A BALKY WILL

A lady who was of an exceedingly stubborn nature once said to us: "Ordinarily, I consider myself to be quite amenable to persuasion and suggestion. I like to live peaceably with others. Occasionally, however, someone, and perhaps someone whom I love very dearly, says something or does something that makes me stubborn. Then I absolutely balk. Commands, demands, appeals, cajoleries, every means thinkable, are used, but the more people attempt to influence my action, the more stubborn I become. If then I am left alone to think it over for a few hours, very likely I shall begin to think that it would be advisable, from every point of view, for me to yield. My judgment is already convinced that to yield is the best policy. My love for my friends, my desire for peace, my wish to be accommodating and to have their approval all urge me to yield. I want to yield. But, even then—how, I cannot explain—there is something inside which absolutely forbids it. This is so strong that it feels stronger than my judgment and all of my desires taken together. The only possible course for me to pursue is to forget the entire matter for a few days, at the end of which time, perhaps, the stubbornness has seemingly evaporated."

DECISION MAY WAIT UPON AN IRRELEVANT WORD

And so, merely augmenting desire oftentimes is not enough to bring about decision and action, even in cases which are not so extreme as those which we have just cited. The proposition may be of such a nature that it does not admit of arousing desire to any very high pitch. In all such cases what is needed is some special stimulus to the will. As every chemist knows, sulphuric acid and alcohol, when mingled together in a glass vessel, do not combine. They have an affinity for each other. All of the necessary elements for active combination are present in that glass, and yet they do not combine. But drop in a bit of platinum and instantly the whole mass is boiling with energy let loose. In a similar way, oftentimes, all the elements for decision and action are present in the mind, yet nothing happens. But a word or a little act, seemingly insignificant in itself, oftentimes breaks the spell, as it were, and decision and action follow. In our first chapter of this part we described some of these methods for ripening desire into decision and action. This chapter we shall devote to a consideration of different classes of individuals and the best methods of inducing in them favorable decision and action.



THE IMPULSIVE MAN

The impulsive individual must be rushed. His emotions are very responsive, easily aroused, and, as, a rule, when aroused take a strong hold upon him. It is the impulsive person's tendency always to act quickly and to act in response to his strong feelings. The impulsive man discharges his feelings with speed in action, and they rapidly evaporate. Therefore, desire, when aroused, must be quickly ripened into decision and action or it soon cools, and it is too late. As a general rule, the impulsive person is well supplied with fears, and if he is given time to think the matter over his lack of courage begins to assert itself. Fears of possible or impossible disaster begin to take form until the feelings of fear and apprehension entirely overshadow the desires which have been created.

Mark Twain's story of his attendance at a missionary meeting is typical. After the speaker had been talking for half an hour, Mark was in such hearty sympathy with him and the cause for which he plead that he decided to put one dollar in the collection box when it came around—but the man kept on talking. At the end of three-quarters of an hour, Mark decided he would give only fifty cents. At the end of an hour, he decided that he would give nothing, and when, at the end of an hour and a half, the collection box finally did come around, Mark took out a dollar to pay himself for his pains.

INDICATIONS OF IMPULSIVENESS

Here are some of the indications of impulsiveness: blonde coloring, especially if accompanied by a florid skin; small, round, retreating chin; small size; fineness of texture; elasticity of consistency; short head; short, smooth fingers, with tapering tips; a keen, alert, intense expression. The impulsive person's movements are also impulsive. He walks with a quick step, sometimes almost jerky. His gestures are quick, and if he is very impulsive, he always has the air of starting to do things before he has properly considered what he is going to do.



THE DELIBERATE MAN

The deliberate individual is the opposite of the impulsive. His feelings may be strong, but he has them well under control. He may think slowly or he may think quickly, but he always acts with deliberation and always after he has thought very carefully. Once he has determined to act, he may act far more energetically, and certainly more persistently, than the impulsive person. The thing to remember about him is that he is constitutionally opposed to hasty decision and action. Even when his mind is made up and his desires are strong, he is very likely to postpone action until his resolution has had an opportunity to harden. Oftentimes these deliberate people are, or seem to be, incorrigible procrastinators. It is useless to try to rush them. Give them time to think and consider.

INDICATIONS OF DELIBERATION

These are some of the indications of deliberation: dark coloring, with an inclination to pallor; a long, strong, prominent chin and well-developed jaw; large size; medium or coarse texture; hard consistency; a long, square head; long, knotty fingers, with square tips; slow, deliberate, rhythmical movements; a calm, poised expression, and either an absence of gesture or gesture of a slow, graceful character.

Looking around amongst your friends and acquaintances, you will readily see that few, if any, have all of the characteristics of impulsiveness in a marked degree, and an equally small number all of the characteristics of deliberation in a marked degree. The majority of people probably have a combination of these characteristics—some indications of impulsiveness and some of deliberation. In such cases, the question is answered by a preponderance of evidence.

OBSTINATE PEOPLE

Some people are remarkably obstinate. If given their own way, they are agreeable and amiable, but when opposed, they are exceedingly difficult to persuade. If such persons are of the positive type and like to feel that they are doing the thing and that no one else is influencing or coercing them, then they must be handled by an adroit suggestion similar in principle to that described in the case of the automobile salesman on page 380. On the other hand, in case these obstinate people are somewhat negative in character, without much initiative or aggressiveness but with a very large degree of stubbornness, then care must be taken not to antagonize them or to oppose them—always gently to lead them and never to try to drive them.

Argument is probably the most useless waste of energy possible in attempting persuasion. Your own experience teaches you that argument only leaves each party to the controversy more strongly convinced than ever that he is right. This is true no matter what the character of the arguers be. It is especially and most emphatically true when either one or the other, or both, who participate in the argument are of the obstinate type.

The obstinate person may be amenable to reason if reasons are stated calmly, tactfully, and without arousing his opposition. His emotions of love, sympathy, generosity, desire for power and authority may be successfully appealed to and he may be gently led to a decision by way of minor and seemingly insignificant points.

INDICATIONS OF OBSTINACY

These are the indications of obstinacy: dark coloring; a prominent chin; a head high in the crown; hard consistency; a rigidity of the joints, especially of the joints in the hands and fingers. Perhaps the most important and most easily recognized indication of a domineering, obstinate, determined will is the length of line from the point of the chin to the crown of the head. When this line greatly exceeds in length that from the nape of the neck to the hair line at the top of the forehead, you have an individual who desires to rule and bitterly resents any attempt on the part of others to rule him.

The indications of a positive, aggressive, dominating will are these: blonde color; prominent chin; a large, bony nose, high in the bridge; high forehead, prominent at the brows and retreating as it rises; medium or small size; medium fine, medium or coarse texture; hard consistency, rigid joints; a head wide just above and also behind the ears and high in the crown; a keen, penetrating, intense expression of the eyes, and positive, decided tones of voice, movements and gestures.

The individual who is negatively stubborn may have a small or sway-back nose; may have a high forehead, flat at the brows and prominent above; may have elastic or soft consistency; may have a head narrow above and behind the ears. Obstinacy will be shown in the length of line from the point of chin to the crown of head and in the rigidity of the joints of the hands and fingers.

THE INDECISIVE

The gentleman mentioned at the opening of this chapter belongs to the indecisive class. They are like those of whom we sing in the old hymn:

"But timorous mortals start and shrink To cross that narrow sea And linger, shivering, on the brink And fear to launch away."

We have often watched boys in swimming. In every crowd there are always a few of these timorous mortals who "shiver on the brink and fear to launch away." As a general rule, some of their companions usually come up behind them and give them a strong push, after which they are pleased and happy enough in the water. We have seen boys who seemed to be waiting for someone to push them in. No doubt they were. Certain it is that grown up men and women who suffer in an agony of indecision usually like to have someone take the matter out of their hands.

In the case of the gentleman to whom we have referred in the opening of this chapter, the real estate agent one day walked into his office, laid a contract down on the desk in front of him, and said, very impressively: "This thing has got to be settled up to-day. Just sign your name right there." And, with a feeling of intense relief and satisfaction, our friend did sign his name "right there." To the best of our knowledge and belief, he has been glad of it ever since.

HOW ONE SALESMAN OVERCAME INDECISION

We once knew a salesman of the positive, domineering type. He was selling an educational work. Now, education is a thing everyone needs but few will take the trouble and find the money to purchase unless they are very strongly persuaded. Men who would readily spend fifty or seventy-five dollars for a night's carousal will hesitate, and find objections, and back and fill for weeks, or even for months, before they spend thirty or forty dollars on a bit of education which they well know they ought to have. Our friend, therefore, was met over and over again with the temporizing excuse: "Well, I will have to think this matter over. I cannot decide it to-day, but you come in and see me again." Almost without exception, this excuse means that the man who makes it knows, deep down in his heart, that he ought to make his decision—that he will profit by it in many ways. He fully intends to make his decision some time, or else he would not ask the salesman to come back and see him again. But he is a little weak-kneed. He lacks something in decisiveness. Our friend treated practically all of these indecisive prospects of his in the same way.

