How to Analyze People on Sight by Elsie Lincoln Benedict (epub read online books txt) 📕

is the inside mental attitude of the extremely raw-boned, angular man or woman.

They often, unconsciously, refrain from making a decision about a thing till the other fellow makes his. That settles it; they take the other side.

Think back over your school-days and call to mind the visage and bodily shape of the boy who was always on the opposite side, who just naturally disagreed, who "stood out" against the others. He was a bony lad every time.

Remember the "Fatty" with a face like a full moon? Did he do such things? He did not. He was amenable, easy-going, good natured, and didn't care how the discussion came out, so long as it didn't delay the lunch hour.

Remember the boy or girl who had the pick of the school for company whenever there was a party, who danced well and was so sparkling that you always felt like a pebble competing against a diamond when they were around? That boy or girl had a high chest, or high color, or a high-bridged nose—and usually all three.

But the one you couldn't persuade, who couldn't be won over, who refused to give in, who held up all the unanimous votes till everybody was disgusted with him, and who rather gloried in the distinction—that boy had big bones and a square jaw—the proof that he was a combination of the Osseous and Muscular types.

The Human Balance Wheel

¶ To keep the rest of the world from running away with itself, to prevent precipitous changes in laws, customs and traditions, has always been one of the functions performed for society by the bony people.

These people are seldom over-persuaded, and being able to retain a perpendicular position while the rest of the world is being swayed this way and that, they act as society's balance wheel.

The Osseous changes after a while, but it is a long while, and by the time he does, the rest of the world has marched on to something new which he opposes in its turn.

Wears Same Style Ten Years

¶ Even the clothes worn by this type tell the same story. Styles may come and styles may go, but the Osseous goes on forever wearing the same lines and the same general fashions he wore ten years before. If you will recall the men who continued wearing loose, roomy suits long after the "skin-tight" fashions came in, or the women who kept to long, full skirts when short ones were the vogue you will note that every one of them had large joints or long faces.

Bony people find a kind of collar or hat that just suits, and to that hat and that collar they will stick for twenty years!

Disdains the Fashions

¶ In every city, neighborhood and country crossroads there is always somebody who defies the styles of today by wearing the styles of ten years ago.

Every such person is a bony individual—never under any circumstances a moon-faced, round-bodied one. In every case you will find that his face is longer, his nose is longer, or his jaw and hands are longer than the average—all Osseous indications.

When He is Rich

¶ The bony man's adherence to one style or to one garment is not primarily because he wishes to save money, though saving money is an item that he never overlooks. It is due rather to his inability to change anything about himself in accordance with outside influence until a long time has elapsed.

Doesn't Spend Money Lavishly

¶ The Osseous is, as stated at the head of this chapter, a "stayer" and this applies to everything he wears, thinks, says, believes, and to the way he carries on every activity of his life.

No matter how rich he may be he will not buy one kind of car today and another tomorrow, nor one house this week and another in six weeks.

He uses his money, as all of us do, to maintain his type-habits and to give freer rein to them, not to change them to any extent. This type likes sameness. He likes to "get acquainted" with a thing. He never takes up fads and is the most conservative of all types. Unlike the Thoracic, he avoids extremes in everything and dislikes anything savoring of the "showy" or conspicuous.

Not a Social Star

¶ Because he dislikes display, refuses to yield to the new fangled fashions of polite society and finds it hard to adapt himself to people, the man of this type is seldom a social success.

He is the least of a "ladies' man" of all the types. The Osseous woman is even less disposed to social life than the Osseous man because the business and professional demands, which compel men of this type to mingle with their fellows, are less urgent with her.

Likes the Same Food

¶ The same "yesterday, today and forever" is the kind of food preferred by this type. He seldom orders anything new. The tried and true things he has eaten for twenty-five years are his favorites and it is almost impossible to win him away from them. "I have had bread and milk for supper every Sunday night for thirty years," a bony man said to us not long ago.

Means What He Says

¶ The Osseous does not flatter and seldom praises. Even when he would like to, the words do not come easily. But when he does give you a compliment you may know he means it. He is incisive and specific—a little too much so to grace modern social intercourse where so much is froth.

A Man of Few Words

¶ A man of few words is always and invariably a man whose bones are large for his body. The fat man uses up a great many pleasant, suave, merry, harmless words; the Thoracic inundates you with conversation; the Muscular argues, declares and states; but the Osseous alone is sparing of his words.

