THE PARALYZED ARTIST; HAROLD WILKE AND WHAT HE LEARNED; THE TEXAS BUSI­NESS WOMAN; THE ARMLESS BILLY RICHARD, A MUSICIAN. BESSIE BLOUNT WHO WANTED TO HELP.

Wherever there is a functioning mind there may be writing, and no matter how it is written it will reveal the writer's mental habits. For ex­ample, for many years a Canadian named Andrew A. Gawley traveled with Ripley's "Believe It Or Not" shows. This was the first of many studies I have made of handless people who write with steel limbs. Since World War II there have been hundreds of "veterans who have been equipped with steel hands and who write just as they did before losing their arms or hands.

In this chapter, however, you have an entirely different approach to the problem of what a handicapped person's writing will reveal about him. In each case the history has been checked, and the points covered here which you will be able to recognize from rules you have already learned, have been found to be true.

In an early chapter you learned that heavier than ordinary writing showed a strong sense of color, as well as deep emotions. There are a great many heavy strokes in the following specimen written by a young lady who had been paralyzed by polio for eleven years. Her writing as you can see. shows a highly sensitive writer. There are a great many broad-topped "m's" and "n's" and the small "r's" are flat-topped. There is imagination in*the lower loops, and a highly developed spiritual sense shown in the upper loops.

Combine all of these traits and it is easy to understand that Aileen Lattin, the writer, has been a successful artist for many years. Her writing, even though she has no use of her hands and arms, still shows her natural talent. She began using a long brush, holding it between her teeth, and slowly, steadily mastered the technique of painting. She uses a similar device to write, and certainly her writing is clearly legible. I have never seen one of her paintings, but you will know from her writing that she has an excellent sense of color, appreciation of lines, and that her work will be imaginative.

Plate 107. Aileen Lattin has no use of her hands and arms but is a successful artist. This handwriting tells you that her work is imaginative.

There is poise, secrecy, enthusiasm and determination, in plate 108, which is the writing of Harold Wickes. He wrote me "I write with the toes of my left foot, with the paper on the floor, when I sit; or I write sitting on my desk, also.

"When I was nine months old, so goes the tale, I grasped a pencil between the toes of my right foot, transferred it to the left and started the hieroglyphics. It seems I had little difficulty learning how to write."

You will find sensitiveness shown in Harold's "d's" but not his "t's", which are, more often than not, made as straight or retraced strokes. Time and again he ties his strokes showing his persistence, which to a man with full use of his arms seems to be an important character trait.

In addition to learning writing, Harold Wickes became a complete master of dressing himself, and performing ordinary daily functions without difficulty. He learned even to tie his necktie, although some of the problems of dressing called for unusual physical dexterity. However, the size of the writing in this plate shows that when he was learning to do anything, even as a child he centered his full efforts on it.

Plate 108. Harold Wickes' "handwriting" done with the toes of his left foot. Shows same character traits as conventional handwriting.

Most surely young men of Harold's age, and young women in their early twenties can get a vast amount of encouragement from his accomplish­ments, and those of Thelma May (plate 109), a Texas girl, who operates her own business, drives her own car, and writes with the pen staff held between her teeth. Her emotional slant shows a friendly and warm-hearted nature that responds readily to emotional situations. In a full page of her writing you will find evidence of some self-consciousness, a highly developed philosophical nature, and considerable diplomacy. At the time this specimen was written she had just completed a very difficult selling contest in which she had proved to be the winner by a nice margin. She did not win because she did not have arms, but because she worked. She worked because she would not admit defeat.

Plate 109. "Handwriting" written by Thelma May with pen held between her teeth portrays her personality traits clearly.

Plate 110. Billy Richard, born without arms, reveals traits through writing done with toes

It is interesting to look back at hundreds of thousands of handwriting specimens that have gone across my desk during the years, among them scores written by physically handicapped men and women, boys and girls. Almost every handicapped writer has shown persistence, the spirit that will not admit defeat, whereas this is one trait that is not common even among men and women with all of their physical powers. They are the ones who admit defeat, and cry quits, when the going gets rough. Not the handi­capped folks who fight through and win.