"I am sorry," he would say, "but I can't come back to see you again. My time is limited. There are plenty of people who want to know about my proposition and who are eager to take it. I must get around and see them. I can't afford to go back on my track and spend time with people to whom I have already explained the whole thing. You want this and you know you want it. You intend to have it, or you would not ask me to come back and see you again. There is no good reason why you should not have it now, and you know there is not. Furthermore, if you do not take it now and I do not come back to see you—and I won't—then you will never take it. That's plain enough. You feel more like taking it right now, to-day, while I am talking to you, than you will later, when you have forgotten half of what I have said. If there is any question you want to ask about this, ask me now and I will answer it. But there isn't any, because I have already answered your questions. You are satisfied. Your mind is made up. There is no reason for delay—just sign your name right there, please." And only about four per cent of those to whom he talked that way refused to sign when he told them to.

The indecisive person wants someone always to decide for him. If you are trying to persuade such a person, then you must decide for him. Do it as tactfully as you can. Sometimes these people want others to decide for them and, at the same time, to make the situation look as if they had decided for themselves. They realize their own indecisiveness. They are ashamed of it, and they do not like to be reminded of it.

INDICATIONS OF INDECISION

These are the indications of indecisiveness: brunette coloring; moderately square and prominent chin—sometimes a long, narrow chin; small, snub or sway-back nose; high forehead, flat at the brows and prominent above; soft consistency; great flexibility of the joints of hands and fingers; a head narrow above and behind the ears and square in the back; a timid, apprehensive expression; rather aimless movements and gestures, and a small thumb, set high on the hand. Rare, indeed, is the person who has all of these indications. So rare, in fact, that he is scarcely a normal being if he has them all in a marked degree.

THE BALANCED TYPE

There are some people of an evenly balanced type. They are neither violently impulsive nor ponderously deliberate. They are interested in facts and pass their judgment upon them, but they are also interested in theories and willing to listen to them. They are practical and matter-of-fact, but they also have ideals. They have clean, powerful emotions, fairly well controlled, and yet, when their judgment has been satisfied, they are perfectly willing to act in response to their feelings. They are neither easy, credulous and impulsive nor suspicious, obstinate and procrastinating. The way to persuade them is first to present the facts and show them the reasons why. Then, by suggestion and word-painting, to stimulate their desire and give them an opportunity to decide and act. Such people are medium in color, with forehead, nose, mouth and chin inclining to the straight line; medium in size; medium in build; fine or medium fine in texture; elastic in consistency; moderately high, wide, long, square head; a pleasant but calm and sensible expression of face and eyes; quiet, well-timed walk and gestures; well-modulated voice.

THE EASY MARK

When the person to be persuaded is indecisive and also has large, wide-open, credulous eyes; a hopeful, optimistic, turned-up nose, and a large, round dome of a head just above the temples, he is the living image of the champion easy mark. What he needs is not so much to be persuaded as to be protected against himself. He, and the greedy, grasping, cunning but short-sighted individual, who is always trying to get something for nothing, constitute that very large class of people of whom it has been said that there is one born every minute.

ADVANTAGE OF PERSUADER'S POSITION

In closing this chapter, we cannot forego the opportunity for a word of counsel to you in your efforts to persuade others. Remember that if you do your work well in securing favorable attention, arousing interest, and creating desire, the person with whom you are dealing is like a man standing on one foot, not quite knowing which way he will go. Even if he is more or less obstinate and should be on both his feet, he is at least standing still and considering which direction he will take. If this is not true, then you have failed to create a desire, or, having created it, have not augmented it until it is strong enough. But, granting that this is true, do you not see what an advantage it gives you? The man who is standing on one foot, undecided, is quickly pulled or pushed in the way you want him to go if you yourself vigorously desire it. Even the man who stands obstinately on both feet is at a disadvantage if he does not know which way to go, and you very decidedly know which way you want him to go.

THE VALUE OF COURAGE

We have seen more sales skillfully brought up to the point of desire and then lost through the indecision, the wavering, the fear, or the hesitation of the salesman than for any other one cause. Of all of the qualities and characteristics which contribute to success in the persuasion of others, there is, perhaps, none more powerful than that courage which gives calmness, surety of touch, decisiveness, and unwavering, unhesitating action.

Some years ago we saw a huge mob surround a building in which a political speaker was trying to talk upon an unpopular subject. The longer the mob remained waiting for their victim to come out, the more violent and the more abusive it became. There was an angry hum, sounding above the occasional cries and shouts, which betokened trouble. Presently a large man scrambled upon the pedestal of a statue in front of the building and began to harangue the crowd. He argued with them, he pleaded with them, he threatened them, he tried to cajole them. But through it all he could scarcely make himself heard and the mob remained solidly packed about the door. Then the police were brought and attempted to force a passageway for the escape of the speaker, whose address inside the building was nearing a close. But the police were powerless and some of them were badly hurt.

Then a quiet little man came down the steps of the building. He was dressed in ordinary clothing and was unarmed. His open hands hung idly at his side. He stood near the bottom step, where he could just look over the heads of the crowd. He stood perfectly still, perfectly calm, and yet with a look of such iron resolution on his countenance as we have seldom seen. Those next him grew strangely quiet. Then the semi-circle of silence spread until the entire mob stood as if holding its breath waiting to see what this man would do.

"Make a passageway there," he said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice; "there is a carriage coming through."

Instantly the crowd parted, a carriage was driven up to the steps, the speaker came down and entered it, and it was driven rapidly away, followed only by a few hisses and cat-calls.

When all is said and done, that is the spirit which secures the decision and action of others.



CHAPTER V

EFFICIENT AND SATISFACTORY SERVICE

Marshall Nyall was an excellent workman. He was keen, quick of comprehension, practical in his judgment, and unusually resourceful. He was energetic, industrious, and skillful. Being blessed with considerable idealism, he took pride and pleasure in putting a fine artistic finish on everything he did. He studied his work in all its aspects and was alert in finding ways of saving time, materials, energy, and money. He was, therefore, personally efficient. As an employee of the Swift Motor Company, he rose rapidly until he became superintendent. In that position he made a good record. So valuable was he that the White Rapids Motor Company coveted him and its president and general manager began to lay plans to entice him away. Negotiations were begun and continued over a period of weeks. Larger and larger grew the inducements offered by the White Rapids Motor Company until, finally, Nyall's employers felt that they could not afford to meet them any longer, and this highly efficient man became works manager for the White Rapids Motor Company, at a very greatly increased salary.

Now, the White Rapids Motor Company was larger and wealthier than the Swift Motor Company. The position of works manager was a more important and responsible position than that of superintendent. Nyall was accordingly delighted and had high ambitions as to his career with his new employers.

HOW THE TROUBLE STARTED

"You have a reputation," said the president and general manager to Nyall, "for efficiency. Efficiency is what we want in the works here, and if you can put these factories on as efficient a basis as you did the shops of the Swift Motor Company, your future is assured."

"I can do that all right, Mr. Burton," Nyall replied confidently, "provided I get the right kind of co-operation from the front office."

"Call on us for anything you want, Nyall," returned the president sharply. He was a proud, positive man. He loved power. He had the ability to lead and to rule, and he resented even the slightest imputation that any lack of co-operation on his part might defeat his plans for efficient management.

A few days later Nyall made some changes in the plan of routing the work through the factories. These changes were rather radical and sweeping and necessitated a considerable initial expense. Naturally, Burton was not long in hearing about it. Instantly he summoned his works manager.

"Haven't you begun your work here in a rather drastic manner?" he inquired. "Surely you have not studied this situation carefully enough in a few days to justify you in making such sweeping changes in the system which we have built up here after years of patient study and research. I have given the routing of the work through the factories days and nights of careful study, Nyall, during the years that we have been standardizing it. I believe that it was just as nearly perfect as it can be just as we had it."

"Your system was all wrong, and I can prove it to you," returned Nyall. "Just wait a minute until I bring you in my charts."

RUBBING IT IN

Stepping into his office, he secured a number of charts and also several sheets of tabulated figures. The charts were beautifully executed and in a most admirable manner made graphically clear the sound reasoning upon which Nyall had ordered the changes made. The tabulated figures proved that his reasoning had been correct. He was positive, forceful, and insistent in driving home his argument and in compelling his superior to admit their force and cogency. When it was all admitted and Burton, fighting to the last ditch, had been over-whelmed, Nyall's unconcealed air of triumph was keenly and painfully exasperating to the defeated man.

This was only the first of the clashes between these two positive minds. Ordinarily, perhaps, Burton would have preferred efficiency in the factory to the triumph of his own opinions and ideas, much as it hurt him to be found in error, But Nyall's disposition to wring the last drop of personal triumph out of every victory was more than the good man could endure. With his highly-strung nature, and goaded as he was by intense irritation, the passion to prove Nyall in the wrong overrode all other considerations. Thus he began to "cut off his nose to spite his face," as Nyall expressed it—to conspire against Nyall's success.

