler developed insights concerning human behavior. When he periodically returned to Battle Creek, the gymnasium would be filled with nurses and workers of the sanitarium in order to hear his inspiring accounts of the work with the outcasts of Chicago. His personal papers mentioned that “everyone who heard him was inspired with the spirit of ‘onward,’ and of ‘making that which is, what it ought to be.”’[13] Many years later he gave lectures on the Chautauqua circuit concerning the life of those unfortunates who lived in the city slums.
While Sadler was working with the Chicago Medical Mission, Dr. Kellogg felt it necessary that he receive more evangelistic instruction. He therefore enrolled as a special student at Moody Bible Institute.
In 1897, Sadler married Lena Kellogg, the niece of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. In 1899 their first son was born, but lived only nine months. While comforting his wife, Sadler said, “You can have another baby, and perhaps in the meantime since you have always wanted to do it, we can study medicine.” [14]
They entered Cooper Medical College in San Francisco in 1901. While at Cooper they earned their room and board by operating a home for Christian medical students; they also tutored students in chemistry. Kellogg urged them to return to Chicago to finish their studies. Thus, Sadler and his wife returned to Chicago and matriculated in the University of Chicago (Rush Medical College) to finish their medical training. While finishing his medical work, Sadler paid his expenses by lecturing and by special detective work.[15]
Again, he demonstrated a talent for this type of activity. Largely through his services, a wide-scale situation of graft in Chicago politics was exposed.[16] Many years later, he reflected how this work had almost led him into an entirely different career than the one he followed. He had been offered an executive position in the governmental intelligence organization which eventually was to become the Federal Bureau of Investigation.[17]
In 1925 he inscribed his book, Americanitis, to his wife, “to my dear wife and co-laborer—who first listened to this lecture 20 years ago—with love and best wishes—W.S.S”.[18] In 1906, they both graduated from medical school and began their medical practice together. The Sadlers were not only husband and wife, but also were business associates. They had adjoining offices. They performed operations together and worked as a team.[19]
In December, 1907, their second son, William Samuel, Jr., was born. As will be shown later, Sadler’s family participated in many of his activities; however, it was his leadership and organizational ability which established the character of his multi-faceted career. Yet, Sadler did not care for the limitations of institutional management.
Several individuals sought Sadler’s organizational ability; Dr. David Paulson requested his help in the organization of the Hinsdale Sanitarium. A Guggenheim family was interested in establishing a combination sanitarium and hotel in a northern Chicago suburb. They offered to spend six million dollars for the institution and would have given the Sadlers fifty-one per cent of the stock, had they administered the operation. However, the contract stated that full-time work must be given to the institution. Sadler was tenacious concerning his lecturing; thus, he refused to sign the contract. Yet, the architectural sketch of the building that never materialized still hangs in Sadler’s former office on Diversey Street.[20]
Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, who was interested in the Hull House social service center, founded in Chicago by Jane Addams, invited Sadler to work with this project; however, because Sadler felt that physical health could not be taught separate from spiritual health, their association never actualized.[21]
Sadler believed that the laity was passing through a period of popular reaction against the scientific materialism of the last century. “The common people are awaking to the fact that the mental state has much to do with bodily health and disease.”[22]
We have reached that time in the awakening of the health consciousness of the American people when the man or woman of average intelligence is beginning to appreciate the value of maintaining good health—and further, that health is usually better promoted by doing something than by taking something.[23]
Eventually Sadler gave up surgery and entered into psychiatry full time. In 1911 he went to Europe to study under Freud. Although he respected Freud, he rejected his notion of fixed symbols.
“Now, I don’t mean by this that I am a believer in all the non-sense that has been put out under the guise of modern Freudian philosophy. When I have a patient who has a sex worry, I find the Freudian system very helpful in trying to get at the bottom of the thing and helping them over their trouble; but when it comes to the belief that all forms of worry, tension and nerves are of a sex origin, then I dissent . While we all recognize much that is valuable in Freud’s teaching, it should be stated that he has not convinced the majority of psychologists and psychotherapists that all nervous disorders have a sex origin.
We recognize that there are other human instincts and impulses just as strong as the sex urge. First of all there comes the instinct to live, to get food, and then, in many individuals, the religious emotion is very powerful, so that we cannot accept the Freudian doctrine that all our nervous troubles are due to suppression of the emotions and further that the particular emotion suppressed that is responsible for the trouble is the sex emotion.”[24]
Sadler found some of the quotations from ancient philosophers an assistance to his nervous patients. He suggested that the worrier should often read this quote from Marcus Aurelius:
Do not disturb thyself by thinking of the whole of thy life. Let not thy thought at once embrace all the various troubles which thou mayest expect to befall thee; but on every occasion ask thyself, “What is there in this which is intolerable and past bearing?” . . . remember that neither the future nor the past claims thee, but only the present. . . .
Sadler agreed with the old physician, Rhazes; dyadic communication did have power in bringing about the cure of some patients. Rhazes believed that many illnesses were psychological.
