Hobo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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. Bindle stiff is an alternative term for hobo.
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, themselves, seem to differentiate themselves as travelers who are willing to do work, whereas a "tramp" will travel but will not work and a "bum" will do neither.
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Origins
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 contraction 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".
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.
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".
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.
Hobo lingo
- Accommodation car - The caboose of a train
- Angellina - young inexperienced kid
- Banjo - A small portable frying pan.
- Barnacle - a person who sticks to one job a year or more
- Big House - Prison
- Bindle stick - Collection of belongings wrapped in cloth and tied around a stick
- Bone polisher - A mean dog
- Bull - A railroad officer
- Buck - a Catholic priest good for a dollar
- Cannonball - A fast train
- 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
- 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
- Knowledge bus - A school bus used for shelter
- Moniker / Monica - A nickname
- Nickel note - five-dollar bill
- On The Fly - jumping a moving train
- Punk - any young kid
- Road kid - A young hobo who apprentices himself to an older hobo in order to learn the ways of the road
- Rum dum - A drunkard
- 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
- Yegg - A travelling professional thief
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 labour).
Naturally, hobo code would vary from place to place around the country.
Notable hobos
- George The Tramp
- Boxcar Betty
- Jack Black (author)
- Johnny Burnette
- Jack Dempsey
- Loren Eiseley
- Steam Train Maury Graham
- Woody Guthrie
- Leon Ray Livingston ("A No.1")
- Jack London
- [[Louis L'amour[2]]]-a writer who hoboed
- Eugene O'Neil
- Harry Partch
- Utah Phillips
- Ziggy the bagman
- Jimmie Rodgers (country singer) - his songs often reflected on hobos and "railroad bums." Rodgers himself had worked for the trains as well as hopping trains.
- Seasick Steve
- Side Track - killed 34 other hobos before turning himself in to the authorities
- Blanket Man - currently lives in and around Courtenay Place and Lambton Quay in Wellington New Zealand, wearing only a blanket.
- Leslie Cochran - an infamous cross-dressing hobo who lives in downtown Austin, Texas. He has run for mayor on more than one occasion.
- The Littlest Hobo - A movie and TV series about a dog of the same name.
- 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
- Knights of the Road, by Roger A. Bruns, 1980. ISBN 0-416-00721-X.
- Hard travellin': The hobo and his history, by Kenneth Allsop. ISBN 0-340-02572-7.
- All the Strange Hours: The Excavation of a Life, by Loren Eiseley, 1975. ISBN 0-8032-6741-X
- The Road, by Jack London
- You Can't Win, by Jack Black
- Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
- "The Areas of My Expertise", by John Hodgman
- More: List of books and films about hobos and freighthopping.
Television
BBC Radio 4 recently broadcast a one off programme about the Hobo Convention entitled "Hobo Heaven"
Songs
- "Aqualung" and "Locomotive Breath" by Jethro Tull
- Streets of London by Ralph McTell
- Big Rock Candy Mountain by Harry McClintock
- Hard Travelin' by Woody Guthrie
- Hobo Bill by Cisco Houston
- Hobo Blues by John Lee Hooker
- Hobo's Lullaby by Woody Guthrie
- I Ain't Got No Home by Cisco Houston
- I Am a Lonesome Hobo by Bob Dylan
- King of the Road by Roger Miller
- Littlest Hobo Song by Terry Bush
- Funk Of The Sound Hobos by Audiovoid
- Long Train Runnin' by the Doobie Brothers, also sings of freighthopping
- Mysteries of a Hobo's Life by Cisco Houston
- Only a Hobo by Bob Dylan
- Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie by Bob Dylan
- Papa Hobo by Paul Simon
- Hobo Chang Ba by Captain Beefheart
- The Hobo by John Lee Hooker
- The work of Ramblin' Jack Elliott
- The work of Utah Phillips
- The work of Seasick Steve
- The work of Jimmie Rodgers, including "Hobo Bill's Last Ride" and "Hobo's Meditation," among others.
- Jack Straw by Robert Hunter and Bob Weir
- Waltzing Matilda by Banjo Paterson
- Hobo Music by Janster
- Hobo Joe by Dutch band Livin' Blues
- Lännen lokari (Western Logger) by Hiski Salomaa
- Kulkurin Valssi (Hobo Waltz) by Arthur Kylander
- "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" a 74-minute sound recording of a hobo singing on a London street, by composer Gavin Bryars.
See also
- Freight Train Riders of America, a brotherhood of hobos
- Freighthopping
- Hobo nickel, an art form associated with hobos
- John Hodgman, humorist who writes about hobos
- List of books and films about hobos and freighthopping
- Midnight Hobo
- National Hobo Convention, held in Britt, Iowa by the Hobo Foundation
- Wobbly lingo, the jargon of the hobos who joined the union
External links
- North Bank Fred contains numerous photographs, links, stories, and academic reports about hobos and freighthopping.
- Hobos in wood Carved hobos, stories, links, stories, about hobos and lives.
- Original Hobo Nickel Society, Numismatic community interested in carved coins, primarily 1913-1938 Buffalo Nickels. Both classic carved nickels and recent carved nickels are generically called "Hobo Nickels."
- Fran's Hobo Page, by Fran DeLorenzo. Includes hobo history and a glossary of hobo signs.
- Slackaction: Hobo Signs & Symbols
- Hobo Sign Language In El Paso
- 700 Hoboes, John Hodgman's recording of 700 hobo names
- e-hobo.com, a group of artists interpreting John Hodgman's 700 hoboes.
- Hobo Foundation
- Hobo's in the U.S.A., a photo documentary on hobo's by Stephan Vanfleteren, a Belgian photographer.