If you have ever witnessed a fight for supremacy between two positive, powerful, high-strung natures, with unusual resources of intellect and capacity on both sides, we do not need to describe to you what happened in the White Rapids Motor Company during the months that followed. Nyall simply could not understand why Burton should jeopardize the success, and even the solvency, of his enterprise by plotting against his own works manager. To his friends he confided: "Honestly, I think the old man is going crazy. The things he says and the things he does are not the product of a sane, normal mind." Similarly, Burton could not understand, to save his life, why Nyall should jeopardize the brilliant future which lay before him "by bucking his president and general manager," as he put it. "It is rule or ruin with him," he told his friends. "I never saw a more stubborn man in my life. He is crazy to have his own way. He wants to take the bit in his teeth, and if he were permitted to do it, he would run away and smash himself and everything else."

BOTH BELLIGERENT AND STUBBORN

Why did not Nyall resign or, in default of his resignation, why did not Burton discharge him? Such action was obvious for both men from a mere common sense point of view, under the circumstances. The answer is that both men were so obstinate and so set upon winning the fight upon which they had entered, that neither of them would give up. It all ended when the board of directors finally took a hand and removed Nyall in order to save the institution from shipwreck.

Naturally enough, the word went out that Nyall could not stand prosperity; that when placed in a position of authority and responsibility, he had lost his head and had nearly wrecked the concern for which he worked. He found that he could not go back to his old position with the Swift Motor Company and that his reputation had suffered so seriously that he had to be satisfied for a long time with a minor position in a rather obscure concern.

THE KEY TO THE DIFFICULTY

Nyall was efficient—unusually efficient—but he did not give satisfaction with the White Rapids Motor Company. Perhaps we do not need to point to the moral of this tale. If Nyall had understood his superior and had conducted himself accordingly, he might himself have been president and general manager of the White Rapids Motor Company to-day. He would have known that Burton was not a man to be brow-beaten, not a man to be defied, not a man to be proven in the wrong. With a little tact and diplomacy, he could have effected all of the changes he wished without even the semblance of a clash with his chief. He might even have insisted upon the first ones he advocated without serious trouble if he had done it in the right way and if he had not permitted his feeling of personal triumph to show itself so plainly.

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

In the first place, if he had known Burton as he should, he would have gone to him before making any changes and said: "Mr. Burton, I understand that you have given a great deal of time and thought to the routing of work through the factories; that you have personally directed the building up of the present system. I usually begin my work by studying the routing, but if you feel satisfied with this routing, as a result of your study; and experience, I will devote my time to something else." Approached in this way, Burton would unquestionably have directed the new works manager to make a complete study of the routing system and to suggest any possible improvements.

This story is typical of many others which we have observed more or less in detail. Nyall was a great success in the Swift Motor Company because the chief executive of that company was a little mild, good-natured, easy-going fellow, who not only needed the spur and stimulus of a positive nature like Nyall's, but was quite frankly delighted with it. If Nyall had approached him with questions and suggestions and a spirit of constant bowing to his authority, he would have been as exasperated in his own quiet way as Burton was with the opposite treatment. His constant injunction to his subordinates was: "Do not come to me with details. Use your own judgment and initiative. Go ahead. Do it in your own way. I hold you responsible only for results."

ALWAYS "SOME OTHER WAY"

In his "Message to Garcia," Elbert Hubbard has the following to say:

"You, reader, put this matter to a test:

"You are sitting now in your office—six clerks are within call. Summon any one of them and make this request: 'Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio.'

"Will the clerk quietly say, 'Yes, sir,' and go do the task?

"On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions:

"'Who was he?'

"'Which encyclopedia?'

"'Where is the encyclopedia?'

"'Was I hired for that?'

"'Don't you mean Bismarck?'

"'What's the matter with Charlie doing it?'

"'Is he dead?'

"'Is there any hurry?'

"'Shan't I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself?'

"'What do you want to know for?'

"And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him try to find Garcia—and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course, I may lose my bet, but, according to the Law of Average, I will not."

Now, there are many executives so constituted that they are not only willing, but glad, to explain the why and the wherefore of the orders they give. When they give the order, they are oftentimes willing to listen to suggestions, and oftentimes to adopt them. These are men of the deliberate, calm, reflective, rather mild type, with only a moderate development of the crown of the head which shows a love of authority. Oftentimes, also, they are men of the erratic, impulsive type who realize their impulsiveness and are rather glad than otherwise to be picked up by queries and suggestions from their subordinates. But for the man of the positive, incisive, decided, domineering type these questions and suggestions, this attitude which proposes that something else ought to be done, or that the thing ought to be done in "some other way," are exasperating in the extreme. Since this is the usual type of man to be found in industrial business, it is not strange that so many employees, perhaps efficient enough otherwise, fail to give satisfaction. It is because they seemingly cannot overcome their itch to do the thing "some other way." There is the best of all psychological reasons why every employee should read and take to heart Elbert Hubband's "Message to Garcia."

Over and over again, young men and young women have come to us saying: "I wish you would tell me why I cannot hold a position. I know I do the work well enough, but, somehow or other, I seem to be unfortunate. I have trouble with everyone I work for and cannot remain in any one position for very long." In practically every case the trouble has been that the young man or the young woman did not understand the simple principles of human nature.



HOW TO TAKE DISCIPLINE

Many sensitive souls do not understand that a wide-headed man of the bony and muscular type, with high, retreating forehead, prominent brows, large nose, high in the bridge, prominent teeth and mouth, and somewhat retreating chin, is intensely energetic, practical and impatient—that he wants to see things done—that he demands results and cannot wait for them. He is inclined to be nervous and irritable. When things go wrong, or he thinks they go wrong, he says things, says them with brutal frankness and considerable vigor. He may even use profanity and call names. He is especially impatient with and exasperated by excuses, since his passion is for results. An excuse to him is like a red rag flaunted in a bull's face. His irritation is relieved by speech. Afterward he passes on and probably forgets all about the incident. Certainly he does not hold it against the employee personally.

If, in addition to his other characteristics, this man also has a high crown, he is inclined to be domineering and exacting. Since his whole intention in his sharp speeches is to stimulate his employees to greater efficiency, and since the farthest thing from his thoughts or his intentions is to hurt their personal feelings, there is probably nothing that will so quickly and thoroughly arouse his resentment as any expression, word or act of wounded pride on the part of his employee.

Most employees make the serious mistake of taking criticism or censure as a personal matter. They should reflect that their employer has no interest in hurting their feelings—that what he wants is efficient service, profitable not only to himself but to the employee, and that, according to his type and his knowledge, he is taking the best possible means to secure it.

When an employee enters an organization, he becomes an integral part of a complicated service-rendering and profit-making machine. If he has any tender personal feelings, he should wrap them up carefully in an envelope of indifference and lock them away safely in the strong box of ambition. Then he is perfectly willing to let his employer call him a blockhead, provided the result is increased efficiency and profit.

TOO MUCH DIGNITY

A young man of our acquaintance once went to work as assistant to the manager of an insurance company. This young man was quiet, hard-working, dependable, and efficient. With his self-effacing modesty and the remarkable accuracy and care with which he attended to every detail of his work, he would have made an ideal assistant to most employers. The manager of this insurance company, however, was jovial, friendly, social, witty, and companionable. At first he was delighted with his new assistant. As time went on, however, the young man's solemnity, his taciturnity, and the quiet, dignified way in which he permitted all attempts at sociability and jocularity to pass over his head, as it were, unnoticed, began to get on his employer's nerves.

"If I don't get that young man out of the office, I will either murder him or commit suicide," he told us. "Efficient? Lord, yes! I never knew anybody so damnably efficient. Dependable? He is so dependable that he is uncanny. I would rather have a human being around who is willing to smoke a cigar with me once in a while, to crack a joke, or at least to laugh at my jokes. Just to break the monotony, I would be perfectly willing to have him make a few mistakes, to forget something. I have lots of faults—too many, I guess, to be comfortable around such a paragon of perfection as that boy."

Now, the truth of the matter was, as we well knew, that this young man, while serious-minded and efficient, had a keen sense of humor, appreciated a good joke, and was at times very merry with his own companions. He had in his mind, however, a certain ideal conduct for a business man. And to the best of his ability, he lived up to this ideal, no matter what the personality of his employer.

"FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT"

Many employees make the mistake of attempting familiarity with employers whose dignity is largely developed and whose sociability and sense of humor are only moderate or even deficient. The man whose head shows its longest line from point of chin to crown, who has a long face with long, vertical lines, whose lips are rather thin, whose forehead is rather narrow and somewhat retreating, and whose back-head is only moderately developed or even deficient, is not a man to slap on the back. He will resent any familiarity or any jocular attempt to draw him down on a plane of equality with his employees. If such a man is also fine-textured, he is very sensitive and must be treated with deference and respect. If he has a short upper lip, he is amenable to flattery, but the flattery must be delicate and deferential.

