Chapter VII: The Home Guard and the Bum

The seasonal worker, the hobo, and the tramp are migratory types; the home guard and the bum are relatively stationary. The home guard, like the hobo, is a casual laborer, but he works, often only by the day, now at one and again at another of the multitude of unskilled jobs in the city. The bum, like the tramp, is unwilling to work and lives by begging and petty thieving.

THE HOME GUARD

Nearly if not quite one-half of the homeless men in Hobohemia are stationary casual laborers. These men, contemptuously termed “home guards” by the hobo and the tramp, work regularly or irregularly at unskilled work, day labor, and odd jobs. They live or at least spend their leisure time on the “main stem,” but seldom come to the attention of the charities or the police, or ask alms on the street. Many of them have lived in Chicago for years. Others after a migratory career as hobos or tramps “settle down” to a stationary existence. This group includes remittance men, often the “black sheep” of families of standing in far-off communities who send them a small regular allowance to remain away from home.

47. L. E. was born on the West Side and at present his
family lives in Logan Square. He is twenty-three years old
and has been away from home a year. He claims that after
his mother’s death he and his father could not agree. He
immediately found his way to West Madison Street where
he has lived since. During the winter (1921-22) he was
converted in the Bible Rescue Mission but later he got
drunk and would not try again. However, he used to visit
the mission after that when he had no bed and was hungry.
He is a teamster and works regularly though he saves no
money. He has no decent clothing and cares for none. He
cares only to spend his Sundays and leisure time on West
Madison Street, where he has a few acquaintances. He
usually returns to work Monday morning after such visits,
sick from the moonshine whisky. His health is not good.
Most of his teeth are decayed but he will not save money to
get dental work done. If he has any money to spend aside
from that wanted for booze he goes to the movies and loafs
the time away. He also attends the Haymarket or the Star
and Garter theaters. He left his job two or three times
during the summer. While he was not working he slept in
stables. He doesn’t go home nor communicate with his people.

The tendency for the casual worker to sink to the level of the bum is illustrated by the case of “Shorty”:

48. “Shorty” claims that he has lived in the Hobohemian
areas on South State and West Madison streets for
thirty-nine years. He has never lived anywhere else. He
doesn’t care to go anywhere else. He tried married life
a while but failed because of drink and returned to the
“street.” Drink is still getting him into trouble. He has
dropped down the economic scale from an occasional worker
to the status of a bum. This summer (1922) he has been
arrested several times, and he has served two terms at the
House of Correction. All the arrests were for drunkenness
and disorder. He is developing into a professional
panhandler or beggar. During the summer he has had two or
three jobs. Once he was at the stockyards where he claims
to have worked steadily in the early days. Being well known
on the “streets” he is able to get odd jobs now and then
that give him money enough to “get by.” He has not been
divorced from his wife. She won’t live with him and he does
not care. He has a child twelve or thirteen years old but
he has not seen her for several years. He does not know
where she is. He is not interested. He spends his leisure
time on Madison Street near Desplaines where he may be
found almost every day standing on the corner or sitting on
the curb talking to some other “bo.”

THE BUM

In every city there are ne’er-do-wells--men who are wholly or partially dependent and frequently delinquent as well. The most hopeless and the most helpless of all the homeless men is the bum, including in this type the inveterate drunkard and drug addicts. Old, helpless, and unemployable, these are the most pitiable and the most repulsive types of the down-and-outs. From this class are recruited the so-called “mission stiffs” who are so unpopular among the Hobohemian population.

49. L. D., forty-five years old, is a typical so-called
“mission bum.” He has not been known to work for eight
months. During winter he is always present in some mission.
Once he permitted himself to be led forward and knelt
in prayer but was put out of the same mission later for
being drunk. He claims that he was a prize fighter in his
youth. He has traveled a great deal but he has always been
a drinking man. When he is sober he is morose and quiet.
As soon as spring permitted him to sleep out he ceased to
visit the missions.

