Hobo Totally Explained

Everything about Hobo totally explained

Hobo is a term that refers to a subculture of wandering homeless people, 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/work/food.
The hobo imagery has been employed by entertainers to create horribly failing 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 won't work and a bum does neither.

Etymology

The origin of the term isn't confirmed, though there's 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!. 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". Additional claims about the word's origin include derivations from the Japanese word houbou 方々, meaning, in reference to travel, "various places", and from the Spanish word jobo, meaning, in the Cuban phrase correr jobos, "truancy". Some Hobos claim it stands for Helping Our Brothers Out.

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. 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.

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 (it was previously held on Market Street in Chicago). They did, it has remained in Britt since.

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
"'Bo" - the common way one hobo referred to another: "I met that 'Bo on the way to Bangor last spring".
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, by extension: "Flophouse", a cheap hotel.
Glad Rags - One's best clothes
Graybacks - Lice
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. Also, a decent meal: "I could use three hots and a flop."
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
Mulligan - a type of community stew, created by several hobos combining whatever food they've 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 compression of "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

Many hobo terms have become part of common language, such as "Big House", "glad rags", "main drag", and others.

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's 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. (for example 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 isn't 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.

Hobo code of ethics

An ethical code 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;

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Always respect nature, don't leave garbage where you're jungling.

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

Try to stay clean, and boil up wherever possible.

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.

Do not cause problems in a train yard, another hobo will be coming along who will need passage through that yard.

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

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

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

Hobos

Notable hobos

Jack Black (author)

Maurice W. Graham, known as "Steam Train Maurie".

Leon Ray Livingston, known as "A No.1".

Utah Phillips

Seasick Steve

Robert Joseph Silveria, Jr., known as "Sidetrack", who killed 34 other hobos before turning himself in to the authorities.

Jim Tully, an author who penned several pulp fiction books during the years of 1928 through 1945. One of his published works, Beggars of Life, was adapted as a silent film of 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

Johnny Burnette

Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema

Eric Hoffer

Jack Kerouac

Jack London

Louis L'amour (External Link

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Robert Mitchum (External Link

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Eugene O'Neil

Harry Partch

John Steinbeck

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. . Loosely based on Jack London's The Road.

The Billion Dollar Hobo, starring Tim Conway and Will Geer, 1977.

Tokyo Godfathers an anime

Books

Hobo (book), by Eddy Joe Cotton, 2002. ISBN 0-609-60738-3

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

One More Train to Ride: The Underground World of Modern American Hobos by Clifford Williams.

The Hobo - The Sociology of the Homeless Man, by Nels Anderson, 1923.

Bottom Dogs, by Edward Dahlberg

On the Road, by Jack Kerouac

Lonesome Traveler, by Jack Kerouac ("The Vanishing American Hobo")

The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman - Humor book which features a lengthy section on "hobos", including a list of 700 hobo names which spawned an online effort to illustrate the complete list.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair contains a section in which the main character, Jurgis Rudkus, abandons his family in Chicago and becomes a hobo for a while.

Television and radio

BBC Radio 4 recently broadcast a one-off programme about the Hobo Convention entitled "Hobo Heaven", and in 2006 broadcast a memorial to 5-time elected "King of the Hobos" Steamtrain Maury Graham, who passed away in November of 2006 - or as hobos call it "He Caught The Westbound".

The Littlest Hobo - A movie and TV series about a dog of the same name.

Songs

The work of Ramblin' Jack Elliott

The work of Utah Phillips

The work of Jimmie Rodgers, including "Hobo Bill's Last Ride" and "Hobo's Meditation," among others.

The work of Seasick Steve

"Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" a 74-minute sound recording of a hobo singing on a London street, by composer Gavin Bryars.

"Hobo Chang Ba" by Captain Beefheart

"Long Train Runnin'" by the Doobie Brothers, also sings of freighthopping

"I Am a Lonesome Hobo", "Only a Hobo" and "Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie" by Bob Dylan

"Hard Travelin'" and "Hobo's Lullaby" by Woody Guthrie

"Hobo" by The Hackensaw Boys

"Hobo Blues" and "The Hobo" by John Lee Hooker

"Hobo Bill", "I Ain't Got No Home" and "Mysteries of a Hobo's Life" by Cisco Houston

"Jack Straw" by Robert Hunter and Bob Weir

"Aqualung" and "Locomotive Breath" by Jethro Tull

"Kulkurin Valssi" (Hobo Waltz) by Arthur Kylander

"Big Rock Candy Mountain" by Harry McClintock

"Streets of London" by Ralph McTell

"King of the Road" by Roger Miller

"Waltzing Matilda" by Banjo Paterson

"Lännen lokari" (Western Logger) by Hiski Salomaa

"Papa Hobo" by Paul Simon

"Cold Water" by Tom WaitsFurther Information

Get more info on 'Hobo'.

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