Even when these characteristics are not extreme and the habitual attitude of an employer is one of geniality, with a certain amount of jocularity, employees should be on their guard, especially if the executive has a square head behind. Such a man, like Cousin Egbert, in Harry Leon Wilson's story, "Ruggles of Red Gap," "can be pushed just so far." It is dangerous to try to push him any further. He has a very true and proper sense of dignity and, while he is perfectly willing to be sociable and to live with his employees upon terms of friendliness, he knows well how to check any exuberance which tends to trench upon familiarity.

THE "NAPOLEONIC" EXECUTIVE

There is a type of employer who has a high, well-rounded, long head; his head is also wide above the ears, but rather narrow back of the ears. He is usually light in complexion, fine textured—a good combination of the bony and muscular type and the fat man type. This man's eyes are the neither round, wide-open eyes of simple credulity nor the long, narrow, somewhat oblique slits of secretiveness, avarice, shrewdness and suspicion. His face tends to roundness, curves and dimples, and his lips are rather full. His head is especially high and dome-shaped just above the temples and behind the hair line. His chin may be fairly well formed or it may be narrow and retreating. If it is of the narrow and retreating variety, then some of the characteristics are accentuated.

This man is a man of intense enthusiasm, great energy, a desire to accomplish things and to be the head of whatever he undertakes. He is eager, responsive, emotional, ambitious, and erratic. He is often brilliant, nearly always resourceful, conceives large projects, attempts big things, makes friends with important people, and often secures a very enviable reputation, at least for a time. But this man has his faults. He is emotional and enthusiastic. He throws himself intensely into the accomplishment of one ambitious plan after another. He has not the calmness of dispassionate judgment and the deliberateness necessary to be a good judge of men. He lacks real courage and therefore attempts to cover up his deficiency by bluff and bluster. Because of his poor judgment in regard to human nature, he frequently selects employees on the impulse of the moment, absolutely without reference to their fitness for the work he wants them to do. The ruling emotion which prompts him in selection may be any one of a dozen. We have seen men like this select important lieutenants because of their personal attractiveness, because someone else wanted them, because of similarity of tastes in matters wholly irrelevant, because the fellows knew how to flatter, out of sympathy for their families, and, in one pathetic case, because the young man thus chosen had painstakingly read through an immense set of books supposed to be representative of the world's best literature.

INJUSTICE TO EMPLOYEES

In many cases, enthusiasm and optimism on the part of such executives have placed men in positions far beyond their capacity and loaded them with responsibilities for which they had no aptitudes. Oftentimes such rapid promotion and such sudden increase of income have utterly turned the head of the victim, setting him back years in his normal development and his pursuit of success.

Because the sudden infatuations of such executives are based upon emotion and not judgment, they flicker out as quickly as the emotion evaporates. Then ensues a period of suspicion, oftentimes wholly unjust. Because the executive lacks real courage, every word and every act of the employee makes him afraid that there is something sinister and dangerous behind it. This is accentuated by the fact that, deep down in his own heart, the executive knows that he does not understand men. When this condition of affairs arises, both the executive and his employee are utterly miserable unless the employee, being a man of judgment, and understanding the situation in its essence, has the good sense either to bring the executive willy-nilly to a complete readjustment of their relations or to resign. Oftentimes, however, the employee has a larger salary than he ever received before—he also feels certain that if he resigns, he cannot secure so large a salary in any other place—and so he hangs on, hoping against hope that the attitude of his superior will change. The executive, on his part, feels that he ought to discharge the employee. He is not satisfied with him. He is suspicious of him. He is afraid of him. He realizes that he has used bad judgment in selecting him. But he lacks the courage to discharge the man and oftentimes, for this reason, resorts to a series of petty persecutions in an attempt to make him resign.

HOW TO STEER A DIFFICULT COURSE

The employee who is suddenly taken up, flattered, and offered an unusually good position by a man of this type would do well to hesitate long before accepting. If he does accept, he should take care that he does not attempt anything beyond his powers and that he does not accept a larger salary than he is able to earn. Once in his position, he should be modest, efficient, and do his best to keep out of cliques and inside politics. At the same time, he should take great care not to offend those who are powerful. The employees of every "Napoleonic" executive are, by the very nature of the organization, forced into politics. Tenure of office, promotion, and increase in pay all depend, not upon real service—although real service counts; not upon efficiency and merit—although these also count; but primarily upon the whims and caprices of an employer of this type. Every employee of any importance, therefore, does his best, first, to keep his own relations to his employer on a frank, easy, confidential basis; second, in so far as in him lies, to be at peace with all his fellow employees. We have seen some of the most valuable men of their kind we have ever met suddenly discharged without a word of explanation by employers of this type. The trouble was that someone who could get a hearing carried a bit of scandal, perhaps without the slightest foundation in fact, to the ever-suspicious ears of the boss. The boss, because he lacked the courage to admit that he had listened to such gossip, removed a man who had served him satisfactorily for years without a word of warning, and without a hearing.

Unless you understand human nature, and if you are at all responsive to appreciation, there is probably no greater pleasure than to work for such a man as we have described, so long as the sunshine of his favor falls upon you. But, as a general rule, we find their employees anything but happy. Almost without exception they feel that their tenure of office hangs by the slenderest of threads and that it is necessary to regard all of their fellow employees with suspicion. Some men enjoy working in this fevered atmosphere. If you are one of them, there are excellent opportunities for you in the employ of a man of this type. But you will do well always to have a good safe place prepared in which to land if you should suddenly be dropped.

THE BLUFFER

In all of your dealings with the man who lacks real courage, remember that his blustering and show of bravery is only an assumption to cover up his deficiencies and that if you yourself have the courage to face him and, in the language of the street, "to call his bluff," he will quiet down and be perfectly amenable to reason. But be sure to observe your man carefully and accurately before trying to call his bluff.



SUCCESS AS AN EMPLOYEE

The ultimate success of every employee depends, first of all, upon his selection of the kind of work for which he is pre-eminently fitted; second, his selection, so far as possible, of the kind of employer and superior executive under whom he can do his best work; third, upon his study and mastery of every possible resource of knowledge and training connected with the technical and practical aspects of his work; fourth, upon his careful and scientific development of all of the best and most valuable assets in his character; fifth, upon a thorough understanding and application of the principles of personal efficiency; sixth, upon an accurate knowledge of the character, disposition and personal peculiarities of his employer or employers and superior executives; seventh, upon an intelligent and diplomatic adjustment of his methods of work, his personal appearance, his personal behavior, his relationship with his fellow employees and with his employers, to the end of building up and maintaining permanently the highest possible degree of confidence in him and satisfaction with his service.



PART FOUR

PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF CHARACTER ANALYSIS



CHAPTER I

THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF CHARACTER ANALYSIS

A few years ago we were content to guess, to follow tradition, and to charge up to the caprices of fate or an all-wise Providence the failures we experienced as a result of our ignorance. Then someone, less bound by tradition than the average, discovered that exact knowledge was obtainable about most subjects. Scientific research took the place of guess-work or mere haphazard leaps in the dark. We began to observe, classify, measure, weigh, test, and record, instead of guess. Thus science was born.

As far back as human records go men have made observations upon others, have formed certain conclusions as a result of these observations, and have recorded them. Some were accurate and valuable; others merely ludicrous and misleading. Tens of thousands of men and women have attempted to analyze human character, but most of them became lost in a maze of apparent contradictions and gave up in despair, content to follow impression and intuition. Though they became discouraged and abandoned the field, each of these workers contributed something of value to the subject, and to-day we have a science of character analysis exact enough to add very greatly to our wisdom in dealing with humanity and its problems.

LIMITATIONS OF THE SCIENCE

We do not wish you to misunderstand our claims for the science. Character analysis is not a science in the mathematical sense. As we said in our introduction, we cannot place a man on the scales and determine that he has so many milligrams of industry, or apply measurements and prove that he has so many centimeters of talent for salesmanship. Nor can we, using the method of the chemist, apply the litmus to his stream of consciousness and get his psychical reaction in a demonstrable way. We are glad we cannot, else humanity might lose the fine arts of coquetry and conquest. Perhaps we never shall be able to do these things, but that is small cause for discouragement. What we do claim for the science of character analysis is that it is classified knowledge based upon sound principles; that it is as accurate as the science of medicine; that it can be imparted to others; and, best of all, that anyone can test it for himself beyond any question of doubt.

TESTS SHOW UNTRAINED JUDGMENT UNRELIABLE

"Oh, I'm a pretty good judge of men," people say to us. We have heard this declaration thousands of times in the last seventeen years. Occasionally it was, no doubt, true, but more often not, even when the statement was made in the greatest sincerity. So we determined to test the ability of the public to analyze men. The first test appeared in a number of magazines, giving a profile and full-face view, showing the hands of a young man. A few simple questions were asked concerning him, such as these:

"Would you employ this man?

"If so, would you employ him as salesman, executive, cashier, clerk, chemist, mechanic?

"Is he healthy, honest, industrious, aggressive?

"Would you choose him as a friend?"

