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Hobo

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Hobos in Chicago, 1929.
For other uses, see Hobo (disambiguation).

Hobo is a term that refers to a subculture of wandering homeless people,[1] particularly those who make a habit of hopping freight trains. The iconic image of a hobo is that of a downtrodden, shabbily-dressed and perhaps drunken male, one that was solidified in American culture during the Great Depression. Hobos are often depicted carrying a bindle and/or a sign asking for money.

The hobo imagery has been employed by entertainers to create wildly successful characters in the past, two of them being Emmett Kelly's "Weary Willy" and Red Skelton's "Freddy the Freeloader".

Hobos differentiate themselves as travelers who are homeless and willing to do work, whereas a "tramp" travels but will not work and a "bum" does neither.

The origin of the term is not confirmed, though there is a plethora of popular theories. Author Todd DePastino has suggested that it may come from the term hoe-boy meaning "farmhand", or a greeting such as Ho, boy! [1]. Bill Bryson suggests in Made in America that it could either come from the railroad greeting, "Ho, beau!" or a syllabic abbreviation of "homeward bound". Others have said that the term comes from the Manhattan intersection of HOuston and BOwery, where itinerant people once used to congregate.

Still another theory of the term's origins is that it derives from the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, which was a terminus for many railroad lines in the 19th century. The word "hobo" may also be a shortening of the phrase which best describes the early hobo's method of transportation, which was "hopping boxcars", or of the phrase "homeless body" or "homeless bohemian".

History

It is unclear exactly when hobos appeared on the American railroading scene. With the end of the American Civil War in the mid 19th Century, many soldiers looking to return home took to hopping freight trains. Others looking for work on the American frontier followed railroads westward aboard freight trains in the late 19th Century.

In 1906, Prof. Edmund Kelly, after an exhaustive study, put the number of tramps in America at 500,000 (about .6% of the U.S. population). The article citing this figure, What Tramps Cost Nation, was published by New York Telegraph in 1911 and estimated the number had surged to 700,000. [2] In the article, the words hobo and tramp are used interchangeably.

The population of hobos increased greatly during the Great Depression era of the 1930s. With no work and no prospects at home, many decided to travel for free via freight trains and try their luck elsewhere.

Nowadays there are very few railroad-riding hobos left. Some itinerant individuals today travel by car rather than rail, but still identify themselves as hobos.

Life as a hobo was a dangerous one. In addition to the problems of being itinerant, poor, far from home and support, and the hostile attitude of many train crews, the railroads employed their own security staff, often nicknamed bulls, who had a reputation for being rough with trespassers. Also, riding on a freight train is a dangerous enterprise. One can easily fall under the wheels, get trapped between cars, or freeze to death in bad weather. When freezer cars were loaded at an ice factory, any hobo inside was likely to be killed.

Hobos tended to band together for protection and formed an informal "brotherhood". One of these Brotherhoods used the Title TOURIST UNION #63, it was a fact that anyone carrying a Union Card while traveling during THE GREAT DEPRESSION was given a "free pass" [being unemployed was a crime in several states during the 1920's and 1930's] to travel to the next town.

National Hobo Convention

The National Hobo Convention is held in Britt, Iowa each year in early to mid August. Hobos come to town and stay in the "Hobo Jungle" telling stories around campfires at night. A hobo king and queen are named each year and get to ride on special floats in the Hobo Day parade. Following the parade, mulligan stew is served to hundreds of people in the city park as live entertainment, a carnival, and a flea market give everyone something to do.

In the year 1900 the town fathers of Britt invited Tourist Union #63 to bring their annual convention to Britt [for several years the National Convention was held on Market Street in Chicago]. And here it has stayed from the year 1900 to the year 2007.

Hobo lingo in use up to the 1940s

  • Accommodation car - The caboose of a train
  • Angellina - young inexperienced kid
  • Bad Road - A train line rendered useless by some hobo's bad action
  • Banjo - A small portable frying pan.
  • Barnacle - a person who sticks to one job a year or more
  • Beachcomber - a hobo that hangs around docks or seaports
  • Big House - Prison
  • Bindle stick - Collection of belongings wrapped in cloth and tied around a stick
  • Bindlestiff - A hobo who steals from other hobos.
  • Blowed-in-the-glass - a genuine, trustworthy individual
  • Bone polisher - A mean dog
  • Bone orchard - a graveyard
  • Bull - A railroad officer
  • Bullets - Beans
  • Buck - a Catholic priest good for a dollar
  • C, H, and D - indicates an individual is Cold, Hungry, and Dry (thirsty)
  • California Blankets - Newspapers, intended to be used for bedding
  • Calling In - Using another's campfire to warm up or cook
  • Cannonball - A fast train
  • Carrying the Banner - Keeping in constant motion so as to avoid being picked up for loitering or to keep from freezing
  • Catch the Westbound - to die
  • Chuck a dummy - Pretend to faint
  • Cover with the moon - Sleep out in the open
  • Cow crate - A railroad stock car
  • Crumbs - Lice
  • Doggin' it - Traveling by bus, especially on the Greyhound bus line
  • Easy mark - A hobo sign or mark that identifies a person or place where one can get food and a place to stay overnight
  • Elevated - under the influence of drugs or alcohol
  • Flip - to board a moving train
  • Flop - a place to sleep
  • Glad Rags - One's best clothes
  • Grease the Track - to be run over by a train
  • Gump - a scrap of meat
  • Honey dipping - Working with a shovel in the sewer
  • Hot - A fugitive hobo
  • Hot Shot - train with priority freight, stops rarely, goes faster
  • Jungle - An area off a railroad where hobos camp and congregate
  • Jungle Buzzard - a hobo or tramp that preys on their own
  • Knowledge bus - A school bus used for shelter
  • Main Drag - the busiest road in a town
  • Moniker / Monica - A nickname
  • Muligan - a type of community stew, created by several hobos combining whatever food they have or can collect
  • Nickel note - five-dollar bill
  • On The Fly - jumping a moving train
  • Padding the hoof - to travel by foot
  • Possum Belly - to ride on the roof of a passenger car. One must lay flat, on his/her stomach, to not be blown off
  • Pullman - a rail car
  • Punk - any young kid
  • Reefer - a refrigerator car
  • Road kid - A young hobo who apprentices himself to an older hobo in order to learn the ways of the road
  • Road stake - the small amount of money a hobo may have in case of an emergency
  • Rum dum - A drunkard
  • Sky pilot - a preacher or minister
  • Soup bowl- A place to get soup, bread and drinks
  • Snipes - Cigarette butts "sniped" (eg. in ashtrays)
  • Spear biscuits - Looking for food in garbage cans
  • Stemming - panhandling or mooching along the streets
  • Tokay Blanket - drinking alcohol to stay warm
  • Yegg - A traveling professional thief

