Jack Dempsey was a hobo in his teens, and he said he always had to be prepared to defend himself from older and larger men. And while it wasn’t something someone would be explicit about in those days, it was clear from his description that was wasn’t just being robbed he had to defend himself against.
“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