Of 5,000 replies but 4.1 per cent were right or nearly right. Some of the replies were astounding. One manager of a big business wrote: "This man would be an exceptionally honest and trustworthy cashier or treasurer." One sales manager replied: "I would like to have this man on my sales force. He would make a hummer of a salesman, if I am any judge of men. His hands are identical with my own," etc., etc. But the climax was reached with this letter from a young lady: "He would be a devoted husband and father. I would like him as a friend."

Our own analysis of this man, from photographs on a test, was as follows:

"We would not employ this man.

"He is not healthy.

"He is intelligent.

"He is not honest.

"He is not industrious.

"He is aggressive in a disagreeable way.

"We would not choose him as a friend.

"John Doe is a natural mechanic who has had very little training in that line of work. Being exceedingly keen and intelligent, without right moral principles, he has used his natural mechanical ability in illegitimate lines."

Here is a brief sketch of John Doe, furnished by a gentleman who befriended him and has followed his career for years:

"John is thirty-one years of age and has just been released from a term in Sing Sing Prison. The crime for which he served sentence was burglary. He made a skeleton key with which he gained access to a loft where were stored valuable goods. He stole three thousand dollars worth of these from his employer. He admits that he has committed other crimes of forgery and theft. Perhaps the cleverest of these was forgery which was never discovered. He is exceedingly friendly and makes friends easily. He is, however, very erratic and irritable in disposition and often quarrelsome. He is a fair example of a common type which has intelligence and skill but has not learned to direct his activities along constructive lines."

A more complicated advertisement followed this first one, giving the portraits of nine men, each successful in his chosen work because well fitted for it by natural aptitude as well as by training. People were asked to state the vocation of each. Out of 4,876 replies but three were correct.

SOME FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS

Surely, when the untrained judgment of intelligent people goes so wide of the mark, it is worth while to inquire whether or not science can come to the rescue. Perhaps a brief examination of some well-established truths about human beings will aid in finding an answer to our query.

The science of character analysis by the observational method is based upon three very simple scientific truths:

First, man's body is the product of evolution through countless ages, and is what it is to-day as the result of the combined effect upon it of heredity and environment.

Second, man's mind is also the product of evolution through countless ages, and is what it is to-day as the result of the effect upon it of the same heredity and the same environment as have affected his body.

Third, man's body and man's mind profoundly affect each other in all of their actions and reactions and have affected each other through all the centuries of their simultaneous evolution.

EVOLUTION OF BLONDES AND BRUNETTES

Men's bodies differ from one another in many ways. A little scientific investigation soon proves to us that these differences are the result of differences in heredity and environment. Men's minds differ from one another in countless ways. Scientific investigation also proves that these mental differences, or differences in character, are also the result of differences in heredity and environment.

For example, people whose ancestors, through countless ages, lived in the bright sunlight and tropical luxuriance of the warmer climes, have dark eyes, dark hair, and dark skin because nature found it necessary to supply an abundance of pigmentation in order to protect the delicate tissues of the body from injury by the actinic rays of the sun. The same soft luxuriance of their environment has made these people slow, easy-going, hateful of change, introspective, philosophical and religious. On the other hand, people whose ancestors dwelt for centuries in the cold, dark, cloudy and foggy climate of Northwestern Europe have less need for pigmentation and are, therefore, flaxen-haired, blue-eyed and white-skinned.

The hardships and rigors of this Northern climate made these people aggressive, active, restless, fond of variety, and, because of their fierce struggle for existence, exceedingly practical, matter-of-fact, and material.

WHY NOSES DIFFER IN SIZE AND SHAPE

Another example illustrates this truth clearly: The type of human nose evolved in warm, humid climates is low and flat, with large, short passageways directly to the lungs. People living in such a climate have little need for great energy and activity, since there is food in abundance all around them. On the other hand, the type of nose evolved in a cold, dry climate is high in the bridge, with thin nostrils, so that the air may be both warmed and moistened before reaching the lungs. People living in such a climate have great need for activity, both in order to secure the means of subsistence and in order to keep themselves warm. Thus we find that the low, flat nose is everywhere the nose of indolence and passivity, while the large nose, high in the bridge, is everywhere an indication of energy and aggressiveness.

WHY SOME HEADS ARE HARD, OTHERS SOFT

In brief, then, darkness of color is not the cause of deliberation and conservatism, but both darkness of color and conservatism are results of the same causes, namely, a heredity and environment which produce these characteristics. Blonde coloring is not a cause of restless activity, but both the color and the activity are the result of evolution in a cold, dark, rigorous climate.

A striking example of the working out of the three truths which we have given is seen in the consistency of the body. Hard hands, hard muscles, and, in general, a dense, compact, unyielding consistency of fiber, are both inherited and acquired as the result of hard physical labor and the enduring of hardships. As is well known, those who spend their lives in grinding toil in the midst of hard conditions care little for the finer sentiments and sympathies of life. They have no time for them, no energy left for them. By the very necessities of their lot they are compelled to be hostile to change, free from all extravagance, and largely impervious to new ideas. Therefore, wherever we find hardness of consistency we find a tendency to narrowness, parsimony, conservatism, and lack of sympathy. Looking at this fact from a little different angle, we see that, since the body affects the mind and the mind the body so profoundly, the body of hard fiber, being impervious to physical impressions, will yield but slowly and meagerly to those molecular changes which naturally accompany emotional response and intellectual receptivity.

These are but a few examples of the truths upon which the science of character analysis by the observational method is based. Many others may occur to you. Many others have been observed, traced and verified in our work upon this science.

A BRIEF RECAPITULATION

Briefly recapitulating, we see that for every physical difference between men there is a corresponding mental difference, because both the physical differences and the mental differences are the result of the same heredity and environment. We see, further, that these physical and mental differences are not only results of the same environment affecting the individual through his remote ancestry, but that they are tied together by cause and effect in the individual as he stands to-day.

BASIS OF CLASSIFICATION

We have told you that the science of character analysis is classified knowledge. It is clear to you by this time that the knowledge which lies at the basis of this science is knowledge concerning physical and mental differences and their correspondences. In this science, therefore, since we are to observe physical differences and from them to determine differences in intellect, in disposition, in natural talents, in character in general, our first classification must deal with these physical differences.

Men differ from one another in nine fundamental ways These ways are: color, form, size, structure, texture, consistency, proportion, expression, and condition. Let us consider each of them briefly.

COLOR

Color is, perhaps, the most striking variable. You instantly observe whether a person is white or black, brown or yellow. Indeed, so striking are these variations that they were formerly the basis upon which humanity was divided into races.

We have already briefly touched upon the cause for pigmentation and the indications of differences in color. For many years anthropologists were at a loss to understand exactly why some men were black and others white. About twenty years ago, however, Von Schmaedel propounded the theory that pigmentation in the hair, eyes and skin was Nature's way of protecting the tissues from injury by the actinic or ultra-violet rays of the sun, which destroy protoplasm. Following the enunciation of Von Schmaedel's theory, prolonged experimentation was made by many anthropologists, chief among whom was our own late Major Charles E. Woodruff, of the U.S. Army. In Major Woodruff's book, "The Effects of Tropical Light Upon White Men," are to be found, set forth in a most fascinating way, evidences amounting almost to proof of the correctness of Von Schmaedel's theory.

Since Major Woodruff's book appeared, many other anthropologists have declared their acceptance of the theory, so that to-day we may assert with confidence that the black man is black because of the excessive sunlight of his environment, and that the white man is white because he and his ancestors did not need protection from the sun. Mountain climbers cover their faces and hands with a mixture of grease and lamp-black in order to prevent sunburn. When in India we wore actinic underwear, dark glasses, and solar topees to protect us from the excessive light.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BLONDES AND BRUNETTES

Now, in regard to differences in character between the dark races and the white races, you have only to consider the languorous air of the tropics and sub-tropics, the abundance of food, the small need for fuel, clothing and shelter—in general, everything in the environment which tends to make man indolent and to give him plenty of time for introspection, philosophy, theology, and the occult.

The dweller in Northern climes has had to wrestle with rapid changes, demands for food, clothing, shelter and fuel, relative scarcity of all these and difficulty of securing them—in short, nearly every possible element in his surroundings which would compel him to get out and hustle, to take an active interest in material things, to be constantly on the alert both mentally and physically—in a word, to master and conquer his environment.

These are some of the differences between the dark and the white races. We find the same differences in proportion between blondes and brunettes in the white races.

HAVELOCK ELLIS ON BLONDES AND BRUNETTES

The noted anthropologist Havelock Ellis says, in regard to this:

"It is clear that a high index of pigmentation, or an excess of fairness, prevails among the men of restless and ambitious temperament; the sanguine, energetic men; the men who easily dominate their fellows and who get on in life, and the men who recruit the aristocracy and who doubtless largely form the plutocracy. It is significant that the group of low-class men—artisans and peasants—and the men of religion, whose mission in life it is to preach resignation to a higher will, are both notably of dark complexion; while the men of action thus tend to be fair, men of thought, it seems to me, show some tendency to be dark."

