The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man

Chapter XIII: The Intellectual Life of the Hobo

Text size

The homeless man is an extensive reader. This is especially true of the transients, the tramp, and the hobo. The tramp employs his leisure to read everything that comes his way. If he is walking along the railroad track, he picks up the papers that are thrown from the trains; he reads the cast-off magazines. If he is in the city, he hunts out some quiet corner where he may read. The tramp is a man with considerable leisure, but few books.

The libraries are open to them, but comparatively few use them. Public libraries are generally imposing structures and, dressed as he usually is, the tramp hesitates to enter them. Dan Horsley, who is a newsdealer and runs a bookstore on West Madison, in an article in the _Hobo News_ for October, 1922, writes:

Just as a hobo would feel out of place in a Fifth Avenue
church, so he would feel in the average library. He does
not make general use of the libraries because of the
menacing fear of the law. He is always watching lest he
be caught as a vagrant, and this prevents him seeking
recreative study; so he gets his own literature to read and
seeks some quiet place.

There are men in the hobo class who are not deterred by these scruples. Some of the most persistent users of the library have been initiated during the winter time when they were forced inside for shelter. The newspaper reading-room of the Chicago Public Library has become for them a favorite retreat during the cold winter days. It is also a good resting place in the hot summer months.

Lodging-houses sometimes have reading-rooms in which guests may find the local newspapers and current periodicals. Such reading material is usually extensively read and much thumb-marked. Most lodging-houses and rooming-houses do not provide reading matter for their guests. Seldom does a tramp throw away a paper. He passes it on to someone else, and after it has served its usefulness as reading matter, he may use it at night for a bed either in a “flophouse” or a park, along the docks, or in box cars.

The hobo reads the daily papers but does not indorse them. He looks with disapproval upon the so-called “capitalist” press. If he belongs to the radicals he is sure that the press is against him. But in spite of this he reads it. He reads it for the news.

Radical papers, to be sure, are steadfast in their efforts to promote his interests and champion his cause, but it is a cause that is so well known to the homeless man that it has lost its novelty. There are many radical papers. Among them are the _Weekly People_, the _Truth_, the _Industrial Solidarity_, the _Worker_, the _Hobo News_, the _Liberator_, the _Voice of Labor_. These are not printed primarily for the homeless man, but have a wide circulation among the so-called “slum proletariat.”

The homeless man reads a certain amount of religious literature, but little of it is perused in the spirit hoped for by the mission worker or street evangelist. He reads it because it is handed to him and it kills time.

Short-story magazines are popular. Next to short-story magazines would come railroad or engineering journals and other magazines dealing with popular mechanics.

Sex stories are, of course, popular. The tramp has a preference for books of adventure and action. Jack London is the most widely read of novelists among the “bos.” Books on mechanics, _How to Run an Automobile_, _Uses of the Steel Square_, _Block Signal Systems_, _Gas Engines_, have a wide sale.

Works on phrenology, palmistry, Christian Science, hypnotism, and the secrets of the stars, etc., are of perennial interest. Joke books and books explaining tricks with cards or riddles, detective stories, and books in the field of the social sciences are surprisingly popular. Bookstores patronized by tramps keep in stock special pocket-size editions of works on sociology, economics, politics, and history. The radical periodicals recommend books to the serious-minded hobo reader. Following is a list from the _Hobo News_:

_Easy Outlines on Economics_, by Noah Ablett
_A Worker Looks at History_, by Mark Starr
_Philosophical Essays; Positive Outlines of Philosophy_, by J.
Dietzgen

Among the books recommended for the proletariat in the I.W.W. literature list for April, 1922, are the following:

_The Ancient Lowly_, C. Osborne Ward
_Ancient Society_, Lewis H. Morgan
_Capital_, Karl Marx
_Capital Today_, Herman Cahn
_The Economic Causes of War_, Achille Loria
_Essays on the Materialistic Conception of History_, Antonio
Labriola
_Evolution of Man_, Wilhelm Boelache
_Evolution of Property_, Paul Lafargue
_Social and Philosophical Studies_, Paul Lafargue
_Stories of the Great Railroads_, Charles Edward Russell
_The Universal Kinship_, J. Howard Moore
_History of Great American Fortunes_, Gustavus Myers
_History of the Supreme Courts_, Gustavus Myers
_Origin of the Family; Private Property and the State_, Frederick
Engels
_The History of the I.W.W._, Frederic Brissenden

