m*- w - Clpdigital.org

432 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
There were present a distinguished explorer,
a popular judge and many well
known members of the bar; leaders in
music, the theater, art, literature and
journalism—all men who had succeeded,
and were cutting considerable figures in
the world.
It forcibly struck me then, and has
remained an abiding impression ever
since, that these men had personal qualities
different from those possessed by the
average man. When one analyzed the
impression, the qualities could be explained
in physical terms. If you take
a group of successful men you will find
they have in common the power to suggest
unusual strength and physical
energy. They have bigger heads, usually
bigger features, large eyes set wide apart,
longer or more prominent noses, big
strong mouths, fine teeth, very often they
have even larger ears than the average
man.
As a rule, size for size they will
average out heavier men than most of
their fellows, though the rule of bulk
does not always apply. I do not mean to
suggest that exceptional ability is a matter
of beef, or logically any fat bartender
would be a genius. My idea is, the personality
of successful men radiates a note
of physical capacity. They look able to
work long hours and maintain a high
quality of concentration during the
period of activity. When they are about
their pleasures and go in for hobbies
or amusements they appear more receptive
in their leisure than other men. You
rarely find a man who looks the sissy or
the mollycoddle in high position. If my
reading of the riddle is right, personality
is most of all a matter of efficient physical
make-up.
Only a few weeks ago the world
smiled over an advertisement put out by
a firm wanting traveling salesmen.
There is nothing very amusing about a
firm desiring traveling salesmen, but
there was something essentially human
in the demand they made for stout men.
Interviewed by the press, the originators
of the advertisement stated they em­
ployed many travelers and in their experience
stout, prosperous, and goodtempered
looking men produced more
business than thinner viorkers on the
same field.
When one stops to remember how
the fat man is frequently the butt of the
world's humor, the demand for stout
salesmen would seem to be carrying an
appreciation of the effect of personality
to extremes. But the attitude of that
firm is by no means so absurd as it seems
to be at first sight. They are in a position
to judge exactly what type of personality
carries weight in their market,
and since their returns prove that stout
travelers secure more business than thin
ones, they are justified in using this effect
of personality in selecting all new men
who join the outside staff.
Naturally, men who get on in life see
the value of personality early in their
careers, and try to analyze a force counting
for so much. One now well-known
business man landed in New York with
hardly enough money to tide him over a
week. He immediately began a search
for employment and met with nothing
but rebuffs. Finally the stranger hit up
against an advertising agency where he
received the usual cold douche in the
shape of a definite turn-down.
The situation was becoming desperate.
He had to find work and income or
starve. He turned to the man in control
of the department who was administering
the turn-down for the fifth time that day,
and asked if there was any task in the
office which the staff had failed to accomplish.
In so many words he invited
the manager to give him the most difficult
task in the office and to test his right to
a place, by his power of carrying out the
work others had failed to do. By a
strange coincidence this advertising
agency had been trying to let advertising
in a handbook, and advertisers had
fought distinctly shy of giving orders.
Although the printing date was overdue,
few advertisers had supported the venture.
Every canvasser in the office had been
tried on the task and had failed.