The Hoarder

¶ Bony people are never lavish with anything. They do not waste anything nor throw anything away. These are the people who save things and store them away for years against the day when they may find some use for them. When they do part with them it is always to pass them on "where they will do some one some good."

Careful of Money

¶ You never saw a stingy fat man in your life. Imagine a two-hundred-pound miser! Neither have you ever seen a really stingy man who was red-faced and high-chested. Nor have you ever found a real Muscular who was a "tightwad."

But you have known some people who were pretty close with their money. And every one of them was inclined to boniness.

When He is Poor

¶ Bony men are seldom "broke" for they are more careful of expenditures than any other type. Even when they receive small salaries this type of person always has something laid by. But the extreme Osseous never makes a million. The same caution which prevents his spending much money also prevents the plunges that make big money.

¶ The Osseous cares more for money than any one else. This is what has enabled him, when combined with some other type, to be so successful in banking—a business where you risk the other man's money, not your own.

The extreme Osseous is never lax or extravagant with his money no matter how much he has. He never believes in paying any more for a thing than is necessary. Take note of the men who carry purses for silver instead of letting their change lie loose in their pockets. They are bony every time! Fat people and florid people are the ones who let their greenbacks fall on the floor while paying the cashier!

Fear of the Future

¶ "The rainy day" doesn't worry the fat people or the florid ones, but it is seldom out of the consciousness of the bony men and women. So they cling to their twenty-dollar-a-week clerkships for years because they are afraid to tackle anything entailing risk.

Pays His Bills

¶ "I had rather trust a bony man than any other kind," is what the credit experts have told us. "Other things being equal, he is the most reliable type in money matters, and pays his bills more promptly."

¶ The bony man is one who seldom approaches the credit man, however. He usually has enough to get the few things he really wants and if not he waits till he has.

Extremely bony husbands give their wives smaller allowances in proportion to their total income than any other type, and because they are systematic themselves they are more likely to ask for reports and itemizations as to where it goes.

The fat husbands and the florid husbands are the ones who give their wives their last cent and never ask what becomes of it.

The Repressed Man

¶ The Osseous man or woman is always somewhat repressed. Unlike the Thoracic, who uncorks and bubbles like a champagne bottle, he keeps the lid on his feelings.

Bony people are always more reticent than others. They invariably tell less of their private or personal affairs. One may live across the hall from a bony man for years without knowing much about him. He is as secretive as the Thoracic is confiding and as guarded as the Alimentive is naive.

Loyal to His Few Friends

¶ "Once your friend always your friend" can be said about the Osseous oftener than any other type.

¶ The Osseous does not make friends easily and is not a "mixer" but keeps his friends for many years. He "takes to" very few people but is exceedingly loyal to those of his choice.

The "Salt of the Earth"

¶ People of the Osseous type say little, they do little for you and they do not gush—but they are always there when you need them and "always the same." They write few letters to you when away, and use few words and little paper when they do. They are likely to fill every page, to write neatly, to waste no margins and to avoid flourishes. Their letters seldom require an extra stamp.

Plans Ahead

Foresight, laying plans far into the future, and keeping an eye out for breakers ahead, financially and otherwise, are tendencies which come natural to the Osseous.

He does not like to wait until the last moment to do a thing. He dislikes unexpectedness and emergencies of any kind. He is always prepared. For instance a bony person will think out every move of a long journey before boarding his train. Weeks in advance he will have the schedule marked and put away in his coat pocket—and he knows just which coat he is going to wear too!

The Longest Lived

¶ The Osseous lives longer than any other type, for two reasons. The first is that his lack of "nerves" saves him from running down his batteries. He seldom becomes excited and does not exhaust himself in emotional orgies.

The second is that he habitually under-eats—usually because he does not care so much for food as the first three types, but quite often because he prefers to save the money.

People He Dislikes

¶ The bony man does not like people who try to speed him up, hurry him, or make him change his habits. Flashy people irritate him. But his worst aversions are the people who try to dictate to him. This type can not be driven. The only way to handle him is to let him think he is having his own way.

Likes the Submissive

¶ Amenable people who never interfere with him yet lend themselves to his plans, desires and eccentricities are the favorites of this type.

Diseases He is Most Susceptible To

¶ No diseases can be said to strike the Osseous more frequently than any other type.

But moodiness, fear—especially financial fear—long-sustained hatreds and