The practical application of this truth is seen in the fact that the white races of the earth seem to have a genius for government, for conquest, for exploration, and for progress; while the dark races of the earth seem to have a genius for art, for literature, for religion, and for conservatism. Not long ago we read the conclusions of several anthropologists on this subject. One declared that the first men were undoubtedly brunette, and that the blonde was an abnormality and rapidly becoming extinct. Another was equally sure that the pure white blonde was a special creation but little lower than the angels, and that all the dark races were so colored by their sins. This is a matter upon which we hesitate to speculate. It would, however, be of some interest to know the respective coloring of these two investigators.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF LAW OF COLOR

Color has its commercial application. The active, restless, aggressive, variety-loving blonde is found in large proportions amongst speculators, promoters, organizers, advertising men, traveling salesmen; while the more stable and constant brunette predominates amongst the plodders, the planners, the scientists, the administrators, and the conservators. Even the poets bring out the difference. They sing of the fickle, light-hearted coquette with golden hair and azure eyes, and of the faithful, constant, true, undying affection of the lady with soft, brown eyes.

FORM

The second variable—Form—refers to form of face and features as seen in profile. The sharp face, with the long, pointed nose, prominent eyes, retreating forehead, prominent teeth and retreating chin, is the extreme convex form. The hammock-shaped face, with high, prominent forehead, flat brows, deep-set eyes, small snubbed or sway-back nose, retreating teeth and long, prominent chin, is the extreme concave in form of profile.

It would involve much dry, technical writing to explain in detail the scientific reasons why the extreme convex in profile indicates extreme energy, quickness, impatience, impulsiveness, keenness and alertness of intellect, and great rapidity in action. The large nose, high in the bridge, however, indicating, as you have already seen, great energy, is one of the scientific reasons for this. In a similar way it would take me too long to tell in detail why the extreme concave of profile indicates just the opposite qualities.

It is a scientific fact that that which is sharp is penetrating and moves quickly; that which is blunt is non-penetrating and of necessity moves slowly. The needle darts through the cloth more quickly than the bodkin. The greyhound is swifter than the bulldog. The stiletto does quicker work than the bludgeon. This, of course, is only a symbolism which may make vivid the truth that the convex man works more rapidly than the concave.

In commercial work, the man who is successful in positions requiring quick decision and quick action has a convex profile, while the man whose duties call for patience, deliberation, reflection, and the ability to plod should have some modification of the concave form of profile.

SIZE

It is an old saying that large bodies move slowly. It would be more scientifically correct to say that large bodies get under way slowly. Difference in physical size between men is important in many ways. If, as William James says, "the causes of emotion are indubitably physiological," then the smaller the physical bulk which must be affected in order to have an intense emotion, the more quickly and easily is that intense emotion aroused.

Other things being equal, the small man is more excitable and becomes angry more easily than the large man. He also cools down more quickly. When the huge bulk of the big man becomes thoroughly aroused, thoroughly wrought up, it is time to get out of the way and stand from under.

STRUCTURE

Hall Caine, the novelist, has an immense head, a slender jaw, and a small, fragile body. James J. Jeffries, the pugilist, has a comparatively small head, a large jaw, and huge bones and muscles. Ex-President Taft has a comparatively small head, round face, round body, round arms and legs. These are differences in structure.

Hall Caine is of the mental type. He is by nature unfitted to be either a pugilist, a hammer-thrower, an explorer, a banker, or a judge. He is, however, pre-eminently fitted to dream dreams of truth and beauty, to construct those dreams into stories and plays. James J. Jeffries is by nature and physique fitted for the trade of boiler-maker, for the sport of pugilism, and for physical and manual accomplishment in general. Ex-President Taft is by nature and physique fitted to sit quietly in a big chair and direct the work of others, to administer affairs, to sit upon the bench and weigh impartially causes of dispute between his fellow men. As you see, these three are our old friends, the physically frail, the man of bone and muscle, and the fat man.

The assignment of vocation according to structure is but common sense. The dreamer has too slender a body for manual labor and is both too nervous and too impatient of confinement to sit in an easy chair or on the bench. The big, corpulent man enjoys the good things of life. He is well nourished and free from anxiety. He is, therefore, especially well fitted to judge calmly, deliberately and impartially. The man of bone and muscle is too busy with his physical activities for dreams and too impatient of confinement to sit in an easy chair or on the bench.

TEXTURE

Men also differ from one another very markedly in texture. This is easily observable in the texture of hair, skin, features, general body build, hands and feet. According to Prof. Ernst Haeckel, the skin is the first and oldest sense organ. Indeed, all the other sense organs and the nervous system and brain which have evolved in the use of them, are simply inturned and specialized skin cells. This being true, the texture of the entire organism, and especially the brain and nervous system, is accurately indicated by the texture of the skin and its appendages, the hair and nails.

Even the most casual observer notes the differences between the man with coarse hair, coarse skin, rugged features, large, loosely-built limbs, hands and feet, and the man with fine skin, silky hair, delicate, regular features, slender limbs, and finely moulded hands and feet. The individual of fine texture is sensitive and naturally refined. He loves beauty. He does his best work when he is creating something or handling something which is fine and beautiful. The coarse-textured individual is strong, vigorous, virile, and enduring. He can do hard, unpleasant work, can go through hardships, and can remain cheerful even in the midst of grimy, unpleasant and unlovely surroundings. For these reasons, fine-textured people do their best work in such lines as art, literature, music, jewelry, dry goods, millinery, and fine, delicate tools, machinery and materials; while we must rely upon coarse-textured people to do the heavy, hard, rough, pioneering and constructive work of the world. Even in art and literature coarse-textured people produce that which is either vigorous and virile or gruesome and horrible.

Because of their refined sensibilities, fine-textured people usually sympathize with the classes, the aristocracy; the coarse-textured people with the masses. It is a remarkable fact that practically all of our great liberators, radicals and revolutionists have been and are men of coarse texture. There is a great scientific truth underlying the saying amongst the people that certain ideas or books are "too fine-haired" for them.

PROPORTION

One of the most important of all the nine fundamental variables is proportion. This refers to proportion of one part of the body to another, of one part of the head to another. Each part of the body and of the head has its own particular function. Nature is orderly and systematic in all her work. She does not, therefore, try to digest food with the feet or pump blood with the hands. She does not try to use our stomachs as means of locomotion. Neither does she try to make us think with the backs of our heads.

No one needs to be told that the long, slender, wiry legs of the deer were made for swiftness, or that the huge, square, powerful jaw of the bulldog was made to shut down with a vise-like grip that death itself can scarcely relax. These are crude examples of proportion. In our study and research we have learned to associate many fine gradations of differences in proportion with their corresponding differences in mental aptitudes and character.

EXPRESSION

Everything about a man indicates his character. Color, form, size, structure, texture, consistency, and proportion indicate almost entirely the man's inherent qualities. It is important for us to determine, however, in sizing up men, what they have done with their natural qualifications. This we do by observing Expression and Condition.

The cruder, simpler emotions are so frankly expressed that even a child or an animal can tell instantly whether a man is happy or loving, grieved or angry. These emotions show themselves in the voice, in the eyes, in the expression of the mouth, in the very way the man stands or sits or walks, in his gestures—in fact, in everything he does. In the same way, all of the finer and more elusive thoughts and emotions express themselves in everything a man says or does. Even when he does his best to mask his feelings, he finds that, while he is controlling his eyes and his voice, his posture, gestures, and even handwriting are giving him away. No living man can give attention to all of the modes of expression at once, and the trained observer quickly learns to discriminate between those which are assumed for the purpose of deception and those which are perfectly natural.

Transient emotions have transient expression, but the prevailing modes of thought and feeling leave their unmistakable impress just as surely as does a prevailing wind mould the form of all the trees growing in its path. The man who is sly, furtive, secretive, and fundamentally dishonest need not deceive you with his carefully manufactured expression of open-eyed frankness and honesty. If you have ever been "taken in" by a confidence man or a swindler, you either gave very slight attention to his expression or, what is more likely, suspected him but hoped to "beat him at his own game."

CONDITION

Discriminating employers long ago learned to observe carefully the condition of every applicant. It is now a pretty well accepted fact that the accountant who neglects his finger nails will probably also neglect his entries; that the clerk who is slovenly about his clothes will also be slovenly about his desk and his papers; that the man who cannot be relied upon to keep his shoes shined and his collar clean is a very weak and broken reed upon which to lean for anything requiring accuracy and dependability.

HOW THE SCIENCE IS VERIFIED

We have presented to you, in a brief way, the fundamental principles of the science of character analysis and the nine fundamental variables in man to which those principles apply. Are we not justified in saying that a body of knowledge which has been so classified and organized that the main fundamental facts of it can be presented in a few pages, is, indeed, a science? Add to this the fact that every conclusion is not only based upon these fundamental scientific principles, but has been carefully verified by investigation and observation in not only hundreds but thousands of cases, and has been used daily for years under the trying conditions of actual commercial practice, and this science has passed out of the merely experimental stage.