In the 9th century, the great physician Rhazes attended an emir who was so badly crippled that he could not walk. First Rhazes ordered the emir’s best horse to be saddled and brought into the court-yard. Rhazes gave the emir hot showers and a stiff drink. Then, brandishing a knife, he cursed his patient, threatened to kill him. Furious, the crippled man sprang to his feet. With his patient hot on his trail, the doctor leaped on the horse and escaped.[25]
According to his close associates, Sadler maintained a schedule of perpetual activity; assiduously devoting himself to his practice, to his lecturing, and to his prolific writing. Only by diligent attention to essentials, promptness in dealing with details and selective apportionment of energy was he able to carry out these demanding undertakings. “Perhaps there are a few minutes between acts when he sits down to dictate letters or write another chapter of the book. Always loaded to the limit and beyond. . . .”[26]
Before the age of forty, he stayed up all night during one night of each week and dictated to two secretaries. He had a remarkable memory. While dictating books he mentioned that words just flowed before his eyes as though on a movie screen.[27] His personal secretary of seventeen years mentioned that the notes that he took concerning his patient’s diagnosis were meager; yet, after several years had elapsed, she could pull a case history from the ,file and he would fill in the details. In spite of these heavy demands, Sadler remained a “cheerful, optimistic man” because his joy was in his work which was basically interacting with people.[28]
As a psychiatrist, he worked with mentally disturbed and nervous patients. He was prompt in keeping his appointments with them, and he took time to describe their prognosis in simple terms. “He had a tremendous capacity for listening to his patients;”[29] and he would often console them by saying:
No use to worry—worry ruins your mind. Worry is like paying interest on a loan at the bank—on money you’ve never borrowed. If you can do something about a situation do it, if you can’t just adjust to it. . . . Do not be fearful of life; the universe is friendly.[30]
Sadler’s students were advised, “Don’t forget semantics. A word may mean one thing to the doctor and something entirely different to the patient.”[31] Revealing his concern for his patients, he often remarked, “There is nothing wrong with them; they have just decided to be invalids, and their mind is playing a trick on them.”[32] One illustration of a successful technique which Sadler employed was related by his daughter. A patient would come into the doctor’s office and would believe that his arm was paralyzed. After giving the patient a complete physical, and after ascertaining that it was the mind and inner thoughts that needed to be changed, he would set up electrical machinery and pretend it was especially designed for that patient. After informing the patient that he thought that he could cure him, he would prop up his pseudo-paralyzed arm and ostensibly give a few electric shots in the arm. Then he would gradually take the prop away and try to convince the patient that he was no longer paralyzed.[33]
Occasionally Sadler discovered insights into the workings of the human mind almost by accident, as in the case of a hypochondriac who more or less cured himself. He used this true experience illustration in his “Faith and Fear” lecture:
“Into my clinic many years ago there came a colored man with some minor complaint. After placing a thermometer under his tongue, closing his lips with great care, asking him to breathe through his nose and keep his mouth closed, I left him seated in one corner of the room. In the meantime I continued my lecture and quite forgot about the patient. After some thirty minutes I chanced to glance about the room and discovered him sitting like a statue in the exact position I had left him. I immediately went over to him and, taking the thermometer out of his mouth, inquired, ”Well, how are you feeling now?“ Imagine my astonishment upon receiving this reply, ”Well, professah, I didn’t taste nothin’ but I sho’ do feel better.“ This colored gentleman undoubtedly had never seen a thermometer, and like the patient with the paralysis, supposed he had been receiving some new and mysterious treatment. At any rate, after three applications of the thermometer on alternate days, he declared himself to be sufficiently improved to resume work at his old job.”[34]
In expressing himself freely with patients, Sadler instilled the trust factor; his patients sensed that nothing that they revealed ever shocked him. Patients had an adoration and respect for him. Although he was never unkind, he was frank in pointing out mistakes and seldom offered compliments. This was in accord with his philosophy that people can do a great deal in their own maintenance of health.[35]
The genuine psychiatrist . . . does not want to build up a constituency of semiworshipping weaklings who are ever dependent upon his advice and guidance. He should crave the fellowship of a great group of men and women who are so thoroughly cured of their neurotic tendencies as to be quite free from the necessity of depending upon him for continuous guidance. . . .[36] To the same end, Sadler devoted considerable effort to improve the public attitude toward scientific psychiatry and the dangers presented by the incompetents seeking profit for treatment of emotional disorders. a speech delivered to the American Psychiatric Association, Sadler urged upon his fellow practitioners a continual campaign to educate the public to the “increasing menace of pseudo-psychologists, ignorant mental-hygienists, and half-baked practitioners of psychiatry, to say nothing of the clairvoyants, soothsayers, and spiritualistic mediums.”[37] He deplored the paucity of psychiatric information that was b! eing offered in the medical schools, believing that all physicians ought to be “psychiatrically minded.”[38] To demonstrate that this concern was more than academic, Sadler had established a private clinic for physicians in Chicago, where at no cost, accredited physicians could receive in a two year’s course “65 hours of didactic and 65 hours of clinical work.”[39] Dr. Sadler reported that, although “this clinic was started with many misgivings,” the sessions were well attended by interested and appreciative students.[40]
Adherence to the ethical requirements of the American Medical Association generally signified the professional concern of the practicing physician; to ignore them was prima-facie evidence of questionable activities. The admonishment against advertising was a recurrent subject in official statements of the Association.
Solicitation of patients by physicians as individuals, or collectively in groups . . . is unprofessional. . . . It is equally unprofessional to procure patients by . . . indirect advertisement, or by furnishing or inspiring newspaper or magazine comments concerning cases in which the physician has been or is concerned.[41]
Consequently, in 1910, as was the practice of leading physicians in the city of Chicago, Sadler’s name was not to be found on the door of his office.[42] This regard for propriety must have caused some difficulties for the type of services which Sadler wished to render. On the second floor of the building at 100 State Street was located the Chicago Institute of Physiologic Therapeutics, founded by Sadler in 1907. The purpose of this institution was to render diagnostic and surgical services’ plus physical and psychological therapeutic assistance to patients who came “on the instruction of some reputable medical practitioner.”[43]
Sadler described this clinic as “a thoroughly equipped and scientifically conducted institution . . . where every modern diagnostic facility necessary for the thorough and complete examination of a patient . . . could be administered under competent medical supervision, and in accordance with professional ethics.”[44] He carefully stressed the efforts which were made to enter into complete cooperation with the referring physician. In keeping with the principles of medical ethics which frowned upon those physicians who “. . . would boast of cures and remedies [or would] . . . employ any of the other methods of charlatans,”[45] Sadler’s references to the clinic could be described as modest and unassuming.
Among the first pioneers to write for the popular press were Dr. Woods Hutchinson and Sadler. An associate editor of the Ladies Home Journal came to the Sadler clinic ostensibly for an examination in 1911. She informed them that the editor of the magazine would be coming to Chicago to ask him to write for his magazine. Merle Crowell, the editor, persuaded Sadler to write several articles concerning health. However, when later Sadler was asked to send pictures with the articles, he feared that this request would be labeled unethical by the American Medical Association.
