How to Analyze People on Sight. Elsie Lincoln Benedict

Men's Expense

      "Look at Fatty," "get a truck," and other jibes greet the fat man on

      every hand. He knows he can not proceed a block without being the butt

      of several jokes, but he listens to them all with an amiability

      surprising to other types. And this good nature is so apparent that even

      those who make sport of him are thinking to themselves: "I believe I'd

      like that man."

      The Fat Man's Habits

      "Never hurry and never worry" are the unconscious standards underlying

      many of the reactions of this type. If you will compile a list of the

      habits of any fat person you will find that they are mostly the

      outgrowths of one or both of these motives.

      Won't Speed Up

      You would have a hard time getting an Alimentive to follow out any

      protracted line of action calling for strenuosity, speed or high

      tension. He will get as much done as the strenuous man when their

      mentalities are equal--and often more. The fat person keeps going in a

      straight line, with uniform and uninterrupted effort, and does not have

      the blow-outs common to more fidgety people. But hard, fast labor is not

      in his line.

      Loves Comedy

      All forms of mental depression are foreign to fat people as long as

      they are in normal health. We have known a fat husband and wife to be

      ejected for rent and spend the evening at the movies laughing like

      four-year-olds at Charlie Chaplin or a Mack Sennett comedy. You have

      sometimes seen fat people whose financial condition was pretty serious

      and wondered how they could be so cheerful.

      Inclined to Indolence

      Fat people's habits, being built around their points of strength and

      weakness, are necessarily of two kinds--the desirable and the

      undesirable.

      The worst habits of this type are those inevitable to the ease-loving

      and the immature-minded.

      Indolence is one of his most undesirable traits and costs the Alimentive

      dear.

      In this country where energy, push and lightning-like efficiency are at

      a premium only the fat man of brains can hope to keep up.

      The inertia caused by his digestive processes is so great that it is

      almost insurmountable. The heavy, lazy feeling you have after a large

      meal is with the fat man interminably because his organism is constantly

      in the process of digesting large amounts of food.

      Likes Warm Rooms

      Love of comfort--especially such things as warm rooms and soft

      beds--is so deeply imbedded in the fiber of this type that he has ever

      to face a fight with himself which the rest of us do not encounter. This

      sometimes leads the excessively corpulent person to relax into laziness

      and slovenliness. An obese individual sometimes surprises us, however,

      by his ambition and immaculateness.

      But such a man or woman almost always combines decided mental tendencies

      with his alimentiveness.

      Enjoys Doing Favors

      The habits which endear the fat person to everyone and make us forget

      his faults are his never-failing hospitality, kindness when you are in

      trouble, his calming air of contentment, his tact, good nature and the

      real pleasure he seems to experience when doing you a favor.

      His worst faults wreak upon him far greater penalties than fall upon

      those who associate with him, something that can not be said of the

      faults of some other types.

      Likes Melody

      Simple, natural music is a favorite with fat people. Love songs,

      rollicking tunes and those full of melody are most popular with them. An

      easy-to-learn, easy-to-sing song is the one a fat man chooses when he

      names the next selection.

      They like ragtime, jazz and music with a swing to it. Music the world

      over is most popular with fat races. The world's greatest singers and

      most of its famous musicians have been fat or at least decidedly plump.

      Goes to the Cabaret

      The fat person will wiggle his toes, tap his fingers, swing his fork

      and nod his head by the hour with a rumbling jazz orchestra.

      When the Alimentive is combined with some other type he will also enjoy

      other kinds of music but the pure Alimentive cares most for primal tunes

      and melodies.

      Likes a Girly-Show

      A pretty-girl show makes a hit with fat women as well as with fat men.

      Drop into the "Passing Show" and note how many fat people are in the

      audience. Drop into a theater the next night where a tragedy is being

      enacted and see how few fat ones are there.

      The One Made Sport Of

      Fat people enjoy helping out the players, if the opportunity offers.

      All show people know this.

      When one of those tricks is to be played from the foot-lights upon a

      member of the audience the girl who does it is always careful to select

      that circular gentleman down front. Let her try to mix up confetti or a

      toy balloon with a tall skinny man and the police would get a hurry

      call!

      When we describe the bony type you will note how very different he is

      from our friend the fat man.

      A Movie Fan

      "The fat man's theater" would be a fitting name for the movie houses

      of the country. Not that the fat man is the only type patronizing the

      cinema. The movies cover in one evening so many different kinds of human

      interests--news, cartoons, features and comedy--that every type finds

      upon the screen something to interest him.

      But if you will do what we have done--stand at the doorway of the

      leading movie theaters of your city any evening and keep a record of the

      types that enter you will find the plump are as numerous as all the

      others combined.

      Easy Entertainment

      The reason for this is plain to all who are acquainted with Human

      Analysis: the fat man wants everything the easiest possible way and the

      movie fulfils this requirement more fully than any other theatrical

      entertainment. He can drop in when he feels like it and there