man-machines to speed up and turn out a full day's work apiece doesn't need to work his own hands. He serves his employer more valuably as an overseer, foreman or supervisor.
The Fat Salesman
"A fat drummer" is such a common phrase that we would think our ears deceived us did anyone speak of a thin one. Approach five people and say "A traveling salesman," each will tell you that the picture this conjures in his imagination is of a fat, round, roly-poly, good natured, pretty clever man whom everybody likes.
For the fat men are "born salesmen" and they make up a large percentage of that profession. Salesmanship requires mentality plus
a pleasing personality. The fat man qualifies easily in the matter of personality. Then he makes little or much money from salesmanship, according to his mental capacity.
The Drummers' Funny Stories
You will note that the conversation of fat people[Pg 62] is well sprinkled with funny stories. They enjoy a good joke better than any other type, for a reason which will become more and more apparent to you.
That salesmen are popularly supposed to regale each customer with yarns till he gasps for breath and to get his signature on the dot-ted line while he is in that weakened condition, is more or less of a myth. It originated from the fact that most salesmen are fat and that fat people tell stories well.
Jokes at Fat 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.[Pg 63]
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 go-ing 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.[Pg 64]
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.
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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.[Pg 65]
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[Pg 66] 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.[Pg 67]
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 com-edy--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.
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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 is no waiting for the show to start, for one thing.
This is a decided advantage to him, for fat people do not like to depend upon themselves for entertainment.[Pg 68]
The Babies of the Race
The first stage in biological evolution was the stage in which the alimentary apparatus was developed. To assimilate nutriment was the first function of all life and is so still, since it is the principal requirement for self-preservation.
Being the first and most elemental of our five physiological systems the Alimentive--when it overtops the others--produces a more elemental, infantile nature. The pure Alimentive has rightly been called "the baby of the race." This accounts for many of the characteristics of the extremely fat person, including the fact that it is difficult