PLATE 111. Carefully dotted i's and flat r-tops say the same things when written with toes as when written with the hand. Billy Richard's holograph.

Thelma May is more sensitive than Wilke, but neither lets the sensitive­ness hurt him too badly if we are to take the evidence here, and this is final. What people may think has nothing to do with it. These two handwriting pictures are correct. They tell the truth.

One of the most interesting cases of a physically handicapped lad I've ever seen was Billy Richard. He sent me his pen writing, for an analysis and his note included here tells the story. As you can see, he is very sensi­tive, but Billy was only eight when he wrote this letter. You will find his long lower loops interesting, showing as they do love of travel, change, and variety. His r-tops are flat revealing exceptional engineering and creative talent. You might expect a boy without arms to feel that he has not had a square deal out of life, but there is no resentment in Billy Richard's writing. As you examine the plate you will find a great deal of pride, while his "i's" are carefully dotted showing close attention to details.

You will find plate 112 very unlike the others, because it is from a different writer who thinks differently, acts like himself, not like others who may or may not be handicapped. This writing shows first of all concentra­tion, the habit of centering his efforts on one thing at a time. When he wrote this he was a second year pre-law student in Kentucky University, and doing very well. His "d's" and "t's" show pride, and though he is generous he is not extravagant. There are many wide open "a's" and "o's" showing that he is capable of talking easily, frankly. But there are other circles that are closed so that in the sum, he will be still or secretive when he should not talk, and will talk readily when conversation is in order.

Plate 112. A university pre-law student reveals a lot about himself in his d's, t's, a's, o's. Grapho analysis enables you to understand this young man without even meeting him. It is not necessary to know whether or not this student is handicapped.

In several sentences of writing there are a good many long cross-bars for his "t's", and some are written high on the stem, and others low. This shows by evaluation that he builds a good many long distance plans, or sets a goal a long way ahead, but that when it comes down to everyday life he is very much inclined to take one step at a time. This is important.

A writer who has a long distance goal, a place in. life, he hopes to originally fill, or purpose that he believes he can finally accomplish is really a very rich individual. At the same time if he has this ability, and is also capable of looking at short range purposes, he will work out the goal that is most easily achieved, and then go on from there. If his purposes in life were all short range, if he continually sold himself short on himself, he would lack the powerful force that a long distance goal gives an individual. So if some of your own t-bars are lower down on the stem, and others are at or near the top, do not become discouraged. You are far better off than if all of your t-bars are low. If they are low you should do something about it—very quickly. Do not be satisfied with merely shooting at a short range goal in life. Set it ahead. Work toward it, and your t-bars will climb slowly and steadily upward.

Plate 113. Although his fingers are paralyzed the handwriting of Ellis Phillips reveals character traits clearly and unmistakably.

In a letter Ellis Phillips writes, "My fingers are paralyzed, and It can­not grip a pencil to write. However, I manage to hold a pencil between my thumbs and first fingers." As a result you have a clear picture of his thinking in this specimen. He possesses remarkable creative ability as shown by his "r’s” His pride is highly developed, but as all of his lower letters are high, he does not show vanity, but pride. His "e's" are well rounded, registering a broad-minded or generous outlook in regard to others, while his down strokes are strong, or heavy. At the time he wrote this specimen (plate 113) he had just started his own business, and was doing well. He does a vast amount of writing, and reading, and you will not be surprised at the latter because his "m's" and "n's" are all made like upside down "v's". Ellis Phillips does not merely read, instead he reads to get the answers, to find out, to learn.

Your final specimen for study is not the work of a handicapped writer. Instead it is the writing of Bessie Blount, who has developed the ability to write with the instrument held between her toes, and also between her teeth. Bessie Blount did not need to acquire this skill, but she did it to prove a point to her parents who had lost their arms, legs, and were other­wise handicapped. Miss Blount writes equally well with either hand, or with the writing instrument held between her toes as shown by her three signatures.

Plate 114. Bessie Blount, although not handicapped, has learned to write hold­ing her pen between her teeth and also between her toes. The story her "hand­writing" tells is the same no matter how she chooses to do it.