Since no Doctor had ever had his picture in a magazine or newspaper without losing his membership in the American Medical Association, it was necessary that the way be cleared for such an unprecedented move, before Mr. Crowell’s request could be met.[46]
With determination mixed with doubt and a feeling of trepidation, he approached the American Medical Association and the American College of Surgeons to seek advice. Both associations agreed that it was time for the public to be instructed in the essentials of preventive medicine and personal hygiene. They gave him permission to submit the pictures and offered to back him in this test of the ethical code.
The Index Medicus, a quarterly classified record of the current medical literature of the world, lists Sadler’s first article, “The Influence of the Oxygen Bath on Blood Pressure,” as having been written for the medical profession in 1910. Four other articles, “Curing Sick People Without Medicine,” “Can We Really Stop Worrying,” “What Wears Thousands of Us Out,” and “Making a Child What We Want Him to Be,” were written for the lay readers in the Ladies Home Journal the same year. During the years 1905 to 1926, only two other articles appeared in a medical journal: “The Practice of Preventive Medicine,” and “The Treatment of Intestinal Stasis”; however, many were written for the popular press. The subjects that he wrote about were outgrowths of his lectures. These articles bore such titles as: “Ways to Work Out Your Own Mind Cure,” “Are You Committing Suicide On the Installment Plan?”
“Cause and Cure of Colds,” “Don’t Fool With Tonics, They May Fool You,” “Lost Your Pep?” “Stop Coddling Yourself,” “They’re Your Feet But Stop Abusing Them,” “What To Do at Your Age to Protect Your Health,” “What You Can Do about Your Heredity,” “How the Mind Causes and Cures Disease,” “We’re All Afraid of Something,” “College Women and Race Suicide,” “Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It,” and “Juvenile Manic Activity.” He wrote one article for the journal of Criminal Law on “Sterilization of the Unfit.”[47] “Suburban and the City Child,” evolved from his Chautauqua lecture dealing with health conditions in the city slums. This list of titles is not exhaustive; however, the titles of many of his other articles are listed in the bibliography.
In addition to such articles, Sadler was the author of forty-two books, many of which were outgrowths of his lectures.[48] In the following pages brief resumes of these books which reflect the direction of his oratorical efforts will be given. These are presented at this time on the supposition that they will reveal the nature of his concerns.
Only nine of his forty-two books-will be reviewed, as they were results of his Chautauqua lectures. He had lectured on “Americanitis” for twenty years before making the speech extant in book form. Its basic thesis revealed that heredity and modern high tension was the cause of toxic tension, nervous tension and blood-pressure tension. A few book reviews in 1925 noted with some asperity:
Dr. Sadler covers the ground adequately; his discussion of toxic Tension, Nervous Tension and Blood Pressure Tension is couched in terms intelligible to laymen and is yet sound scientifically.-The tone of the book is injured somewhat by the jocosities of the author who writes a good deal like a Chautauqua lecturer addressing a hot-weather audience of weary morons.[49]
Americanitis, as a disease entity, is not very clearly established by the book, but this is a minor detail for it is avowedly a piece of popular writing. Dr. Sadler rambles through his subject like a preoccupied professor in springtime who has his hour to fill but has left his notes at home. However, he gives throughout his frank opinion on matters which are vital, and he registers very definite protests against our habits of unhealthful thinking and the vices of unhygienic living.[50]
“Men and Morals: A Lecture for Men Only,” a regular offering on the Chautauqua circuit coupled with other lectures on health and Sadler’s personal interest in salesmanship led to the creation of the popular lecture, “What Every Salesman Should Know About His Health,” and the book which followed. An elaborate treatment of this lecture will appear in chapter five of this paper.
His book, The Physiology of Faith and Fear, was an expansion of the following Chautauqua lectures: “Worry and Its Mental Cousins,” “The Psychology of Faith and Fear,” “The Physiology of Faith and Fear,” “The Bible on Faith and Fear,” “The Humbugs of Healing,” and “The Moral Management of Mental Maladies.”[51] This book illustrated how the mind affects the body and how the fundamental mental states of faith and fear make for or against health. Theories were derived from actual experiments, clinical observations and laboratory investigations.
Worry and Nervousness, or the Science of Self-Mastery was an extension of his lecture, “The Cause and Cure of Worry or How to Banish the Blues.” Sadler made a classification of seven sorts of nervousness, based on his own study of the cases that had come under his care. “Faith and Fear,” a Chautauqua lecture, was written for publication under the title, The Truth About Mind Cure.
Dr. Sadler, after twenty-five years of sympathetic study of the mind cure groups, now makes his report, giving the public the benefit of his long and varied experience . . . Discussing it from a popular angle, yet keeping to the scientific facts.
A lecture prepared for business women on mental, physical and moral factors making for success later, emerged as a book entitled Personality and Heath. The Cause and Cure of Colds discussed the causes of colds and the treatment of colds in their different stages. !so many thousands suffer from common colds each year, so much time is lost by them, so much money expended on them, and there is such a weakening of vitality: as a result of them that this Chautauqua lecture is now published.[52]
During World War I, Sadler participated in an under cover organization of security and measures of a volunteer protective association. According to his daughter, this was extremely secretive, and nothing but the mention of the fact was revealed in his papers.[53]
Sadler believed that anthropology was the answer to the cause of the war. He not only lectured to the Chautauqua circuits concerning this, but at the request of the Secretary of State, he used the lecture for the nucleus of his book, Long Heads and Round Heads. In it he stated:
Germany today is peopled by a docile, round-headed race with an inherited tendency to cruelty, viciousness, and with no more morals than a wolf. He claims they are Alpines, an inferior, stupid and non-progressive race, and are not real Teutons, having nothing ;whatever in common with that long-headed progressive and intelligent race.[54]
In 1911, Sadler began giving public addresses concerning the various phases of the phenomena and philosophy of spiritualism. He had had many patients under his professional care who had been clairvoyants, mediums’ trance talkers, psychics, and sensitives. Due to the great interest factor pertaining to spiritualism following the war, A. C. McClurg and Company, his publishers, asked Sadler to prepare the manuscript of his lecture for publication.[55]
Sadler had an unusual interest in the spiritualism phenomenon.