These books are kept in stock at the I.W.W. headquarters and extensively sold and read by the intellectuals. Soap-box orators get fuel for the fires they seek to kindle from books of this sort. It is common knowledge on the “stem” that one can tell the books a speaker reads by the opinions he expresses and the programs he favors.

THE HOBO WRITER

The hobo who reads sooner or later tries his hand at writing. A surprisingly large number of them eventually realize their ambition to get into print. It is not unusual to meet a man of the road with a number of clippings in his pocket of articles he has contributed to the daily press. Most of the great dailies have columns that are accessible to the free-lance writer, and the pages of the radical press are always open to productions of the hobo pen. Most of these contributions are in the form of letters to editors. One man who writes many such letters proudly exhibited an article recently published in the _Chicago Daily Tribune_. It was signed “F. W. B.” He explained that these letters stood for “Fellow Worker Block.” That was his nom de plume.

The hobo writer does not concern himself with letters alone. A number of them are ambitious to become novelists, essayists, and even dramatists. Some of these men have manuscripts that they have carried about with them for years in search of a publisher. One such author, an old man, said: “I have material enough together to write a book. All I want is to get someone to help me organize it. I want someone to go over it with me. You see, I never had much schooling and my grammar is not very good.” Another man carried about a great roll of manuscript which purported to be a “society novel.” It was entitled _The Literary in Literature_. It was written in lead pencil and represented the accumulated effort of several years. When the mood struck him, he added a chapter or a paragraph. Before the last page had been written, however, the first was so badly dimmed from being carried around that it could not be deciphered.

Some hobo writers have visions of a financial success that will put them on “easy street.” One man offered to share the proceeds from the publications of a series of essays on economics if the investigator would typewrite it. “Why, this will bring thousands of dollars,” he said. “If I can only get a publisher interested, but,” he added, “they don’t seem to care for live subjects.”

Another hobo writes songs and has the same difficulty with publishers. He still feels, after hundreds of failures, that he will eventually get into the limelight.

The hobo writer who plies the pen for the love of it is not unusual. One man has been working on a play for several months. He cannot get anyone interested, but that has not quenched his enthusiasm. Another man spends most of his leisure on the north side of Hobohemia, writing fantastic paragraphs. They are interesting and amusing. He does not try to publish them. He writes them because he enjoys it. Most numerous of the hobo writers are the propagandists and dreamers. They are the chief contributors to the rebel press. Many of them care to be identified with no other. They are not artists nor do they write for gain. They have little patience for the writer who lives for the so-called “filthy lucre.”

But whatever their motive, most of these hobo writers, for the want of a better medium, become contributors to the radical press. Without them radical sheets like the I.W.W. publications and the _Hobo News_ would not appeal to the homeless man. The radical press in turn serves as a pattern by which hobo writers fashion and color their literary productions.

THE “INDUSTRIAL SOLIDARITY”

The _Industrial Solidarity_ is a typical I.W.W. paper. It comes nearer than any other I.W.W. paper to reflecting the mind and the spirit of the average hobo. It is a six- or eight-page weekly and sells for five cents. It is published in Chicago from where it is distributed to individual subscribers or in bundles to the peddlers or newsdealers.

The issue of July 1, 1922, contains the following articles:

In bold headlines across the front page under the caption,
“Company Brought on Herrin Mine War” is a detailed
narrative of the whole affair written by George Williams
who is supposed to have been an eye-witness. This article
contains four full columns, two of them on the front page.
Another front-page article is devoted to the freeing of
political prisoners. It has special reference to the
fifty-two I.W.W. in Leavenworth who refused to ask the
President for pardon. The article is headed, “Hundreds of
Cities in Million Signature Petition Drive.” The slogan
was “Let Them Go Free.” Attorney-General Daugherty, who
at best is not popular with the floating population, is
shown in a cartoon on the front page marching in a parade
carrying a banner on which is inscribed, “Please, Let Morse
out of Prison.” Over the cartoon is written the ironical
legend, which harks back to some remark that had been used
against the “Wobblies,” “This is no Children’s Crusade.”

