Chapter VI: The Hobo and the Tramp

The term “homeless man” was used by Mrs. Alice W. Solenberger in her study of 1,000 cases in Chicago to include all types of unattached men, tramps, hobos, bums, and the other nameless varieties of the “go-abouts.”

Almost all “tramps” are “homeless men” but by no means
are all homeless men tramps. The homeless man may be an
able-bodied workman without a family; he may be a runaway
boy, a consumptive temporarily stranded on his way to a
health resort, an irresponsible, feeble-minded, or insane
man, but unless he is also a professional wanderer he is
not a “tramp.”[25]

There is no better term at hand than “homeless men” by which the men who inhabit Hobohemia may be characterized. Dr. Ben L. Reitman, who has himself traveled as a tramp, in the sense in which he uses the word, has defined the three principal types of the hobo. He says:

There are three types of the genus vagrant: the hobo, the
tramp, and the bum. The hobo works and wanders, the tramp
dreams and wanders and the bum drinks and wanders.

St. John Tucker, formerly the president of the “Hobo College” in Chicago, gives the same classification with a slightly different definition:

A hobo is a migratory worker. A tramp is a migratory
non-worker. A bum is a stationary non-worker. Upon the
labor of the _migratory worker_ all the basic industries
depend. He goes forth from the crowded slavemarkets to
hew the forests, build and repair the railroads, tunnel
mountains and build ravines. His is the labor that harvests
the wheat in the fall and cuts the ice in the winter. All
of these are hobos.

M. Kuhn, of St. Louis (and elsewhere), a migrant, a writer, and, according to his own definition, a hobo, in a pamphlet entitled “The Hobo Problem” gives a fairly representative statement of the homeless man’s explanation of his lot.

The hobo is a seasonal, transient, migratory worker of
either sex. Being a seasonal worker he is necessarily
idle much of the time; being transient, he is necessarily
homeless. He is detached from the soil and the fireside.
By the nature of his work and not by his own will, he is
precluded from establishing a home and rearing a family.
Sex, poverty, habits and degree of skill have nothing
whatever to do with classifying individuals as hobos; the
character of his work does that.

There are individuals not hobos who pose as such. They are
enabled to do this for two reasons: first, hobos have no
organization by which they can expose the impostor; second,
the frauds are encouraged and made possible by organized
and private charity. The hobo class, therefore, is unable
to rid itself of this extremely undesirable element. With
organization it can and will be done even if charity, which
is strongly opposed by the hobo class, is not abolished.

Nicholas Klein, president of the “Hobo College” and attorney and adviser to James Eads How, the so-called hobo millionaire, who finances the “Hobo College,” says:

A hobo is one who travels in search of work, the migratory
worker who must go about to find employment. Workers of
that sort pick our berries, fruit, hops, and help to
harvest the crops on the western farms. They follow the
seasons around giving their time to farms in spring,
summer, and autumn, and ending up in the ice fields in
winter. We could not get in our crops without them for the
hobo is the boy who does the work. The name originated from
the words “hoe-boy” plainly derived from work on the farm.
A tramp is one who travels but does not work, and a bum is
a man who stays in one place and does not work. Between
these grades there is a great gulf of social distinction.
Don’t get tramps and hobos mixed. They are quite
different in many respects. The chief difference being
that the hobo will work and the tramp will not, preferring
to live on what he can pick up at back doors as he makes
his way through the country.[26]

Roger Payne, A.B. and LL.B., who has taken upon himself the title “hobo philosopher,” sees only one type of the wanderer and that is the hobo. The hobo to him is a migratory worker. If he works but does not migrate, or if he migrates but does not work, he is not a hobo. All others are either tramps or bums. He makes no distinction between them. The hobo, foot-loose and care-free, leads, Mr. Payne thinks, the ideal life.

Although we cannot draw lines closely, it seems clear that there are at least five types of homeless men: (_a_) the seasonal worker,[27] (_b_) the transient or occasional worker or hobo, (_c_) the tramp who “dreams and wanders” and works only when it is convenient, (_d_) the bum who seldom wanders and seldom works, and (_e_) the home guard who lives in Hobohemia and does not leave town.[28]

THE SEASONAL WORKER

Seasonal workers are men who have definite occupations in different seasons. The yearly circuit of their labors takes them about the country, often into several different states. These men may work in the clothing industries during cold weather but in summer are employed at odd jobs; or they may have steady work in summer and do odd jobs in winter. One man picks fruit in summer and works as a machinist in winter. He does not spend his summers in the same state nor his winters in the same city but follows those two occupations throughout the year.

