Tummies
Dr. Woods Hutchinson says that fat people are happier than other
people. How does Dr. Woods Hutchinson know? Did he ever have to
leave the two top buttons of his vest unfastened on account of his extra
chins? Has the pressure from within against the waistband where the
watchfob is located ever been so great in his case that he had partially to
undress himself to find out what time it was? Does he have to take the
tailor\'s word for it that his trousers need pressing?
He does not. And that sort of a remark is only what might be
expected from any person upward of seven feet tall and weighing about
ninety-eight pounds with his heavy underwear on. I shall freely take Dr.
Woods Hutchinson\'s statements on the joys and ills of the thin. But when
he undertakes to tell me that fat people are happier than thin people, it is
only hearsay evidence with him and decline to accept his statements
unchallenged. He is going outside of his class. He is, as you might say,
no more than an innocent bystander. Whereas I am a qualified authority.
I will admit that at one stage of my life, I regarded fleshiness as a
desirable asset. The incident came about in this way. There was a
circus showing in our town and a number of us proposed to attend it. It
was one of those one-ring, ten-cent circuses that used to go about over the
country, and it is my present recollection that all of us had funds laid by
sufficient to buy tickets; but if we could procure admission in the regular
way we felt it would be a sinful waste of money to pay our way in.