Hobo by Eddy Joe Cotton, Harmony Books, New York. ISBN 0-609-60738-3

Hobo code

To cope with the difficulty of hobo life, hobos developed a system of symbols, or a code. Hobos would write this code with chalk or coal to provide directions, information, and warnings to other hobos. Some signs included "turn right here", "beware of hostile railroad police", "dangerous dog", "food available here", and so on. For instance:

  • A cross signifies "angel food," that is, food served to the hobos after a party.
  • A triangle with hands signifies that the homeowner has a gun.
  • Sharp teeth signify a mean dog.
  • A square missing its top line signifies it is safe to camp in that location.
  • A top hat and a triangle signify wealth.
  • A spearhead signifies a warning to defend oneself.
  • A circle with two parallel arrows means to get out fast, as hobos are not welcome in the area.
  • Two interlocked humans signify handcuffs. (i.e. hobos are hauled off to jail).
  • A Caduceus symbol signifies the house has a medical doctor living in it.
  • A cat signifies that a kind lady lives here.
  • A wavy line (signifying water) above an X means fresh water and a campsite.
  • Three diagonal lines means it's not a safe place.
  • A square with a slanted roof (signifying a house) with an X through it means that the house has already been "burned" or "tricked" by another hobo and is not a trusting house.
  • Two shovels, signifying work was available (Shovels, because most hobos did manual labor).

Naturally, hobo code would vary from place to place around the country.

Another version of the Hobo Code exists as a display in the STEAMTOWN RAILROAD MUSEUM at Scranton Pennsylvania operated by the National Park service.

Another code was was created by Tourist Union #63 during its 1889 National Hobo Convention in St. Louis Missouri. This code was voted upon as a concrete set of laws to govern the Nation-wide Hobo Body, it reads this way;

1.-Decide your own life, don't let another person run or rule you.

2.-When in town, always respect the local law and officials, and try to be a gentleman at all times.

3.-Don't take advantage of someone who is in a vulnerable situation, locals or other hobos.

4.-Always try to find work, even if temporary, and always seek out jobs nobody wants. By doing so you not only help a business along, but insure employment should you return to that town again.

5.-When no employment is available, make your own work by using your added talents at crafts.

6.-Do not allow yourself to become a stupid drunk and set a bad example for locals treatment of other hobos.

7.-When jungling in town, respect handouts, do not wear them out, another hobo will be coming along who will need them as bad, if not worse than you.

8.-Always respect nature, do not leave garbage where you are jungling.

9.-If in a community jungle, always pitch in and help.

10.-Try to stay clean, and boil up wherever possible.

11.-When traveling, ride your train respectfully, take no personal chances, cause no problems with the operating crew or host railroad, act like an extra crew member.

12.-Do not cause problems in a train yard, Another hobo will be coming along who will need passage thru that yard.

13.-Do not allow other hobos to molest children, expose to authorities all molesters, they are the worst garbage to infest any society.

14.-Help all runaway children, and try to induce them to return home.

15.-Help your fellow hobos whenever and wherever needed, you may need their help someday.

Hobos

Notable hobos

  • Jack Black, the author, not the actor
  • George The Tramp (George Ferguson Munro)
  • Maurice W. Graham aka "Steam Train Maurie"
  • Leon Ray Livingston ("A No.1")
  • Utah Phillips
  • Seasick Steve
  • Ege Cengiz aka "Boxcar Betty"
  • Sidetrack - killed 34 other hobos before turning himself in to the authorities
  • Jim Tully Author who penned several pulp fiction books during the years of 1928-1945, one of the published works BEGGARS OF LIFE ended being scripted into a Silent Black & White movie by the same name. Mr. Tully noted that the book and movie was loosely based on his years hoboing in the Western U.S.

Notable people who have hoboed

Fictional hobos

  • Boxcar Betty
  • Tiki Mick - Villain in D. Gray-man whose alter ego is a hobo. He travels with a group of friends by train, stopping in towns for mining jobs and playing poker with other travelers to earn money through gambling.

Hobos in media

Movies

  • Emperor of the North, directed by Robert Aldrich, 1973. OCLC 70283150. Loosely based on Jack London's The Road.

Books

Television & Radio

BBC Radio 4 recently broadcast a one off programme about the Hobo Convention entitled "Hobo Heaven"

Songs

See also

Look up hobo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. ^ ""hobo."". The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company. 2004. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
  2. ^ New York Telegraph: What Tramps Cost Nation, page D2. The Washington Post, June 18, 1911
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