41. Bill S. is a Scotchman and a seasonal worker. During
the winter he is usually in Chicago. He works as a
practical nurse. He is efficient and well liked by his
patients and a steady worker during the winter. In summer
he quits and goes to the harvest fields or works on a
construction job. Since leaving his winter job (March to
October, 1922) he has had several jobs out of Chicago none
of which lasted more than a week or two. Between times he
loafs on West Madison Street. He does not drink. He is well
behaved. Seldom dresses up. When last heard of he was in
Kansas City, Missouri, where he thought he would spend the
winter.

42. Jack M. works on the lake boats during the sailing
season. When the boats tie up for the winter he tries to
get into the factories, or he goes to the woods. Sometimes
during the tie-up he takes a notion to travel and goes West
or South to while away the time. He has just returned from
a trip East and South where he has been “seeking work” and
“killing time” a week or so before the season opened. He
has already signed up for the summer. He is loafing and
lodging in the meanwhile on West Madison and South State
streets.

The seasonal worker has a particular kind of work that he follows somewhere at least part of the year. The hotels of Hobohemia are a winter resort for many of these seasonal workers whose schedule is relatively fixed and habitudinal. Some of these who return to the city regularly every winter come with money. In that case, they do not work until next season. Others return without money. They have some kind of work which they follow in the winter. The hobo, proper, is a transient worker without a program.

THE HOBO

A hobo is a migratory worker in the strict sense of the word. He works at whatever is convenient in the mills, the shops, the mines, the harvests, or any of the numerous jobs that come his way without regard for the times or the seasons. The range of his activities is nation wide and with many hobos it is international. He may cross a continent between jobs. He may be able in one year to function in several industries. He may have a trade or even a profession. He may even be reduced to begging between jobs, but his living is primarily gained by work and that puts him in the hobo class.

43. E. J. is a carpenter. He was at one time a good workman
but due to drink and dissipation he has lost his ability to
do fine work and has been reduced to the status of a rough
carpenter. At present he follows bridge work and concrete
form work. Sometimes he tries his hand at plain house
carpentry but due to the fact that he moves about so much,
he has lost or disposed of many of his tools. A spree lasts
about three weeks and he has about three or four a year.
Sometimes he travels without his kit and does not work
at his trade. He never drinks while working. It is only
when he goes to town to spend his vacations that he gets
drunk. He is restless and uncomfortable and does not know
how to occupy his mind when he is in town and sober. He is
fifty-six years old. He never married and never has had a
home since he was a boy.

44. M. P. is interesting because he has a trade but does
not follow it seasonally. He is a plasterer and he seems to
be a good one. In his youth he learned the trade of stone
mason. He came to this country from England in his twenties
and he is past fifty now. He married in Pennsylvania where
his wife died and where a daughter still lives. He became
a wanderer and for many years did not work at his trade.
He did various kinds of work as the notion came to him. As
he is getting older he is less inclined to wander and he
makes fewer excursions into other lines of work outside his
trade. During the past year he has not left Chicago and
he has done little other than to work as a plasterer. He
lives in the Hobohemian areas and is able to get along two
or three weeks on a few days’ work. He seldom works more
than a week at a time. He takes a lively interest in the
hobo movement of the city and has been actively engaged in
the “Hobo College.” Recently he won a lot in a raffle. It
is located in the suburbs of the city. During the summer
(1922) he had a camp out there and he and his friends from
Madison Street spent considerable time in his private
“jungle.”

The hobo group comprises the bulk of the migratory workers, in fact, nearly all migrants in transit are hobos of one sort or other. Hobos have a romantic place in our history. From the beginning they have been numbered among the pioneers. They have played an important rôle in reclaiming the desert and in subduing the trackless forests. They have contributed more to the open, frank, and adventurous spirit of the Old West than we are always willing to admit. They are, as it were, belated frontiersmen. Their presence in the migrant group has been the chief factor in making the American vagabond class different from that of any other country.

It is difficult to classify the numerous types of hobos. The habits, type of work, the routes of travel, etc., seem to differ with each individual. Some live more parasitic lives than others. Some never beg or get drunk, while others never come to town without getting intoxicated and being robbed or arrested, and perhaps beaten. One common characteristic of the hobo, however, is that he works. He usually has horny hands and a worker’s mien. He aims to live by his labor.

As there are different types of homeless men, so different varieties of this particular brand, the hobo, may be differentiated. A part of the hobo group known as “harvest hands” follows the harvest and other agricultural occupations of seasonal nature. Another segment of the group works in the lumber woods and are known as “lumber jacks” or “timber beasts.” A third group is employed in construction and maintenance work. A “gandy dancer” is a man who works on the railroad track tamping ties. If he works on the section he may be called a “snipe” or a “jerry.”

