How to Analyze People on Sight. Elsie Lincoln Benedict

and interests of the Alimentive. For him to like a thing or

      buy a thing it must come pretty near being something he can eat, wear,

      live in or otherwise personally enjoy. He confines himself to the

      concrete and tangible. But most of all he confines himself to things out

      of which he gets something for himself.

      Reading

      The fat man is no reader but when he does read it is nearly always

      something funny, simple or sentimental. In newspapers he reads the

      "funnies." Magazine stories, if short and full of sentiment, attract

      him. He seldom reads an editorial and is not a book worm. The newspaper

      furnishes practically all of the fat man's reading. He seldom owns a

      library unless he is very rich, and then it is usually for "show."

      Avoids Book Stores

      In making the investigations for this course, we interviewed many

      clerks in the bookstores of leading cities throughout the United

      States. Without exception they stated that few extremely fat people

      patronized them. "I have been in this store seventeen years and I have

      never sold a book to a two hundred and fifty pounder," one dealer told

      us. All this is due to the fact with which we started this chapter--that

      the fat man is built around his stomach--and stomachs do not read!

      Naturally Realistic

      The fat man has the child's natural innocence and ignorance of subtle

      and elusive things. He has the same interest in things and people as

      does the child; the child's indifference to books, lectures, schools and

      everything abstract.

      Physical Assets

      "I believe I could digest nails!" exclaimed a fat friend of ours

      recently. This perfect nutritive system constitutes the greatest

      physical superiority of the Alimentive. So highly developed is his whole

      stomach department that everything "agrees" with him. And everything

      tends to make him fat.

      As Irvin Cobb recently said: "It isn't true that one can't have his cake

      and eat it, too, for the fat man eats his and keeps it--all."

      Physical Liabilities

      A tendency to over-eat results naturally from the highly developed

      eating and digesting system of this type but this in turn overtaxes all

      the vital organs, as stated before. Also, the fat man's aversion to

      exercise reduces his physical efficiency.

      The pure Alimentive and the alimentively-inclined should learn their

      normal weight and then keep within it if they desire long lives.

      Social Assets

      Sweetness of disposition is one of the most valuable of all human

      characteristics. Fat people possess it more often and more unchangingly

      than any other type. Other social assets of this type are amenableness,

      affability, hospitality and approachableness.

      Social Liabilities

      Gaining his ends by flattery, cajolery, and various more or less

      innocent little deceptions are the only social handicaps of this type.

      Emotional Assets

      His unfailing optimism is the most marked emotional quality of this

      type. Nothing can be so dark that the fat person doesn't find a silver

      edge somewhere. So in disaster we always send for our fat friends. In

      the presence of an amply-proportioned individual everything looks

      brighter. Hope springs eternal in human breasts but the springs are

      stronger in the plump folks than in the rest of us.

      Money spending is also a marked feature of the fat man. His emotions are

      out-going, never "in-growing." A stingy fat man is unknown.

      Emotional Liabilities

      A tendency to become spoiled, to pout, and to take out his resentments

      in babyish ways are the emotional weaknesses of this type. These, as you

      will note, are the natural reactions of childhood, from which he never

      fully emerges.

      Business Assets

      The ability to make people like him is the greatest business and

      professional asset of this type, and one every other type might well

      emulate. One average-minded fat man near the door of a business

      establishment will make more customers in a month by his geniality,

      joviality and sociableness than a dozen brilliant thinkers will in a

      year. Every business that deals directly with the public should have at

      least one fat person in it.

      Business Liabilities

      A habit of evading responsibility and of "getting out from under"

      constitutes the inclination most harmful to the business or professional

      ambitions of this type. Again it is the child in him trying to escape

      the task set for it and at the same time to avoid punishment.

      Domestic Strength

      Love of home is a distinguishing domestic trait of all fat people. The

      fat man's provision for his family is usually as complete as his

      circumstances will permit and he often stretches it a point.

      As parents fat men and women are almost too easy-going for their own

      future happiness, for they "spoil" their children. But they are more

      loved by their children than any other type. Being so nearly children

      themselves they make equals of their children, enter into their games

      and live their lives with them.

      Domestic Weakness

      Dependence on others, the tendency of allowing one's self to be

      supported by brothers or sisters or wife, is the chief domestic weakness

      of fat people. They should begin early in life to depend upon

      themselves and make it a practice to carry their share of family

      responsibilities.

      Should Aim At

      Developing more of his mental powers with a view to using his head to

      lessen the manual work he so dislikes, and cultivating an interest in

      the more mature side of the world in which he lives should be two of the

      aims of all extremely fat people.

      Should Avoid

      "Letting down," soft snaps and temptations to evade responsibility

      should be avoided by the fat. Elbert Hubbard said, "Blessed is the man

      who is not looking for a soft snap, for he is the only one who shall

      find it."