At one time he worked with Howard Thurston, the magician, in the exposure of frauds, fakes, and mediums in the Chicago area.[56]
It is not the intention of this paper to make the claim that Sadler was solely responsible for major changes in the American Medical Association or in the attitudes of the lay public toward medicine and medical practitioners. It may well be that such changes were forthcoming by the very nature of the social structure and dynamic institutions which were contributing to the evolutionary movement of American society. Certainly, in his own mind, and in the opinions of many who knew him, he had had a role of more than average significance. That change was occurring is attested to in statements found in the Index and Digest of Official Actions, published by the American Medical Association, where a record of a 1914 report mentions:
Of late years the American Medical Association, through its Council on Health and Public Instruction has endeavored to spread broadcast knowledge of preventive medicine and public hygiene. It has endeavored to educate the public to an appreciation of what physicians and surgeons are doing and what are their aims and ideals in medicine. This has aroused a widespread interest in the public mind, and the public press has eagerly seized on this propaganda as news which interests its readers and which is, therefore, something to be sought and published. This has been legitimate work of public benefit and for the public good, and no one questions that it should be highly commended.
Certain newspapers have heralded this stepping over the limits of the former strict adherence of the profession to its non-advertising principles as something laudatory and much to be desired.[57]
Although this change had taken place, the American Medical Association was still persistent in its efforts to prevent the abuse which this new freedom could possibly give birth to.[58]
Sadler’s position followed the logic that people were going to get their information from other sources less authentic and reliable; therefore, it was the responsibility of capable authorities to provide them with the correct inclination:
“. . . I myself am tempted to feel that it might be better to shut up like a clam and make an end of all this effort to instruct the layman, but my better judgment admonishes me that this is not the solution of the problem. Whether it pertains to science, philosophy, or religion, if a little knowledge is dangerous and the public already has this deleterious minimum of information, then there is but one solution of the problem—competent teachers must step into the picture and give the layman sufficient authentic information to take the danger out of the little knowledge he has.”[59]
When Sadler entered the practice of psychiatry full time, he did not abdicate his self-chosen mission of health instruction and preventive medicine. Rather, he believed that the mental-hygiene movement , could profit and learn from the earlier experience “gained in the | propagation of preventive medicine.”[60] Consistent with his efforts to I educate the public concerning physical hygiene, he began a public educational program concerning mental hygiene; he urged his fellow psychiatrists to “make every possible effort to remove from the public minds the stigma attached to mental, emotional, and personality I disorders.”[61] He attacked quackery in mental medicine and strategically , sought to provide enlightenment about mental problems to those individuals whose relationship with the public were most apt to bring them into contact with victims of such disorders.
Following the pattern of his classes in psychiatry for physicians, Sadler initiated a clinic for similar instruction of ministers, priests and rabbis. This “pastoral psychiatry clinic . . . [was] designed to help a minister of religion to a better understanding of the psychic, emotional, and personality problems of those who seek his counsel”.[62] The carefully designated purpose of this instruction was to help ministers become personal counselors and to know when the services of trained psychiatrists were necessary.
Sadler found opportunity to expand this teaching work even further when the president of McCormick Theological Seminary, Dr. John Timothy Stone, asked him to direct a course in pastoral psychiatry for theological students of the seminary. Dr. Sadler began this teaching task in 1930 and continued as a professorial lecturer until 1955.[63]
Later Sadler was to recall this experience as “one of the most rewarding and stimulating in a long and exciting career.”[64]
The theological students taking this course were instructed. . . in the art of becoming better ministers of mental hygiene . . . what cases they may safely undertake to help; how they may cooperate with the family physician, on the one hand, and with the psychiatric specialist, on the other; and . . . what cases not to undertake.[65]
It is apparent that the medical and psychiatric career of Sadler afforded many and varied opportunities for public speaking. It is also apparent that he enjoyed this aspect of his active career.[66] It might be concluded that he had a natural talent and affection for the speaker’s platform. However, as has been indicated earlier in this paper, Sadler’s youthful ventures in oratory had benefited by pragmatic encouragement; he, himself, had pursued the study of rhetoric while in college. Significantly, the lecturing career of young Sadler was not begun without some personal concern and introspection. As a result, he sought the professional guidance of a professor of speech at the University of Chicago shortly after his decision to engage in public address. On several occasions he told the story of how this lady professor had him lecture to her; afterwards she said:
Get out of here. I can’t teach you anything. You’re very bad; your gestures are atrocious. But you are so effective I wouldn’t change anything about you; I’ll ruin you if I change you.[67]
Years later this same speech professor happened to be in one of his audiences. She came up to the platform after he had finished speaking and uttered to Sadler, “You’re just as bad as ever, but so damn effective. You can just hold an audience spellbound; I’m so glad that we didn’t change you.” [68]
Since the writer had only one opportunity to view Sadler in a speaking situation, she sent one hundred forty-six questionnaires to his former students from the McCormick Theological Seminary to learn their interpretation of the dynamics of his delivery.[69]
The class rosters of the students were obtained from Sadler’s personal papers. Only students from his lists, beginning with the year 1951 and ending with the year 1954, were selected; the ones whose current addresses were easily accessible were used. Sixteen to nineteen years had elapsed since the students had sat in Sadler’s classes. Most of the students had retained the notes from his lectures; the writer was pleasantly amazed that his students could elicit such detailed descriptions after so many years. One of his former students, Wayne Benson, could not remember much about Sadler’s gesticulations, but he sent a sketch he had drawn in his class revealing Sadler lecturing with his hands in his pockets. George F. Bennett, a student in the fall of 1954, wrote:
Dr. Sadler appeared quite elderly, rotund, with thick white hair (almost silver), thick, gold-rimmed glasses, a heavy-jowled face, almost always wearing a gray suit, starched white shirt, and slightly behind-the-times tie. He walked toward the lectern with short quick strides, spoke in a strong yet soft voice, started lecturing from his manuscript but quickly drifted from it to give almost two hours of lively anecdotes, almost all funny, and only on one or two occasions touching on anything “off color.” He moved about freely, never consulted his manuscript after starting to lecture, gave the appearance of maintaining constant eye-contact, and usually dismissed the class a moment or two before the final bell rang. His gestures must have been appropriate since I do not recall them but I do recall a lot of movement. His speed of delivery and general effect was something like a funny Walter Cronkite might be. . . . He said he had a “senile” tendency to repeat himself and asked that we interrupt him when this happened.