A “skinner” is a man who drives horses or mules.

A “mucker” or a “shovel stiff” is a man who does manual
labor on construction jobs.

A “rust eater” usually works on extra-gangs or track-laying
jobs; handles steel.

A “dino” is a man who works with and handles dynamite.

A “splinter-belly” is a man who does rough carpenter work
or bridge work.

A “cotton glaumer” picks cotton, an “apple knocker” picks
apples and other fruit.

A “beach comber” is a plain sailor, of all men the most
transient.

For every vocation that is open to the migratory worker there is some such characteristic name. In the West the hobo usually carries a bundle in which he has a bed, some extra clothes, and a little food. The man who carries such a bundle is usually known as a “bundle stiff” or “bundle bum.” The modern hobo does not carry a bundle because it hinders him when he wishes to travel fast. It is the old man who went West “to grow up with the country” who still clings to his blanket roll.

THE TRAMP

While the word “tramp” is often used as a blanket term applied to all classes of homeless and potentially vagrant or transient types, it is here used in a stricter sense to designate a smaller group. He is usually thought of, by those familiar with his natural history, as an able-bodied individual who has the romantic passion to see the country and to gain new experience without work. He is a specialist at “getting by.” He is the type that Josiah Flynt had in mind when he wrote his book, _Tramping with Tramps_. He is typically neither a drunkard nor a bum, but an easy-going individual who lives from hand to mouth for the mere joy of living.

45. X. began life as a half orphan. Later he was adopted
and taken from Ohio to South Dakota. In his early teens he
grew restive at home and left. But for brief seasons he has
been away ever since and he is now past forty-five. He has
traveled far and wide since but has worked little. He makes
his living by selling joke books and song books. Sometimes
he tries his hand at selling little articles from door to
door. A few years ago he wrote a booklet on an economic
subject and sold several thousand copies. During the winter
of 1921-22 he sold the _Hobo News_ each month. He is able
to make a living this way. Any extra money he has he
loses at the gambling tables. He spends his leisure time
attempting to write songs or poetry. He knows a great deal
about publishers but it is all information that has come in
his efforts to sell his songs. He claims that he has been
working for several years on a novel. He offered his work
for inspection. He tries to lead the hero through all the
places that he has visited and the hero comes in contact
with many of the things he has seen or experienced in many
cities but nowhere does his hero work. He enjoys life just
as X. endeavors to do now. During the summer (1922) he has
taken several “vacations” in the country for a week or more
at the time.

46. C. is twenty-five years old. His home is in New York
but he has not been home for more than ten years. He
introduced himself to the “Hobo College” early in the
spring of 1922 as “B-2.” This name he assumed upon the
conviction that he is the successor of “A-1,” the famous
tramp. He said that he had read “A-1’s” books and although
he did not agree in every respect, yet he thought that
“A-1” was the greatest of tramp writers. “B-2” claimed
that he had ridden on every railroad in the United States.
His evidence of travel was a book of postoffice stamps.
When he comes to a town he goes to the postoffice and
requests the postmaster to stamp his book much as letters
are stamped. Another hobby he has is to go to the leading
newspapers and endeavor to sell a write-up. He carries an
accumulation of clippings. He has an assortment of flashy
stories that take well with newspaper men. He claims that
he has been pursued by bloodhounds in the South, that he
has been arrested many times for vagrancy, that he is the
only man who has beat his way on the Pikes Peak Railroad.
He always carries a blanket and many other things that
class him among wanderers as an individualist. He has been
in the Army, saw action and was in the Army of Occupation.
He does not seek work. He says his leisure time can be
better spent. He carries a vest pocket kodak. He says that
the pictures and notes he takes will some day be published.

The distinctions between the seasonal worker, the hobo, and the tramp, while important, are not hard and fast. The seasonal worker may descend into the ranks of the hobos, and a hobo may sink to the level of the tramp. But the knowledge of this tendency to pass from one migratory group to another is significant for any program that attempts to deal with the homeless man. Significant, also, but not sufficiently recognized, is the difference between these migratory types and the stationary types of homeless men, the “home guard” and the “bum.”

FOOTNOTES:

[25] _One Thousand Homeless Men_, p. 209.

[26] _Dearborn Independent_, March 18, 1922.

[27] The seasonal worker may be regarded also as the upper-class hobo.

[28] The first three types of homeless men are described in this chapter; the last two types are considered in chapter vii.