CHAPTER II

HOW TO LEARN AND APPLY THE SCIENCE OF CHARACTER ANALYSIS

There are two ways to learn any science.

The first is to begin by collecting all possible facts, recording them and verifying them under all possible conditions, until they are as thoroughly established as any facts can be in our imperfect human understanding. The collection of facts in this way requires the most painstaking research, oftentimes including many thousands of observations. When all the facts have been thus collected and verified, they are classified. Then they are carefully analyzed and an effort is made to find some of the laws which underlie them. Perhaps, instead of a definite law, all that can be at first advanced is a hypothesis or theory. This hypothesis or theory having been formulated, many thousands of observations are taken in an effort to establish it as a definite law or a principle. Oftentimes whole new realms have to be explored before this can be determined. Sometimes, after a theory is advanced, perhaps seems to be approaching complete establishment, some fact or set of facts is discovered which compels the setting aside of all old theories and the formulation of a new one. When a theory has been definitely established as a law, other laws are sought in the same way until, finally, there are enough laws established to form the basis of a general principle. Then more laws and more principles are added in the same way until, finally, the body of knowledge has become sufficiently accurate, sufficiently definite and sufficiently organized and classified to be called a science.

HOW SCIENCE SLOWLY EVOLVES

This is the way in which all of the sciences known to man were first learned; that is to say, they were learned by their formulators coincident with the process of their formulation. This is a slow and laborious process of learning. Few, if any, sciences have ever been thus mastered by any one individual. Indeed, the certain establishment of a very few facts, or, perhaps, only one important fact, the formulation of a theory, or the final statement of a law is usually the limit of the contribution of any one person to any science.

No science is independent. The science of physics, for example, could never have reached its present-day state of development if it had not laid heavy tribute upon the sciences of mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, geography, mechanics, optics, and others. In a similar way, the science of character analysis has derived many of its facts, laws, and even principles, from the sciences of physics, chemistry, biology, anthropology, ethnology, geography, geology, anatomy, physiology, histology, embryology, psychology, and others. Since this is true, it is obvious that the work of collecting, verifying, classifying, analyzing, and organizing the facts upon which the science of character analysis is based has been going on from the very dawn of civilization. Many investigators, students and scholars, in many branches of knowledge, have labored, added their little mite to the sum total, and passed on. The net result of all their work, all their thousands of years of research, investigation, study and thought, can now be gathered together and presented in so simple a form that it can be learned by anyone of intelligence in a few months. It took humanity untold thousands of years to learn the scientific truth that the earth is an oblate spheroid. Many men gave their lives to establish the truth. As a result, to-day every schoolboy learns and understands the fact within a very few days after his first opening of a text book on geography. Thousands of scholars have been working on the science of physics from the dawn of human intelligence down to the present date. Now a high school student learns all of its essentials and fundamentals in a short term of fourteen weeks.

A SHORT CUT TO KNOWLEDGE

The second method of learning a science, therefore, is to take advantage of all that has been done and, instead of beginning with facts and working up to principles, begin with principles and work down to a practical application amongst facts.

There are many ways of learning principles. One may memorize them from books, or have them set forth and explained by an instructor or lecturer, or stumble upon them in general reading, or work out a series of carefully prescribed experiments in a laboratory, leading up to an enunciation of the principles or, through its intelligent application in the world of work, establish it in one's consciousness.

The student who learns his laws and principles out of books may have a very clear and definite understanding of them. He may be able to add to them or to teach them. But he has little skill in their practical application as compared with the student who learns them in a laboratory. Furthermore, the laboratory student is at a disadvantage, probably, as compared with the man who makes intelligent application of the laws and principles to his daily work. So well recognized by educators is this truth that no attempt is made in our colleges and universities and, for the most part, even in our high schools, to teach sciences involving observation, logical reasoning and sound judgment purely out of books. Medicine, surgery, agriculture, horticulture, mechanics and other such sciences are now taught almost entirely by a combination of text books and actual practice. This rule also applies to the science of character analysis.

LEARN THE PRINCIPLES

The first step in the mastery and practical use of the science of character analysis is to learn the principles and the laws which underlie them. These principles and laws are comparatively few in number and comparatively simple. They are all classified under and grouped around the nine fundamental variables, a list of which was given in the preceding chapter.

The best way to learn a principle is not to memorize it, but to understand it. Learn, if possible, the reason for its existence, at least in a general way; the laws which underlie it, and the facts upon which it is based. The student who memorizes the words, "all bodies attract one another directly in proportion to their mass and inversely in proportion to the square of the distance between them," knows little or nothing about the law of gravitation, while the student who understands just what those words mean, whether he is able to repeat them correctly or not, does know the law of gravitation, and, if necessary, can probably apply it. The boy who learns that any object weighs less on a mountain-top than at the sea level learns an interesting and perhaps valuable fact. The man who learns that the law involved in this fact is the law of gravitation has learned something which he may be able to apply in a thousand ways. The man who, in the future, may learn why the law of gravitation operates as it does, may open untapped reservoirs of power for himself, for all humanity, and for all future generations. Therefore, in learning a principle, learn not only to understand it, but, if possible, why.

DEMONSTRATE AND VERIFY

Having gained as complete as possible an understanding of the laws and principles of the science of character analysis, the next step is to demonstrate to your own satisfaction that they are sound. This process will also enable you to understand them even more definitely and specifically than before.

When you learn, for example, that a blonde is more volatile, more fond of change and variety, more inclined to pioneering and government, than the brunette, you have learned an important law. When you study carefully the history of the evolution of the blonde and brunette races, you know why the law is as it is. But when you have gone out and observed several hundred blondes and several hundred brunettes and have seen them manifest dispositions, aptitudes and characteristics in accordance with the law, you have not only demonstrated the law to your own satisfaction, but you understand it even better than before. Furthermore, you are far better able than ever to determine the characteristics of the people you meet, as indicated by their color.

ANALYZE YOURSELF

There are many good reasons why the very first application of the knowledge of the principles and laws of character analysis should be to yourself. While, in one sense, you know your own thoughts and feelings and innermost desires and ambitions better than anyone else does, in another and very important sense, your friends and relatives probably understand you far better than you understand yourself. If you need any demonstration of this truth, look for it amongst your relatives and friends. You may have a relative, for example, who is very modest, retiring and diffident, who lacks self-confidence, who imagines that he is unattractive, unintelligent, and below the average in ability. You and all the rest of his friends, on the other hand, know that he has genuine talent, that he has an unusually attractive personality once his self-consciousness has been laid aside, that he is intelligent and far above the average in ability. Contrariwise, you may know someone who vastly over-estimates himself, whose own opinion of himself is at least fifty per cent higher than that of his relatives and immediate acquaintances. If other people, therefore, do not understand themselves, is it not at least probable that you do not understand yourself? So universal is this lack of self-under standing that the poet expressed a real human longing when he said:

"Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us! It wad frae mony a blunder free us And foolish notion: What airs in dress and gait wad lea'e us And even devotion!"

Careful analysis of yourself, however, with your own intimate knowledge of the depths of your being will do more than give you an understanding of your own character. It will give you a better understanding of some, at least, of the laws and principles of character analysis. For this reason, it will also give you a far more intimate understanding of others.

COMPARE INDICATIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS

When you have learned what certain physical characteristics indicate, practise observing these indications amongst the people whom you know well. Try your skill at making the connection between the indication and the characteristics which, according to the science, it indicates. For example, go over in your mind all of the blondes you know and trace in their dispositions and characters, as you know them, the evidences of volatility, love of variety, eagerness, exuberance, positiveness, and other such characteristics. Take careful note as to how these qualities manifest themselves; observe differences in degrees of blondness, and corresponding differences in the degrees in which the characteristics indicated show themselves. Observe, also, how the various characteristics manifest themselves in combination. For example, note the difference between a blonde with a big nose and a blonde with a small nose.

ANALYZE, CHECK UP AND VERIFY

When you have analyzed yourself and your relatives, friends and acquaintances, you will be ready to begin on the analysis of people previously unknown to you. You will find them everywhere—in street-cars, in stores, on the streets, in churches and theaters, on athletic fields, in offices, in factories, in schools and in colleges. When you have analyzed them as carefully as you can and, if possible, have written down a brief outline of your analysis of them, check up and verify; find out how far you have been right. If, in any case, you find that you have been mistaken, find out why—study the case further. You have already demonstrated and verified your principles; therefore, either you have made an error in your observation or you have reasoned illogically in drawing your conclusions. Find out which it is and correct your analyses—then verify them.

This is a practice which, if you are at all interested in human nature, you will find intensely fascinating. It is one which you can pursue for years and not find it monotonous. Not a day will pass, if you are diligent in this practice, in which you will not learn something new, something interesting, something valuable. Those who have studied and practised this science for many years are, almost without exception, the ones who are most eager and enthusiastic about making these observations, analyses and verifications.