Dr. Sadler’s sense of humor, self-confidence, enthusiasm, and overall personality were above average.[70]
Student Charles Filson recalls his prof. as having:
. . . a delightful sense of humor, but a failing memory for things that happened in the immediate present. For example, he often told the same story two or three times . . . but he was such a good story teller that it was funny even the third time around. His stories were usually quite relevant and beautifully illustrated whatever point he was trying to make. His confidence and enthusiasm for his subject gave him an almost youthful bravado.[71]
Charles F. LaRue, from his 1956 class, wrote:
Dr. Sadler enjoyed meeting his McCormick classes. There could be no doubt in that. He lectured and laughed and we all laughed with him. He gave a very positive and (maybe) too optimistic impression about the success of psychiatry. We all laughed because his textbook was so expensive.[72]
Donald H. Frank remarked that he had a fond memory of Dr. Sadler:
He rarely used lecture notes although he referred to his book, Practice of Psychiatry. While he wasn’t a great orator, he had an interesting style of delivery which kept his students hanging on to his words. I did not want to miss any of his lectures.
I thought that he had a fantastic sense of humor which had his classes quickly put at ease. He enjoyed his subject immensely and shared his enthusiasm with us.[73]
“I have enjoyed thinking back to Dr. Sadler’s course and the opportunity Of putting down some of my reflections,” was written in a letter by former student, G. Daniel Little. He continued to state:
Dr. Sadler’s age, hairstyle, baggy dress, relaxed style and appearance, and his thorough involvement in his subject matter and his own approach to it, all went together to make for effective communication and easy listening.
There were also aspects of his voice pattern and gestures which lent themselves to mimicry. Good laughs were had by a number of us back at the dorm as we imitated and appropriated his style.
I would score Dr. Sadler especially high in sense of humor, self-confidence, mad enthusiasm for his subject. . . . I can’t say that I still use the material of the course, but I have no doubt that I continue to be influenced by the human approach of the man.[74]
S. William Lankton remembered Sadler as a warm person with a good sense of humor who talked with authority. “Many times after that I used a number of his insights in sermons (with hardly the same sense of authority, though).” He related one interesting occurrence:
After graduation from seminary in June 1954, I was ordained & installed in a very small mission church in western Wyoming. During remodeling efforts on the church building I climbed under the building into a crawl-space and brought out an old pile of magazines. In one of them (I think from the 30’s) was an article written by Dr. Sadler with his picture.[75]
Donald E. Schomacker recalled “Dr. Sadler as being a peripatetic lecturer moving freely from the lectern much of the time.”
He was not condescending to ministerial students as some physicians or experts in other fields might be but conveyed to us a sense that we might genuinely be helpful to persons who were emotionally distressed.
The sense of humor was good and he was capable of sharing a joke, the butt of which was himself, upon occasion. He could relate events from the pioneering days of the Vienna school and his role there without seeming to dwell unduly on the past.[76]
“He could be quite dramatic, even very outspoken, but never at a loss for words,” wrote Albert G. Ossentjuk.
I recall references, quips, ways of saying things etc. that made the course quite interesting for me both academically and toward better self-understanding. I suppose that what I appreciated most was the awareness of individual humanity and Dr. Sadler’s readiness to take a person as he is.[77]
Murray Travis remembered Sadler as “an engaging lecturer. He maintained good eye contact, was fairly free of the lectern . . . and made adequate use of gestures.”
He had a good sense of humor and could tell some delightful stories of patients and experiences. He possessed self-confidence and had great enthusiasm for his subject; his concern for his subject was reflected in his life and the pioneering he had done in the field. This same concern and enthusiasm was reflected in his teaching.[78] “He had the attention of the students all the way. I still recall his quote about the spite fence built by a paranoid; I think it I was about 20 feet high. It is not funny except when you have heard him tell of it,” wrote Sadler’s former student, Richard H. Burgess. Burgess mentioned that Sadler’s influence is still present:
I recall his teaching on systematizing your work. He taught a boy who was so sloppy that his parents couldn’t stand it . . taught the boy to take care of tasks immediately. . . . (This precept I am following in immediately filling in this questionnaire.) . . . More of this speaking from experience is needed J in our universities, less of the pure theory approach.[79]
Almost all of the students mentioned Sadler’s sense of humor and his contagious enthusiasm for his subject matter. Calvin Didier not only mentioned his sense of humor but other aspects of his presentation:
It was the quality of his mind as expressed in what he said that seemed to be the whole magnetism of his presentation. He did make effective use of pause, sometimes even turning .away from the class and looking out the window to the side. I suppose there was a natural drama in the way he presented a thought. But it seemed largely unconscious in that I never sensed he was “acting.”[80]
Student Charles Dierenfield reported that “I do not think that the years have blurred my memory of him . . . because I was very much taken with Dr. Sadler in his course and it was one of the better courses that we had in Seminary.” ’ His clothes were of a more comfortable nature and gave you at | all times the complete impression of self possession. He knew exactly what he was doing; that he knew who he was, and was j perfectly satisfied with the result. He was not “up tight” at any time. . . .
I felt that while he had a quiet personality, he was an extremely dynamic man. It was like a 16 cylinder idling; we knew that there was a lot there he never wanted to apply ; and so it gave a vitality and a quality to his lectures and relationships.[81]
Lawrence Woodcock especially remembered that “his description of this time with Freud and Adler, and his differences with them, was impressive.”[82]
“My attitude toward Dr. Sadler was that he must have been quite a professional in his day.” Even though it had been fifteen years since Morgan S. Roberts studied under Dr. Sadler, he reflected that:
I never remember him sitting at a desk or even using a lectern. His entire lecture was given standing up, pacing back and forth across the front of the room. His voice was rather high pitched but he had good inflections. A good percentage of his lectures were recounting of experiences and he could become quite wrapped up in some of them.[83]
The Reverend John W. Omerod remembered that:
. . . he was a forceful speaker in the classroom. . . . Each student had the feeling that he was speaking directly to him because of his constant eye contact with each person. Dr. Sadler was so attuned to the class that he sensed when someone missed the point he was making; and often, by the use of gestures would restate his point effectively. By the quality and timbre of voice, he could place a parenthetical statement in a sentence and students would know that it was parenthetical.[84]
It was difficult for John R. Dilley to categorize Dr. Sadler as a personality: “At times, he impressed me as a jolly little old man whom you would like your children to know. Other times, he would come on as a shrewd business tycoon. . . .” However, Mr. Dilley vividly remembered Sadler’s presentation:
He had tremendous audience contact, and was concerned that everyone was following him. He moved about rather extensively as he lectured, sitting on the corner of a table . . . or balancing on the back of a chair.