Bessie is an exceedingly generous person, ready to give time or effort to help others. Her finals are long, illustrating the rule about generosity shown much earlier in this book. Thousands of handicapped men and women have heard and witnessed her lectures and demonstrations, and she is a competent grapho analyst who can not only inspire the man without arms to write, but as he acquires skill, she can determine how he thinks, and so help him overcome weaknesses.

As you study these specimens, using the rules you have learned, you may ask yourself if they do not provide something of importance to you. If you are fully equipped with arms, and legs and hands you certainly can gain inspiration from the accomplishments of these writers who have had every excuse for not learning to write. Billy Richard is an accomplished musician. Thelma May and Ellis Phillips each own a business and make it pay. Jim Lyons was attending college, planning to be a lawyer.

Each of them may be handicapped physically but not mentally, and because their minds are active they adapt their bodily equipment to meet the demands of their minds. Bessie Blount is a natural giver, one who simply had to share with others, and inspired by this inner desire, she saw an opportunity. She learned to do the very things that she wanted her patients to do. So she learned to use her toes so she can not only write but sew with them. She learned to put a pencil or fountain pen between her teeth, and write with it. She learned to write rapidly and easily with either hand. She did all these things in order to help others who have lost arms and legs, and whom she felt would be encouraged by what she did, not merely by what she told them to do. Undoubtedly scores, possibly hundreds of men and women who have lost an arm or both arms, have found in Bessie's demonstrations new hope.

She did it not, as she says, "because I had a college education, because I haven't. I had to dig what learning I have, but these folks needed help, and just telling the man who had lost a right arm, that he could learn to dress himself, or write, or do a lot of other things with his left, was not enough. I did it, he could see that he could do it."

Bessie shows by her long finals that what she has said is just the way she thinks. She wants to help. She wants to give and this is her way of giving.

EXAMINATION FOR CHAPTER 10

(Correct answers for this examination will be found in the back of the book.)

Review is necessary. You cannot master grapho analysis, indeed, can­not even gain a passable working knowledge of it from the first reading. Every grapho analyst has reviewed. There is no other way. There is just too much to learn, not only about the science itself, but about human nature. Each individual is entirely an individual—no two like. You many find two writings that look alike on .first examination, but when you carefully check each stroke you will find that there are differences that frequently affect the conduct of each individual in a very pronounced way.

Because review is necessary, your questions on this chapter are review questions more than based on what you have learned here. This chapter was included to give you proof that handwriting, even when written by some odd means, still reveals the mental forces back of the strokes.

There is one point which should be emphasized in this connection. The truths revealed by handwriting are not judicial, and you have no right to judge others. All you analyze handwriting for is to get the truth. Just as in the case of the handicapped writers in this chapter, each individual regardless of age, is affected by surroundings and conditions. To say that one of these handicapped writers is extravagantly generous for example, is to state a fact and not criticize. Summed up, my advice to you over a lifetime of research and analyzing handwriting is simply this: Do not criticize or condemn. Get the truth, and stop right there.

Speomen N

EXAMINATION

1. Does the above specimen reveal a man who will approach projects and problems in life cooly and without emotional tantrums?
Yes No

2. Does this writing show a deeply emotional nature, or one that has a severe experience and forgets about it in a few weeks? a. Deeply emotional. b. Forgets about it.

3. Does this writer possess concentration?

Yes No________

4. . Is his determination strong?

Yes No___

5. . Does he sell himself short on his own abilities?

Yes No___

6. . Is there temper in this writing?

Yes_____ No___

7. . Is he positive in making decisions?

Yes No___

8. . Would he prefer rich foods and fine fabrics for his clothing?

Yes No___

9. . Does he have a keen, inquiring mind?

Yes No___

10. . Is he satisfied with surface knowledge?

Yes_____ No___

11. . Is he a keen analyst?

Yes No________

12. . Is he aggressive?

Yes_____  No

13. . Is there any enthusiasm shown?

Yes_____  No

14. . Does he show executive ability?

Yes___________ No

15. . Is there any extravagance shown?

Yes___________ No

16. . Are any of the circles muddy?

Yes___________ No

17.. Does this reveal anything about his taste for foods, odors and tones as in music?

Yes___________ No

18. . Is there anything to indicate that he likes to attract attention?

Yes___________ No

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