How to Analyze People on Sight by Elsie Lincoln Benedict (best contemporary novels txt) 📖

when confined or compelled to be idle.

The Alimentive loves an easy time but the Muscular dislikes ease except when exhausted. Even then it is almost impossible to stop him.

Must Be Doing Something

¶ "I can't bear to be doing nothing!" you often hear people say. Such a person always has plenty of muscle. Musculars want to feel that they are not wasting time. They must be "up and doing," accomplishing something. If there is nothing near them that needs doing they are sure to go and find something.

The Born Worker

¶ Work is second nature to this type. He really prefers it.

Everyone likes some kind of work when in the mood if it serves a purpose or an ideal. But the Muscular likes work for its own sake—or rather for the activity's sake.

Work palls on the Alimentive and monotony on the Thoracic, but leisure is what palls on the Muscular. He may have worked ten years without a vacation and he may imagine he wants a long one, but by the morning of the third day you will notice he has found a piece of work for himself. It may be nothing more than hanging the screen door, chopping the wood or dusting the furniture, but it will furnish him with some kind of activity.

Because he enjoys action for its own sake and because work is only applied action, this type makes the best worker. He can be trusted to work harder than any other type.

Require Less Watching

¶ It is no accident that the three-hundred-men gangs of foreign workmen who dig ditches, tunnels and tubes, construct buildings, railroads and cities work with fewer foremen and supervisors than are ordinarily required to keep much smaller forces of other employees at their posts.

Seldom Unemployed

¶ For this reason the Muscular is seldom out of work. He is in demand at the best current wages because he can be depended upon to "keep at it."

¶ While writing this book our windows overlook a public park in one of America's one-million-population cities. Hundreds of unemployed men sleep there day and night. Having occasion to pass through this park daily for several months it has been interesting to note the types predominating. Hardly one per cent belonged to the Muscular type.

Likes To Do Things

¶ Because he is such a hard worker this type gets a good deal of praise and glory just as the fat people, who manage to get out of work, receive a good deal of blame. Yet work is almost as pleasant to the Muscular as leisure is to the Alimentive.

The Muscular's Pugnacity

¶ Fighters—those who really enjoy a scrap occasionally—are invariably Musculars. Their square jaws—the sure sign of great muscularity—are famous the world over and especially so in these days when war is once more in fashion.

The next time you look at the front faces of Pershing, Haig, Hindenberg or even that of your traffic policeman, note the extremely muscular face and jaw. Combat or personal fighting is a matter of muscle-action. Being well equipped for it this type actually enjoys it. That is why he is oftener in trouble than any other type.

It was no accident that the phrase "big stick" was the slogan of an almost pure Muscular.

Loves the Strenuous Life

¶ "The strenuous life" was another of Roosevelt's pet phrases and came from the natural leanings of his type. The true Muscular is naturally strenuous. Because we are prone to advise others to do what we enjoy doing ourselves it was inevitable that so strenuous a man as T. R. should advocate wholesale, universal and almost compulsory strenuosity.

We tell others to do certain things because "it will do you good" but the real reason usually is that we like to do it ourselves.

The Acrobatic Type

¶ The next time you go to a vaudeville show get there in time for the acrobatics and notice how all the participants are Musculars. If there are any other types taking part please observe that they are secondary to the acrobats—they catch the handkerchiefs or otherwise act as foils for the real performers.

All the hard work in the act will be done by Musculars. You will find no better examples of the short, stocky, well-knit pure Muscular than here. You do not need to wait for another show to realize how true this is. Recall the form and height of all the acrobats you have ever seen. You will remember that there was not one who did not fit the description of the pure Muscular given at the beginning of this chapter.

Acrobats Always Muscular

¶ We once had occasion to refer to this fact in a Human Analysis Class. One member declared that just that week he had seen a very tall, unmuscular man performing in an acrobatic act at the Orpheum.

Knowing that this was impossible, we offered a large reward to this member if he were proven right. We sent to the theater and found the acrobat in question. He had just finished his act and kindly consented to come over.

He turned out to be a pure Muscular as we had stated. The class member's mistake came from the fact that the acrobat appeared taller than he really was. High platforms always give this illusion. Furthermore his partner in the act was of diminutive height and the acrobat looked tall and slender by contrast.

Why They Don't Do It

¶ To be an acrobat is the ambition of almost every boy. There have been few who did not dream, while doing those stunts in the haymow on Mother's broomstick, of the glory that should be theirs when they grew up and performed in red tights for the multitudes.