He always had stories to share . . . he would have referred to them as “case histories.” These stories would just flow from him, one after the other. Very seldom did he refer to notes, and very seldom did he refer to other authors or sources other than himself.
His sense-of-humor almost always took on the tone of a person being humiliating . . . to him, this humiliation was a form of humor.[85]
“I recall his manner of delivery as a kind of sharing session that had the captivating quality of respect for us, his students, whom he chose to include as equals, thinking with us, never talking down to us,” wrote Ronald T. Allin, who had been away from Sadler’s classroom for nineteen years.
I recall . . . the intensity of eye contact, and the remarkable ability he had to give every student in his class, at least for me, the feeling of talking personally and directly with me. He moved around a lot, a kind of peripatetic conversation more than a formal lecture. His tone of voice and quality of speaking simply do not recall as significant. It was so effective in communicating, that I was simply unaware of tone ,quality and characteristics or speaking voice. This may be the ',highest complement one can pay a speaker. His delivery was at times slow and thoughtful and at others rapid and animated. The speaking style depended upon the content and was completely complimentary to it. I recall his use of the black board as rather impressionistic in that the diagrams were symbolic rather than accurate and the key words were effectively listed.[86]
Robert E. Raymond replied, “Chiefly I remember his humor . . .his illustrations always made the point hilariously clear.” He remembered that Sadler always said, “You may not remember my lectures, but you will remember my stories.” And of course he was right—I still (after 16 years) remember his stories—and thus the material they related to. He had a clear, penetrating voice, looked like an Alfred Hitchcock. He had a John Kennedy sort of gesture with his index finger with 3 which he punctuated his main points.[87]
According to the eighty-eight questionnaires returned, all students mentioned the following points: Sadler’s keen sense of humor[88] in relation to the case studies, his enthusiasm for his subject matter and his teaching, the illustrative material that caused his lectures to live, and his total self-confidence.
On the questionnaire the writer asked for negative criticism. The overall return was that although Sadler was a warm, intimate person while lecturing, he was distant in dyadic conversation:
As I recall’ Dr. Sadler . . . didn’t seem to have any particular interest in any particular student of the class I was in. This of course doesn’t mean he wasn’t interested in his students as a class.[89]
In a letter received from Charles Dierenfield, he stated: “Thank you for the opportunity to speak about my friend, Dr. Sadler. I use the word ‘friend’ generally because it was mostly a teacher-student ; relationship, but I thought he was an outstanding man.”[90]
Rev. G. William Lankton related: . . s I didn’t know him personally—it was one of those I-knew-him-‘’ but-he-didn’t-know-me things. I did have a real affection for him during the time of the class, but never had any contact with him afterwards.[91]
After sixteen to nineteen years the students were still aware of Sadler’s isolation of them as individuals:
I always felt, however, that he was at some distance from the individual student, having an enthusiasm for people in general rather than for students (at least this particular student) in particular.[92]
Student George F. Bennett wrote about this distance in Sadler’s interpersonal conversation: He seemed to have a lack of interest in individual students . . . and he responded briefly, appropriately, but with sufficient distance to ward off any attempt to establish a dependency or encourage fantasies of a “special relationship.” I suspect that he made it a practice not to be “familiar” with strangers which is one of the few Victorian “virtues” that people who work with hospital or church populations probably need to develop.[93]
“I had the feeling that Dr. Sadler’s interest in students was much more general than particular,” disclosed Calvin Didier in his negative criticism.
When I spoke to him about his method of marking, he was quite open in letting me know that he didn’t know one student from another and could hardly care less about that. I came away with the feeling that he had just known too many people through too many years to care any more and was quite defensive about his time.[94]
The criticism that his students presented corresponds with the information that was received from his daughter, Christy; his personal secretary of seventeen years; and his daughter-in-law, Leone. Sadler was a dynamic, demonstrative, extrovert on the platform, but otherwise had introversive tendencies and did not care to fraternize or engage in talk of a trivial nature with individuals. He often related to his daughter that, “I am not a small talker—I do not do well at cocktail parties—those things bore me. But if I have an audience and somebody punches me in the right place, I’ll start going just like a record.”[95] Sadler referred to himself as an ambivert.
Sadler was no ordinary man or he could not have endured the pace in which he lived. Not only was he a surgeon and a psychiatrist, but he was a professor at the Post graduate medical school of Chicago, professor of pastoral Psychiatry, at McCormick Theological Seminary, and a staff member of Columbus Hospital. He held memberships in the following associations: Life Fellow American College of Surgeons, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of the American Medical Association, Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Member of American Psycho-Pathological Association, Member of Illinois Psychiatric Association, The Chicago Society for Personality. Study, The Chicago Medical Society, The Illinois State Medical Society, Board Member, W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek, The Eugene Field Society, International Mark Twain Society, National Association of Authors and Journalists, Founder Member, Gorgas Memorial Institute in Tropical and Pr! eventive Medicine, and member of its governing board. Involvement in these institutions and their activities undoubtedly required effort; however, Sadler had a desire to extend his talents to the Lyceum and Chautauqua platform.
