Posted on 11/28/2015 3:57:04 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine
At the 1889 National Hobo Convention in St. Louis, a strict ethical code was established for all hobos to follow. Here are some tips we could all use, no matter what you carry in your rucksack.
1. YOU DO YOU.
"Decide your own life, don't let another person run or rule you."
2. SHOW SOME RESPECT.
"When in town, always respect the local law and officials, and try to be a gentleman at all times."
3. DON'T BE AN OPPORTUNIST.
"Don't take advantage of someone who is in a vulnerable situation, locals or other hobos."
4. GET A JOB.
"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 ensure employment should you return to that town again."
5. BE A SELF-STARTER.
"When no employment is available, make your own work by using your added talents at crafts."
6. SET A GOOD EXAMPLE.
"Do not allow yourself to become a stupid drunk and set a bad example for locals' treatment of other hobos."
7. BE MINDFUL OF OTHERS.
"When jungling in town, respect handouts, do not wear them out, another hobo will be coming along who will need them as badly, if not worse than you."
8. DON'T LITTER.
"Always respect nature, do not leave garbage where you are jungling."
9. LEND A HAND.
"If in a community jungle, always pitch in and help."
10. PRACTICE GOOD HYGIENE.
"Try to stay clean, and boil up wherever possible."
11. BE COURTEOUS WHEN YOU'RE RIDING THE RAILS ...
"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. ... AND WHEN YOU'RE NOT.
"Do not cause problems in a train yard, another hobo will be coming along who will need passage through that yard."
13. HELP OUT THE KIDS.
"Help all runaway children, and try to induce them to return home."
14. SAME GOES FOR HOBOS.
"Help your fellow hobos whenever and wherever needed, you may need their help someday."
15. LEND YOUR VOICE.
"If present at a hobo court and you have testimony, give it. Whether for or against the accused, your voice counts!"
which was not followed by
Many of the homeless are very polite.
Born in ‘49 and when I was growing up the last generation of real hobos was still alive and moving through where I lived.
Most were nice guys, willing to work for a decent day’s pay. Many camped in the woods between my house and the rail line to Bugettstown and west to Columbus.
Saw many campfires. Learned a lot.
How did they pack all of their belongings in a handkerchief tied to a stick?
“One famous hobo in history was US Supreme Court Justice William O Douglas, who travelled while seeking work as a youth. He would go on to become the longest serving member of the Supreme Court ever and a steadfast champion for individual rights against the power of the state (perhaps influenced by the rugged individualism and anti-governmentalism of his hobo years). Another famous hobo was author Jack London, who wrote a book about his itinerant days called The Road. He generously dubbed hobos ‘knights of the road’ - a term which is used by many hobos today. No less an American than Mark Twain also spent a portion of his youth hoboing through the American West before he became a journalist and writer.” http://thehobotimes.com/hobo%20history.html
My Grandma talked about a mark on the sidewalk that hobos used to put in front of homes where the people gave free handouts,
Those not following the rules were summarily ostracized.
OTD FReeper.
Hobos marked rocks or trees near homes along the railroad tracks, as an aid to other hobos looking for handouts. Thusly:
Hobo lingo in use up to the 1940s (from Wikipedia):
* 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 – (1) A small portable frying pan. (2) A short, “D†handled shovel
* 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 springâ€.
* Boil Up – Specifically, to boil one’s clothes to kill lice and their eggs. Generally, to get oneself as clean as possible
* 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: “Flophouseâ€, 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 – (1) A fugitive hobo. (2) A decent meal: “I could use three hots and a flop.â€
* Hot Shot – train with priority freight, stops rarely, goes faster. synonym for “Cannonballâ€
* 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 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 compression of “refrigerator carâ€.
* 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
More markings:
Where do beatniks (like Maynard G. Krebs) fall?
When you start out being obviously indigent and from elsewhere, you have two strikes against you. You cannot afford to incite the folks who live in a town against you, and need to be conspicuously well behaved and upright to avoid trouble.
Most of those rules are about either solidarity within the community, or how not to be a pain in a town's arse.
Removing obvious reasons for 'cleaning out dogtown' (or whatever name the local hobo jungle goes by), makes it more likely that the police, the local sheriff, and the yard bulls will leave the community be.
That transients would consider the effect their presence now will have on others later is simply the Golden Rule once removed. Treat others as you would want the next guy to be treated--because tomorrow, down the line, you will be the next guy.
Some of these people were from decent families, fallen on hard times, and some were there because they liked the life.
I'd bet he never picked that bush clean, either.
Good question. I know little about the “Beat Generation”, but I did find this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatnik
Beatnik was a media stereotype prevalent throughout the 1950s to mid-1960s that displayed the more superficial aspects of the Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s. Elements of the beatnik trope included inclinations toward violence, drug use, and pseudo-intellectualism, along with a cartoonish depiction of the real-life people and the spiritual quest of Jack Kerouac’s autobiographical fiction.
Source: Wikipedia
Much more at the link.
Sounds like current Full Professors....
We never did. We’d eat a few, then Grandpa sent me back the way we came and told the hobos “Thank you”.
I think so. :)
Hobo ethics
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