Considerable space is devoted to the spring drive for
membership. At the time of the publication of this number
the drive was on in full blast in the harvest fields where
the so-called “slugging committees” were out enrolling
members. One long article was published telling of
“conditions” in Kansas and Oklahoma where the Ku Klux Klan
was offering active opposition to the I.W.W. The articles
had been sent in by some “bo” who told in detail how the
“Wobblies” outwitted the “town clowns,” or local police,
and the K.K.K.

According to the I.W.W. literature list for April, 1922, the following periodicals are issued regularly:

“Wobbly” papers are extensively used as lesson sheets. _Solidarity_ has one long article of this character which is an analysis and criticism of craft unionism. Finally, there are several communications from members on the road and four or five editorials on questions of the day.

The _Solidarity_ is only one of a number of I.W.W. publications, but the most important as far as the hobos are concerned. The organization maintains a publishing company of its own, the Equity Press, which is situated at the I.W.W. headquarters in Chicago.

THE “HOBO NEWS”

The _Hobo News_, published in St. Louis, contains sixteen pages and carries no advertising. It is published monthly and sells for ten cents. It is distributed, like _Solidarity_, by bundle orders or subscription.

The July, 1922, issue of the _Hobo News_ has the following contents:

An article by Laura Irwin entitled, “Half Dead (Unnecessary
Movement a Crime).” It laments the fact that more care
is given to machines and animals than to men by the big
interests. Another article is a reprint entitled, “Hobos
in Missouri.” It is a description of life on the road.
Daniel Horsley, a Chicagoan, has an article on “Hobo Life
and Death: Something to Think About.” It is a discussion
of the struggle for existence. There is also a short story
entitled “Callahans’s Castle” depicting jungle pastimes.

Under the heading “Near Poetry” are several short poems
by different hobo contributors. Some of the titles are:
“History,” “Adrift,” “To a Hobo,” “Labor’s March,” “Our
Boss,” “The Hobo: of Course,” and “The Glory of Toil.”
Several letters to the editor deal with subjects of general
interest to the hobos. The editor writes on the prospects
for work the coming winter. There are two cartoons. One
shows the figure of a worker hewn out of stone at the top
of a mountain. He is being assailed by politicians and
capitalists. Over the cartoon is this legend, “These Shall
Not Prevail against Him.” Another cartoon shows a tramp
waiting at the water tank. A train is approaching in the
distance. It is entitled, “The Regular Stop.”

No class of men are in a better position to know life than the migratory population. These men have a large fund of experience, but they do not seem to have developed any sense of the relative values. With all this experience and with all these contacts with life, they are not able to interpret it. The intellectuals are obsessed by the class struggle, and instead of writing literature, they prefer to repeat the formulas and play with the mental toys which the doctrinaire reformers and revolutionists have fashioned for them.

We cannot say therefore that the radical press in monopolizing the hobo pens has robbed art. Among all these contributors to the radical publications, there are few who might produce literature. Many of them do not have patience to write literature nor the courage to formulate a new idea. They prefer to ride a hobby and repeat familiar formulas.

Writers who do find themselves do not remain in the hobo class. Others have the ability to rise, but because of drink or drugs are unable to do so. These men may find a place on the staff of one of the radical papers. They may even aspire to an editorship. Such a goal is not uncommon among the intellectuals. The _Hobo News_ is one paper that the hobo writer likes to be identified with because it is more than a doctrinaire propagandist sheet. It maintains some literary features, and every issue has one or more articles or poems that portray hobo life.

Previous Next

Comments

The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless ManChapter XIII: The Intellectual Life of the Hobo

0%10 min left in chapter