The Lyceum and Chautauqua platform appeared to be a very important part of Sadler’s life. On January 1, 1911, in a letter to Harry P. Harrison, he wrote:
I am anxious to arrange for a conference with you as soon as i possible With reference to the I.L.A. convention program. If we could arrange to have a meeting and carefully go over some matters, . . . I could start the ball a rolling. It would be an accommodation to me if I could see you sometime at 2:00, following office hours, or I could come in the city some morning that we did not have operations, early, if it will be more convenient to you, and in this event we would have a conference before my office hours.[96]
In 1911, after some of the barriers concerning advertising were relinquished by the Medical Association, Sadler became chairman of the International Lyceum Association Program Committee. He again reveals His strength in organization of professionalism, as he writes to Harry P. Harrison:
I find that W.N. Ferris of Big Rapids, Michigan, is not a member of the I.L.A. Would you feel free to write and invite him to attend the next convention and participate in the program on Committeemen’s Day, and incidentally give him a strong invitation to join the I.L.A.? . . . I also find that Rev. T. C. Pollock of Monmouth, Illinois, is not a member; but I have written him, asking him to join.[97]
The Lyceum managers were proud to have a man of Sadler’s caliber working for their platform. In an article in 1910, they stated that here was a lecturer who wanted to serve humanity and “to do good, not to get money, for it is evident that specialists and surgeons of this sort lose money every day they leave their work.”[98] He welcomed opportunities to speak on their program. One Thursday morning at eleven o’clock Sadler lectured to an unusually large audience on “When Doctors Disagree.” This was not one of Dr. Sadler’s regular lectures, but was a special address prepared for the I.L.A. [International Lyceum Association] Chautauqua.
Dr. Sadler, it may be said, in taking to the platform, where he had won signal success as a lecturer, did so that he might the better work out a vision that came to him as a young man just out of college, that is, to educate the people to medical truths worthy of scientific propaganda. In his lecture Dr. Sadler dealt with questions close to the heart of every human being.[99]
Dr. William S. Sadler, MD, died on April 26, 1969, just three months before reaching the age of ninety-four. He was active until the end of his life, still doctoring a select group of patients until six i months before his death. In the notice of his obituary, The American Medical News noted that “in 1917, Dr. Sadler predicted that human organ transplants would be successfully performed and accepted by the public.”[100]
Dr. Sadler told the Wednesday club in East St. Louis on January 3, 1917, that the time was “not far distant when wealthy people will take mortgages on internal organs of healthy persons and have the organs transplanted into their bodies at the death of the mortgagor.”[101]
His daughter, Christy, commented that at the eve of Dr. Sadler’s life on earth his mind remained clear, logical and happy as he gave this final farewell to his loved ones:
The transition from this world to the next is very easy. There is no pain. It is easy to leave the pains of this world for the pleasures of the next, and I am going to enjoy every moment of it. I am very conscious of everything that is going on here tonight. I could go on visiting with you for hours but it would be no use. The chapter is closed. The last lines have ', been written; the book is finished. This world is very real, 'but the next one is much more real.[102]
The purpose of this chapter has been to draw together several themes which have recurred throughout the life and career of William S. Sadler. From his early preparation and commitment there emerged an l ability and a passionate dedication to a cause which filled his life with activity and persistent endeavor that was, to say the least, extraordinary In review, it cannot be said that Sadler sought fame nor that he was famous. His purpose was to use his talents and his training for the good of his fellow man. In carrying out this purpose he exemplified the classical definition of an orator—“a good man speaking well.”
Since the study of oratory demands the examination of the orator, in order that his motives and his sincerity may be brought to light, the foregoing biographical material has been introduced. The writer believes that the evidence presents a positive case and that Sadler deserves to be included in the list of American orators who have, in one way or another, contributed to the rich cultural stream that flows through our society. In the following chapters, the nature of his contribution will receive specific analysis and comment. It will be seen that what he has done was an expression of the kind of person he was.
Sadler’s Papers. ↩︎
Statement by Christy Sadler, personal interview, December 29, 1969. Hereafter cited as Christy Interview.- ↩︎
Sadler’s Papers. ↩︎
Ibid. ↩︎
Statement by Dr. Meredith Sprunger, personal interview, April 24, 1970. Hereafter cited as Sprunger Interview. ↩︎
Clough, p. 49. ↩︎
Sadler’s Papers. ↩︎
Ministerial License, Certificate of Ordination in Sadler’s papers. ↩︎
Sadler’s Papers. ↩︎
Ibid. ↩︎
Clough, p. 65. ↩︎
Ibid., p. 100. ↩︎
Sadler’s Papers. ↩︎
Sadler’s Papers. ↩︎
Ibid. ↩︎
Ibid. ↩︎
Sprunger Interview. ↩︎
Sadler, Americanitis, inscription inside front cover. ↩︎
Statement by Anna Rawson, personal secretary of Dr. Sadler for seventeen years, personal interview, December 30, 1969. Hereafter cited as Rawson Interview. ↩︎
Sadler’s Papers. ↩︎
Ibid. ↩︎
William S. Sadler, The Physiology of Faith and Fear or The Mind in Health and Disease (Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1912), p. vii. Hereafter cited as Sadler, Physiology of Faith and Fear. ↩︎
William S. Sadler, The Chicago Therapeutic Institute: The Reliance Baths (Chicago: Press of Winship Co., 1916), p. 29. ↩︎
Sadler, Americanitis, pp. 36-37. ↩︎
“Wolf Broth for Arthritis,” Time, November 25, 1940, p. 71. ↩︎
“The Message of Health For the Masses,” The Lyceumite and Talent, III, No. 10 (March, 1910), 33. Hereafter cited as “Message For the Masses.” ↩︎
Rawson Interview. ↩︎
Rawson Interview. ↩︎
Ibid. ↩︎
Christy Interview. ↩︎
Sadler, Psychiatry, p. 833. ↩︎
Christy Interview. ↩︎
Christy Interview. ↩︎
William S. Sadler, The Truth About Mind Cure (Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1928), pp. 73-74. Hereafter cited as Sadler, Mind Cure. ↩︎
Rawson Interview. ↩︎
Sadler, Psychiatry, p. 845. ↩︎
Sadler, “Psychiatric Educational Work,” pp. 4-5. ↩︎
Ibid., p. 6. ↩︎
Sadler, “Psychiatric Educational Work,” p. 9. ↩︎
Ibid., p. 10. ↩︎
1846-1958 Digest of Official Actions, American Medical Association, 1st ed (l959), I, 670. ↩︎
“Message For the Masses,” p. 33. ↩︎
“Message For the Masses,” p. 33. ↩︎
