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The Alimentive's disposition, nature, character and personality are

built by and around his alimentary system. He is happiest when

gratifying it and whenever he thwarts it he is miserable, just as the

rest of us are when we thwart our predominant system.

The World Needs Him

This type has so many traits needed by the world, however, and has

such extreme capacity for enjoying life that the race, not to mention

himself, would profit greatly by his denying himself excessive amounts

of food.

Enjoyment the Keynote of This Type

The good things of life--rich, abundant food and everything that

serves the personal appetites--are the cravings of this type.

He purchases and uses more of the limousines, yachts and chefs than any

other three types combined, and gets more for his money out of them than

others do. The keynote of his nature is personal enjoyment. His senses

of touch and taste are also especially acute.

The Fat Man Loves Comfort

You can tell a great deal about a man's type by noting for what

classes of things he spends most of his extra money.

The Alimentive may have no fire insurance, no Liberty bonds, no real

estate but he will have all the modern comforts he can possibly afford.

Most of the world's millionaires are fat and Human Analysis explains

why. We make few efforts in life save to satisfy our most urgent

demands, desires, and ambitions. Each human type differs in its

cravings from each of the others and takes the respective means

necessary to gratify these cravings.

The Alimentive craves those luxuries, comforts and conveniences which

only money can procure for him.

The Fat Millionaire

When the Alimentive is a man of brains he uses his brains to get

money. No fat person enjoys work but the greater his brain capacity the

more will he forego leisure to make money.

When the Fat Man is in Average Circumstances

Any man's money-making ambitions depend largely on whether money is

essential to the satisfaction of his predominating instincts.

If he is fat and of average brain capacity he will overcome his physical

inertia to the point of securing for himself and his family most of the

comforts of modern life.

The average-brained fat man composes a large percentage of our

population and the above accounts for his deserved reputation as a

generous husband and father.

The Fat Man a Good Provider

The fat man will give his last cent to his wife and children for the

things they desire but he is not inclined as much as some other types to

hearken to the woes of the world at large. The fat man is essentially a

family man, a home man, a respectable, cottage-owning, tax-paying,

peaceable citizen.

Not a Reformer

He inclines to the belief that other families, other communities,

other classes and other countries should work out their own salvation

and he leaves them to do it. In all charitable, philanthropic and

community "drives" he gives freely but is not lavish nor sentimental

about it. It is often a "business proposition" with him.

When the Fat Man is Poor

Love of ease is the fat man's worst enemy. His inherent contentment,

accentuated by the inconvenience of moving about easily or quickly,

constantly tempts him to let things slide. When he lacks the brain

capacity for figuring out ways and means for getting things easily he is

never a great success at anything.

When the extremely fat man's mentality is below the average he often

refuses to work--in which case he becomes a familiar figure around

public rest rooms, parks and the cheaper hotel lobbies. Such a man

finally graduates into the class of professional chair-warmers.

Fat People Love Leisure

A chance to do as we please, especially to do as little hard work as

possible, is a secret desire of almost everybody. But the fat man takes

the prize for wanting it most.

Not a Strenuous Worker

He is not constructed to work hard like some of the other types, as we

shall see in subsequent chapters. His overweight is not only a handicap

in that it slows down his movements, but it tends to slow down all his

vital processes as well and to overload his heart. This gives him a

chronic feeling of heaviness and inertia.

Everybody Likes Him

But Nature must have intended fat people to manage the rest of us

instead of taking a hand at the "heavy work." She made them averse to

toil and then made them so likable that they can usually get the rest of

us to do their hardest work for them.

The World Managed by Fat People

When he is brainy the fat man never stays in the lower ranks of

subordinates. He may get a late start in an establishment but he will

soon make those _over_ him like him so well they will promote him to a

chief-clerkship, a foremanship or a managership. Once there he will make

those _under_ him so fond of him that they will work long and hard for

him.

Fat Men to the Top

In this way the fat man of real brains goes straight to the top while

others look on and bewail the fact that they do most of the actual work.

They fail to recognize that the world always pays the big salaries not

for hand work but for head work, and not so much for working yourself as

for your ability to get others to work.

The Popular Politician

This capacity for managing, controlling and winning others is what

enables this type to succeed so well in politics. The fat man knows how

to get votes. He mixes with everybody, jokes with everybody, remembers

to ask how the children are--and pretty soon he's the head of his ward.

Almost every big political boss is fat.

Makes Others Work

One man is but one man and at best can do little more than a good

man-size day of work. But a man who can induce a dozen other

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 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 dotted

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.

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 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.

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 for him to

amuse himself.

He of all types likes most to be amused and very simple toys and

activities are sufficient to do it.

Loves the Circus

A serious drama or "problem play" usually bores him but he seldom

misses a circus.

The fat person expresses his immaturity also in that he likes to be

petted, made over and looked after.

Like the infant he demands food first. Almost the only time a fat man

loses his temper is when he has been deprived of his food. The next

demand on his list is sleep, another characteristic of the immature.

Give a fat man "three squares" a day and plenty of sleep in a

comfortable bed, and he will walk off with the prize for good humor

three hundred and sixty-five days in the year. Next to sleep he demands

warm clothing in winter and steam heat when the wintry winds blow.

Fat People at the Beach

If it were not for the exertion required in getting to and from the

beaches, dressing and undressing, and the momentary coldness of the

water, many more Alimentives would go to the beaches in Summer than do.