He has spent most of the summer on the docks along the
river where he sleeps nights and where he has been getting
work now and then unloading the fruit boats that ply
between Chicago and Michigan. During the eight months he
has been observed he has bought no new clothes. Not once
during the summer has he left the city. He says that he
has been in town for three years. The future seems to mean
nothing to him. He does not worry about the coming winter.

50. A. B. is an habitual drunkard. He migrates a great
deal but it seems that his migrations are to escape
tedium and monotony rather than to work. He is a little,
hollow-chested, undersized man and he claims to be
thirty-two. He says that his health has not been good. He
has a work history, it seems, but it is a record of light
jobs. He picked berries, washed dishes, peddled, but he was
also a successful beggar. His success in begging seems to
lie in the ability to look pitiful. He has been in but four
or five states of the Middle West but has been in most
of the large cities. He does not patronize the missions
because he says he can do better begging.

OTHER TYPES OF HOMELESS MEN

Many of the terms which are epithets picturesquely describe special types of homeless men. The popular names for the various types of tramps and hobos are current terms that have been picked up on the street as they pass from mouth to mouth. Some of them are new, others are old, while all of them are in flux. Names of types are coined by the men themselves. They serve a while and then pass out, giving place to new and more catchy terms. Change is characteristic of tramp terminology and tramp jargon. Words assume a different meaning as they are extensively used, or they become too general in their use and newer terms are invented. Many of the names by which types are designated were at first terms of derision, but terms seem to lose their stigma by continued use.[29]

Among tramps who seldom if ever work are those who peddle some kind of wares or sell some kind of service.

The Mushfaker is a man who sells his services. He may be
a tinker, a glazier, an umbrella mender, or he may repair
sewing machines or typewriters. Some mushfakers even
pose as piano tuners. The mushfaker usually follows some
occupation which permits him to sit in the shade while he
works. Often the trade or art he plies is one that he has
learned in a penal institution.

The Scissor Bill is a man who carries with him tools to
sharpen saws, knives, razors, etc. Often he pushes a
grindstone along the street.

Beggars among tramps are usually named with reference to
the methods they employ.

The following classification is taken from a narrative work by “A No. 1, The Famous Tramp,” who claims to have traveled 500,000 miles for $7.61. His books are more or less sensational and are not popular among many tramps, because they say the incidents he relates are overdrawn.[30]

THE RATING OF THE TRAMPS BY “A NO. 1”