Sadler, The Chicago Therapeutic Institute. ↩︎
Principles of Medical Ethics of the American Medical Association (Chicago: Medical Association Press, 1903). ↩︎
Sadler’s Papers. ↩︎
A complete source for these articles will be found in the bibliography. ↩︎
The writer attempted to obtain some indication of the popularity of Sadler’s books by contacting the publishing houses involved. Such specific information was not available; however, the General Sales Manager of C. V. Mosby Company offered the comment, “I do know from conversation with some of the older members of the firm that Dr. Sadler’s books were among the brighter lights on the publishing horizon.” Based on personal correspondence between Terry H. Green, General Sales Manager of the C. V. Mosby Company, and the writer, February 18, 1970. ↩︎
Marion A. Knight and Mertice M. James (eds.), The Book Review Digest, XXI (New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1926), 617. ↩︎
New York Tribune, September 20, 1925, p. l0; and Outlook, CXL (August 5, 1925), 501. ↩︎
Sadler, physiology of Faith and Fear. ↩︎
The Book Review Digest, VI, No. 12, January-December Minneapolis, Minnesota: H. W. Wilson Co., 347. ↩︎
Christy Interview. ↩︎
W. S. Sadler, Long Heads and Round Heads or What’s the Matter With Germany (Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1918), paper jacket. Hereafter cited as Sadler, Long Heads and Round Heads. ↩︎
William S. Sadler, The Truth About Spiritualism (Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1923), p. v. ↩︎
Sprunger Interview. ↩︎
Index and Digest of official Actions: American Medical Association Beginning with the Year 1904 (Chicago: American Medical Association, 1942), p. 128. Hereafter cited as Index and Digest of official Actions. ↩︎
Ibid., pp. 128-130. ↩︎
Sadler, “Psychiatric Educational Work,” p. 14. ↩︎
Sadler, “Psychiatric Educational Work,” p. 29. ↩︎
Ibid. ↩︎
Ibid., p. 23. ↩︎
Based on personal correspondence between the Office of the president of McCormick Theological Seminary, and the writer, January 7, 1970. ↩︎
Sadler’s Papers. ↩︎
Sadler, “Psychiatric Educational Work,” pp. 24-25. ↩︎
William S. Sadler, What A Salesman Should Know About His Heath (3d ea.; Chicago: The Dartnell Corporation, 1926), p. 110. Hereafter cited as Sadler, Salesman. ↩︎
Christy Interview. ↩︎
Ibid. ↩︎
Prounciatio [delivery] was a canon that held the utmost importance in the art of persuasion as theorized by the ancient rhetoricians. Cicero alluded to this fact as he wrote, “Delivery, I assert, is the dominant factor in oratory; without delivery the best speaker cannot be of any account at all, . . .”; E. W. Suteon and H. Rackham (trans.), Cicero De Oratore (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1942), III. lvi. 213. Hereafter cited as Cicero De Oratore. He believed that “by action the body talks,”; Ibid., III; fix. 222. and “. . . delivery is wholly the concern of the feelings, and these are mirrored by the face and expressed by the eyes.”; Ibid., III. [viii. 221. Cicero reiterated that “everything depends on the countenance, while the countenance itself is entirely dominated by the eyes.”; Ibid. ↩︎
Based on personal correspondence between Chaplain George F. Bennett, Department of Mental Health, Central State Hospital, and the writer, May 8, 1970. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire to the writer from Charles Filson, Springfield, Illinois. ↩︎
Based on personal correspondence between Charles F. LaRue, McKinney, Texas, and the writer. ↩︎
Based on personal correspondence between Donald H. Frank, Santa Anna, California, and the writer. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire to the writer from G. Daniel Little, New York, New York. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire to the writer from G. William Lankton, Chicago, Illinois. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire to the writer from Donald E. Schomacker, Kansas City, Missouri. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire to the writer from Albert G. Ossentjuk, Denver, Colorado. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from Murray Travis, Tulia, Texas. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from Richard H. I Burgess, Poynette, Wisconsin. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from Calvin Didier, Detroit, Michigan. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from Charles Dierenfield, Newport Beach, California. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from Lawrence Woodcock, Blackwell, Oklahoma. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from Morgan S. Roberts, Portland, Indiana. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from The Reverend John W. Omerod, Toronto, Ohio. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from John X. Dilley, Fairfield, Iowa. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from Ronald T. Allin, Chagrin Falls, Ohio. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from Robert E. Raymond, Waukesha, Wisconsin. ↩︎
Students, associates and relatives all attest to his humor. In an interview with his daughter-in-law, Leone, it was revealed that he even joked with strangers. “Dr. Sadler when speaking in Detroit was traveling on a street car to his lecture engagement. The man riding next to him asked him where he was going. When hearing the name of the i hall, the passenger said, ‘Oh, so you are going to hear Sadler speak—what do you think of him?’ Sadler retorted, ‘Why I wouldn’t walk across the street to hear him speak.’ When Sadler was introduced on the platform that night, the fellow passenger who was then in the audience laughed throughout most of his lecture.” Statement by Leone Sadler, personal interview, December 29, 1969. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from Robert L. Cobb, Salt Lake City, Utah. ↩︎
Based on personal correspondence between Charles Dierenfield, and the writer, May 14, 1970. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from Rev. G. William Lankton, Chicago, Illinois. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from G. Daniel Little, New York, New York. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from George F. Bennett, Louisville, Kentucky. ↩︎
Based on information in a questionnaire from Calvin W. Didier, Detroit, Michigan. ↩︎
Christy Interview. ↩︎
Based on personal correspondence between William S. Sadler and I Harry P. Harrison, January 1, 1911. ↩︎
Based on personal correspondence between William S. Sadler and Harry P. Harrison, February 14, 1911. ↩︎
“Message For the Masses,” p. 33. ↩︎
Speech given at the 1912 International Lyceum Association Convention, Winona Lake, Indiana, September 6. The Lyceum News, II, No. 8, September, 1912, pp. 8-10. ↩︎
“Medicine’s Week in the Nation,” The AMA News: The Newspaper of American Medicine, May 12, 1969, p. 1 ↩︎
“Sadler Obituary,” Chicago Tribune, April 28, 1969, Sec. II, p. 18. ↩︎
Christy Interview. ↩︎