Almost every boy has this ambition because he passes through a stage of decided muscular development in his early years. But only those who were born with much larger muscles than the average ever carry out their dreams. The others soon develop girth or the "sitting still" habit to the point where a cushioned seat in the first row of the parquet looks much better.

Durability in Clothes

¶ Something that will wear well is what this type asks for when he drops in to buy a suit. Musculars are not parsimonious nor stingy. Their buying the most durable in everything is not so much to save money as for the purpose of having something they do not need to be afraid to handle.

Likes Heavy Materials

¶ This type likes heavy, stable materials. Whereas the Alimentive wants comfortable clothes and the Thoracic distinctive ones the Muscular wants wearable, "everyday" clothes.

He wants the materials to be of the best but he cares less for color than the Thoracic. Quality rather than style and plainness rather than prettiness are his standards in dress.

"Making over father's pants for Johnnie" is a job Muscular women have excelled in and for which they have become famous. For this type of mother not only sees to it that father's pants are of the kind of stuff that won't wear out easily but she has the square, creative hand that enjoys construction.

The Plain Dresser

¶ Simple dresses—blue serge, for instance—are the ones the Muscular woman likes. This type cares little about clothes as ornamentation. He is intent on getting his desires satisfied by DOING things, not by looking them. He also resents the time and trouble that fashionable dressing demands. No matter how much money this type has he will not be inclined to extremes in dress. Musculars are not really interested in clothes for clothes' sake. It is not that this type is unambitious. He is extremely so, but he is so concentrated on "getting things done" that he is likely to forget how he looks while doing them.

When a person of this type does take great pains with his clothes it is always for a purpose, and not because he enjoys preening himself. There is little of the peacock in the Muscular.

A Simple Soul

¶ Musculars are the most democratic of all the types. The Thoracic is a natural aristocrat, and enjoys the feeling of a little innocent superiority. But Musculars often refuse to take advantage of superior positions gained through wealth or station, and are inclined to treat everybody as an equal. It is almost impossible for this type, even though he may have become or have been born a millionaire, to "lord it over" servants or subordinates. He is given to backing democratic movements of all kinds. This explains why Musculars constitute the large majority in every radical group.

Humanness His Hobby

¶ Being "human" is an ideal to which this type adheres with almost religious zeal. He likes the commonplace things and is never a follower after "the thing" though he has no prejudices against it, as the fourth type has.

An Everyday Individual

¶ The Muscular does not care for "show" and, except when essential to the success of his aims, seldom does anything for "appearances."

He is not an easy-going companion like the Alimentive nor a scintillating one like the Thoracic, but an everyday sort of person.

When in Trouble

¶ This type is not given to sliding out of difficulties like the Alimentive nor to being temporarily submerged by them like the Thoracic. He "stands up to them" and backs them down. When in trouble he acts, instead of merely thinking.

The Most Practical Type

¶ "The Practicalist" is often used to describe this type. He is inclined to look at everything from the standpoint of its practicality and is neither stingy nor extravagant.

He Likes What Works

¶ "Will it work?" is the question this type puts to everything. If it won't, though it be the most fascinating or the most diverting thing in the world, he will take little interest in it.

This type depends mostly upon his own hands and head to make his fortune for him, and is seldom lured into risking money on things he has not seen.

The Natural Efficiency Expert

¶ The shortest, surest way is the one this type likes. He is not inclined to fussiness. He insists on things being done in the most efficient way and he usually does them that way himself. He is not an easy man to work for, but quick to reward merit. The Muscular does not necessarily demand money nor the things that money buys but he tries to get the workable out of life.

The Property Owner

¶ This type likes to have a fair bank account and to give his children a worth while training. He is less inclined to bedeck them with frills but he will plan years ahead for their education.

These are not rigid parents like the fourth type, lenient like the Alimentives, nor temperamental with their children like the Thoracics, but practical and very efficient in their parenthood. They are very fond of their children but do not "spoil" them as often as some of the other types do.

They bring up their children to work and teach them early in life how to do things. As a result, the children of this type become useful at an early age and usually know how to earn a living if necessary.

Wants the Necessities

¶ The necessities of life are things this type demands and gets. Whereas the Alimentive demands the comforts and the Thoracic the unusual, the Muscular demands the essentials. He is willing to work for them, so he usually succeeds.

He is not given to rating frills and fripperies as necessities but demands the things everyday men or women need for everyday existence. Naturally he goes after them with the same force he displays in everything else.

His Heart and Soul in Things

¶ When some one shows great intensity of action directed toward a definite end we often say