"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