Not Strenuous

Anything, to be popular with the Alimentive, must be easy to get, easy

to do, easy to get away from, easy to drop if he feels like it. Anything

requiring the expenditure of great energy, even though it promises

pleasure when achieved, is usually passed over by the fat people.

The Art of Getting Out Of It

"Let George do it" is another bit of slang invented by this type. He

seldom does anything he really hates to do. He is so likable he either

induces you to let him out of it or gets somebody to do it for him. He

just naturally avoids everything that is intense, difficult or

strenuous.

The Peaceable Type

If an unpleasant situation of a personal or social nature arises--a

quarrel, a misunderstanding or any kind of disagreement--the fat man

will try to get himself out of it without a discussion.

Except when they have square faces (in which case they are not pure

Alimentives), extremely fat people do not mix up in neighborhood,

family, church, club or political quarrels. It is too much trouble, for

one thing, and for another it is opposed to his peaceable, untensed

nature.

Avoids Expensive Quarrels

The fat man has his eye on personal advantages and promotions and he

knows that quarrels are expensive, not alone in the chances they lose

him, but in nerve force and peace of mind.

The fat man knows instinctively that peace times are the most profitable

times and though he is not for "peace at any price" so far as the

country is concerned, he certainly is much inclined that way where he

is personally concerned. You will be amused to notice how this

peace-loving quality increases as one's weight increases. The more fat

any individual is the more is he inclined to get what he wants without

hostility.

The Real Thing

The favorite "good time" of the Alimentive is one where there are

plenty of refreshments. A dinner invitation always makes a hit with him,

but beware that you do not lure a fat person into your home and give him

a tea-with-lemon wisp where he expected a full meal!

Always Ready for Food

Substantial viands can be served to him any hour of the day or night

with the certainty of pleasing him. He loves a banquet, _provided he is

not expected to make a speech_. The fat man has a harder time than any

other listening to long speeches.

The fashion of trying to mix the two most opposite extremes--food and

ideas--and expecting them to go down, was due to our misunderstanding of

the real nature of human beings. It is rapidly going out, as must every

fashion which fails to take the human instincts into account.

Avoids Sports

No prizes lure a fat man into strenuous physical exercise or violent

sports. Although we have witnessed numerous state, national and

international tennis, polo, rowing, sprinting, hurdling and swimming

contests, we have seen not one player who was fat enough to be included

in the pure Alimentive type.

The grand-stands, bleachers and touring cars at these contests contained

a generous number of fat people, but their conversation indicated that

they were present more from personal interest in some contestant than in

the game itself.

The nearest a fat man usually comes to taking strenuous exercise is to

drive in an open car. The more easeful that car the better he likes it.

He avoids long walks as he would the plague, and catches a street car

for a two-block trip.

The Personal Element

Due to his immaturity, the fat person gives little thought to anything

save those things which affect him personally.

The calm exterior, unruffled countenance and air of deliberation he

sometimes wears, and which have occasionally passed for "judicial"

qualities, are largely the results of the fact that the Alimentive

refuses to get stirred up over anything that does not concern him

personally.

This personal element will be found to dominate the activities,

conversation 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." This explains why the fat man, unless brainy, seldom lands

one.

Strongest Points

Optimism, hospitality and harmony are the strongest points in the fat

man's nature. Upon them many a man has built a successful life. Without

them no individual of any type can hope to be happy.

His popularity and all-around compatibility give the fat man advantages

over other types which fairly compensate for the weak cogs in his

machinery.

Weakest Points

Self-indulgence of all kinds, over-eating, over-sleeping,

under-exercising and the evasion of responsibilities are the weakest

points of this type. Despite his many strong points his life is often

wrecked on these rocks. He so constantly tends to taking the easy way

out. Day by day he gives up chances for ultimate success for the baubles

of immediate ease.

He is the most likable of all the types but his indolence sometimes

strains even the love of his family to the breaking point.

How to Deal with this Type Socially

Feed him, give him comfortable chairs--the largest you have--and don't

drag him into long discussions of any kind. This is the recipe for

winning the fat man when you meet him socially.

And whatever you do, don't tell him your troubles! The fat man hates

trouble, smothers his own, and you only make him ill at ease when you

regale him with yours.

Don't walk him any more than is absolutely necessary. Let him go home

early if he starts. He enjoys his sleep and doesn't like to have it

interfered with.

Make your conversation deal with concrete personal things and events.

Stay away from highbrow subjects. The best places to eat and the best

shows of the week are safe subjects to introduce when with very fat

people.

How to Deal with this Type in Business

Don't give him hard manual tasks. If you want this kind of work done

get some one other than an extremely fat man to do it. If you hire a fat

man blame yourself for the result.

Give your fat employee a chance to deal with people in a not-too-serious

way, but hold him strictly to the keeping of his records, reports and

working hours. If this fat person is a dealer, a merchant or a tradesman

keep him to his word. Start out by letting him know you expect the

delivery of just what he promises. Don't let him "jolly" you into

relinquishing what is rightfully yours. And keep in mind always that the

fat person is usually good at heart.

Remember, the chief distinguishing marks of the Alimentive in the order

of their importance are ROUNDED OUTLINES, IMMATURE FEATURES and DIMPLED

HANDS. A person who has these is largely of the Alimentive type, no

matter what other types may be included in his makeup.

How to Analyze People on Sight

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