for rubbing purposes. Immediately behind him was a large, coarse
man using language that stamped him as a man who had outgrown the
spirit of youth and was preeminently out of touch with the ideals
and aims of boyhood.

At that period it seemed to me and to the Thompson boy, who was
moved to speak feelingly on the subject, and in fact to all of us,
that excessive slimness might have its drawbacks. Since that time
several of us have had occasion to change our minds. With the
passage of years we have fleshened up, and now we know better. The
last time I saw the Thompson boy he was known as Excess-Baggage
Thompson. His figure in profile suggested a man carrying a roll-top
desk in his arms and his face looked like a face that had refused
to jell and was about to run down on his clothes. He spoke longingly
of the days of his youth and wondered if the shape of his knees had
changed much since the last time he saw them.

Yes sir, no matter what Doctor Hutchinson says, I contend that the
slim man has all the best of it in this world. The fat man is the
universal goat; he is humanity's standing joke. Stomachs are the
curse of our modern civilization. When a man gets a stomach his
troubles begin. If you doubt this ask any fat man--I started to
say ask any fat woman, too. Only there aren't any fat women to
speak of. There are women who are plump and will admit it; there
are even women who are inclined to be stout. But outside of dime
museums there are no fat women. But there are plenty of fat men.
Ask one of them. Ask any one of them. Ask me.

This thing of acquiring a tummy steals on one insidiously, like a
thief in the night. You notice that you are plumping out a trifle