STUDY TYPES

Perhaps one of the most interesting and valuable forms of exercise in the practical application of this science is the study of types and their variations. Anyone who has observed humanity knows that, while no two persons are exactly alike, practically all human beings can be classified satisfactorily into comparatively a few general types. We have considered some of these types at length in earlier chapters of this book. It is by a study and comparison of people belonging to these general types, the careful noting of resemblances and differences, that the science of character analysis becomes almost as easy as the reading of a book. If you see a man for the first time who resembles in many important particulars of appearance some man you know well, study him to see whether he will not manifest in much the same way the same characteristics as your friend. This kind of observation, intelligently made, is the basis of accuracy and swiftness in making analyses.

KEEP ACCURATE AND ADEQUATE RECORDS

The human mind is an excellent storehouse of knowledge, but it should not be over-burdened. One of the first principles of efficiency as enunciated by Mr. Harrington Emerson is: "If you would find the best, easiest and quickest ways to the desirable things of life, keep and use immediate, reliable, adequate, and permanent records."

The complete record of an analysis should show the name, address, sex, exact age, height, weight, and all other essential physical characteristics of the person analyzed, classified under the head of the nine fundamental variables. It should show your conclusions as to his ability, disposition, aptitudes and character in general. It should also show the result of any further observations for the purpose of verifying your conclusions, and should be so kept that, if, at any time in the future, the individual should speak or act in any way which is either a striking verification of the analysis or in striking disparity with it, these incidents may be recorded and their relationship to what has gone before on the record studied.

Such records as these are valuable in many ways. When you have collected a large number of them, they become the basis of statistics, averages, and other interesting and important collections of facts.

STICK TO THE PRINCIPLES

It has been our universal experience amongst practitioners of this science that those who adhere most closely and most faithfully to its principles are most successful. There is always a strong inclination, especially on the part of those who are just beginning and those who are unusually emotional and sympathetic, to make exceptions. It is very difficult for some people of exceedingly sympathetic and responsive natures to analyze correctly. The personality of the individual being analyzed appeals to them either favorably or unfavorably. Perhaps his words make a strong impression upon them. All these things cloud the analyst's judgment and, instead of applying the principles rigidly, he falls back upon the old, unreliable method of analyzing by means of his "intuitions."

The laws and principles of the science of character analysis are based upon scientific truths regarding the development, evolution, history, anatomy and psychology of the human race. They have been verified by hundreds of thousands of careful observations. They have stood the test of years of practical use in the business world. They are now being successfully applied in commerce, in industry, in education, and in the professions, by thousands of people. They can be relied upon, therefore, to give you an intimate knowledge of the ability, disposition, aptitudes, and character in general of every human being who comes under your careful observation.



CHAPTER III

USES OF CHARACTER ANALYSIS

The old-time farmer planted his potatoes "in the dark of the moon." He probably took good care not to plant them on Friday, never planted a field of thirteen rows, and would have been horrified at putting them into the ground on the same day when he has spilled salt or broken a mirror. By taking all of this superstitious care to insure a good crop, he probably counted himself lucky if he got 100 bushels to the acre. Eugene Grubb, out in Wyoming, by throwing superstition to the four winds and depending, instead, upon exact scientific knowledge, leaves luck out of the question and knows that he will net 1,000 bushels to the acre.

One thousand years ago or more, our educational methods stiffened and set in the rigid moulds of tradition. For nine hundred years civilization and progress stood still. Then here and there men began to break the moulds with hammers of scientific knowledge. Education, instead of blindly following traditional forms, began to shape itself more and more to exact knowledge of the child nature and its needs—very slowly, cautiously and tentatively at first, but, as knowledge grew, with more and more boldness and freedom. This is one of the reasons why the last one hundred years has seen greater progress toward our dominion over the earth than all of the thousand years before it.

For more than four thousand years—perhaps more than five thousand—men have been constructing buildings with bricks. Brick-laying was a trade, a skilled occupation, almost a profession, but its methods were based upon traditions handed down from father to son, from journeyman to apprentice, unbroken throughout that entire four-thousand-year period.

Then a bricklayer and his wife defied the heavens to fall, threw aside traditions and began to apply exact knowledge to brick-laying. As a result, they learned how to lay bricks three times as rapidly as the best workman had ever been able to before—and with less fatigue.

SCIENCE TAKES THE PLACE OF GUESSWORK

Fifty years ago, the merchant and the manufacturer guessed at their costs and fixed their prices with shrewd estimates as to their probable profits. They also guessed as to which departments of their business paid the most profit, how much and what kind of material they should buy, where the best markets were to be found, what would be the best location for their stores and factories, and many other important factors of profitable enterprise. Some of these old worthies were good guessers. They built up fairly large business institutions and made some very comfortable fortunes.

The business men of to-day—who are, indeed, of to-day and not a relic of yesterday and the day before yesterday—have an exact and detailed knowledge of their costs, determine prices scientifically, know definitely where are the best markets and what are the best locations for their factories, forecast with a reasonable degree of accuracy their need for materials, determine in a laboratory just which materials will best supply their needs, and in many other ways walk upon solid highways of exact information rather than upon the quaking bog of guesswork. Partly because of this, they have built up a multitude of institutions, each of them far larger than the largest of the olden days and have made fortunes which make the big accumulations of other days seem like mere pocket money. In making these fortunes for themselves, they have enabled millions not only to enjoy far larger incomes than people of their class and situation ever received before, but to enjoy conveniences and luxuries beyond even the dreams of the rich men and kings of olden days.

RANDOM METHODS YIELD TO SCIENTIFIC

In the old-time factories the various departments of work, machinery and equipment in each of the departments were arranged almost at random. Even a few years ago we sometimes saw factories in which the materials worked upon were moved upstairs, then downstairs, then back upstairs, hither and yon, until a diagram of their wanderings looked like a tangle of yarn. Even in offices, desks were placed at random and letters, orders, memoranda, and other documents and papers were moved about with all of the orderliness and method of a school-girl playing "pussy wants a corner." Modern scientific management, horrified at the waste of time and energy, makes accurate knowledge take the place of this random, helter-skelter, hit-or-miss basis of action and multiplies profits.

If the old-time farmer rotated his crops at all, he did it at random. He was, therefore, a little more likely than not, perhaps, to put a crop into a field which had been exhausted of the very elements that crop most needed. By this method and by other superstitious, guesswork, traditional, random, and neglectful methods, he struggled along on an average of about twenty bushels of corn to the acre, proudly defying anybody to teach him anything about farming out of books, or any white-collared dude from an agricultural college to show him anything about raising corn. Hadn't he been raising corn for nigh on forty years? How could there, then, be anything more for him to learn about its production?

But a little twelve-year-old boy down in what had always been supposed to be the poor corn lands of Alabama, by the painstaking application of a little simple knowledge, produced 232 and a fraction bushels of corn on one acre of land. Other boys in all parts of the South and of the corn belt began producing from 100 to 200 bushels of corn to the acre in the same way.

SCIENCE TAKES THE PLACE OF SUPERSTITION

Because man has lacked accurate knowledge about the world around him, he has been the credulous victim of countless generations of swindlers, fakers, fortune-tellers, mountebanks, and others experienced in chicanery. Speculators used to consult clairvoyants, crystal gazers, astrologists and card-readers for a forecast of business conditions. To-day, through accurate knowledge based upon statistics relative to fundamental factors in the business situation, they forecast the future with remarkable accuracy.

The practice of medicine was once a combination of superstition, incantation, ignorance and chicanery. In those days people were swept into eternity by the millions on account of plague, cholera, and other pestilences. To-day medical practice is based upon knowledge, and people who are willing to order their lives in accordance with that knowledge not only recover from their illnesses, but are scarcely ever ill. The ignorant man pays $1.00 for a small bottle of colored alcohol and water which some mountebank has convinced him is a panacea for all ills. In his blindness he hopes to drink health out of that bottle. The man who knows eats moderately, drinks moderately—if at all—smokes moderately—if at all—does work for which he is fitted and in which he can be happy, secures recreation and exercise according to his own particular needs, and almost never thinks of medicine. Should he need treatment, however, he goes to a man who has scientific knowledge of diagnosis and materia medica. The first man, in all likelihood, goes to an early grave, "stricken down by the hand of a mysterious Providence." The second man lives to a ripe old age and enjoys life more at eighty than he did at eight or eighteen.

Fifty years ago, mothers relied upon tradition and maternal instinct in the care of their babies. More than one-half of all the babies born died before they were five years old. The wise mother of to-day knows what she is doing, and, as a result, infant mortality amongst the babies in her hands becomes an almost negligible quantity.

NEGLECT YIELDS TO SCIENCE

Because we did not know how to take care of them, we neglected our forests until they became well nigh extinct. To-day, by means of the science of forestry, we are slowly winning back the priceless heritage we almost threw away. Because of our ignorance, we neglected the by-products of our fields, our mines, and our industries, and no one can compute the fortunes we lost. Through scientific knowledge, we have begun to utilize these by-products. Some of the greatest of modern industries, and the fortunes which have grown out of them, are the result.