1. Pillinger Solicited alms at stores, offices, and
residences

2. Moocher Accosted passers-by in the street

3. Flopper Squatted on sidewalk in business
thoroughfares

4. Stiffy Simulated paralysis

5. Dummy Pretends to be deaf and dumb

6. Wires Peddling articles made of stolen telegraph
wires

7. Mush Faker }
} Umbrella mender who learned trade in penal
} institution
8. Mush Rigger}

9. Wangy Disguised begging by selling shoestrings

10. Stickers Disguised begging by selling court plaster

11. Timbers Disguised begging by selling lead pencils

12. Sticks Train rider who lost a leg

13. Peg Train rider who lost a foot

14. Fingy or Fingers Train rider who lost one or more fingers

15. Blinky Train rider who lost one or both eyes

16. Wingy Train rider who lost one or both arms

17. Mitts Train rider who lost one or both hands

18. Righty Train rider who lost right arm and leg

19. Lefty Train rider who lost left arm and leg

20. Halfy Train rider who lost both legs below knee

21. Straight Crip Actually crippled or otherwise afflicted

22. Phoney Crip Self-mutilated or simulating a deformity

23. Pokey Stiff Subsisting on handouts solely

24. Phoney Stiff Disposing of fraudulent jewelry

25. Proper Stiff Considered manual toil the acme of
disgrace

26. Gink or Gandy Stiff Occasionally labored, a day or two at the
most

27. Alkee Stiff }
} Confirmed consumers of alcohol
28. White Line Stiff}

29. Rummy Stiff Deranged intellect by habitual use of raw
rum

30. Bundle Stiff }
} Carried bedding
31. Blanket Stiff}

32. Chronicker Hoboed with cooking utensils

33. Stew Bum }
}
34. Ding Bat }
}
35. Fuzzy Tail } The dregs of vagrantdom
}
36. Grease Tail }
}
37. Jungle Buzzard}

38. Shine or Dingy Colored vagabond

39. Gay Cat Employed as scout by criminal tramps

40. Dino or Dynamiter Sponged food of fellow hobos

41. Yegg Roving desperado

42. Gun Moll A dangerous woman tramp

43. Hay Bag A female stew bum

44. Jocker Taught minors to beg and crook

45. Road Kid or Preshun Boy held in bondage by jocker

46. Punk Boy discarded by jocker

47. Gonsil Youth not yet adopted by jocker

The beggar is one who stands in one place. He supplicates help by appealing to the pity of the passers-by. The moocher is an individual who is somewhat more mobile than the beggar. He moves about, going to the houses and asking for food, clothing, and even money, if he can get it. The panhandler is a beggar of a more courageous type. He hails men on the street and asks for money. He does not fawn nor whine nor strive to arouse pity. Dr. Reitman says: “The only difference between a moocher and a panhandler is that the moocher goes to the back door while the panhandler goes to the front door.”

The beggar types may also be divided into the able-bodied and the non-able-bodied. The non-able-bodied beggars are more numerous in the cities. They are forced, because of their handicaps, to remain where the greatest number of people are. Some handicapped beggars, however, are able to travel with marvelous speed over the country. These non-able-bodied types go by different names according to their afflictions.

Peggy is a one-legged man. Stumpy is a legless man. Wingy
is a man with one or both arms off. Blinky is a man with
one or both eyes defected. A Dummy is a man who is dumb or
deaf and dumb. Some of these types do not beg. They make a
livelihood by peddling or working at odd jobs. A Nut is a
man who is apparently mentally deranged.

The Hop Head is an interesting type. He is usually in a pitiful condition, for he has small chance, living as he does, in the tramp class, to get money to buy “dope.” Frequently he resorts to clever and even desperate means to secure it. One type of dope fiend is the Junkie. He uses a “gun” or needle to inject morphine or heroin. A Sniffer is one who sniffs cocaine. More frequent than the drug habit is the drink habit.

The tramp class has different types of predatory individuals and petty or even major offenders:

The Gun is a man who might be termed a first-class crook.
He is usually a man who is living in the tramp class to
avoid apprehension. He may be a robber or a burglar.

The Jack Roller is a tramp who robs a fellow-tramp while he
is drunk or asleep. There is a type of “Jack” who operates
among the men going to and from the harvests. He may hold
them up in a box car with a gun or in some dark alley. He
is usually called a Hi-Jack.

Among other types of tramps are:

The Mission Stiff who preys upon the missions. He will
often submit to being converted for his bed and board.

The Grafter is frequently a man who is able to exploit the
private and public charity organizations, or the fraternal
organizations.

The Bad Actor is a man who has become a nuisance to his
people and they pay him money provided he does not show
himself in his home town.

The Jungle Buzzard is a tramp who lives in the jungles from
what he can beg. He will wash the pots and kettles for the
privilege of eating what is left in them.

From the point of view of abnormal sex relations there are several types of tramps:

A Punk is a boy who travels about the country with a man
known as a jocker.

A jocker is a man who exploits boys; that is, he either
exploits their sex or he has them steal or beg for him
or both. The term “wolf” is often used synonymously with
jocker.

Fairies or Fags are men or boys who exploit sex for profit.

From the economic standpoint, migratory workers are employables and unemployables. Between the extremes there are individuals of every shade of employability. The ability of a man to support himself is presumed to be related to his ability and to his opportunity to work. The tramp problem has been interpreted first of all as an unemployment problem, but this does not take account of the unemployables.

First of all, there are the physically handicapped, the crippled, the blind, the deaf, and the aged, and many who are too fat or too puny or too sickly to do heavy manual work. Perhaps a half of the whole group in a city like Chicago are physically handicapped to a greater or less extent.

Second, the psychopathic types include many irresponsible and undependable persons found in the population of Hobohemia. These either cannot hold a job, or do not care to; they have other ideals. They could, no doubt, do some sort of work but most of them would have to be supervised.

To what degree homeless men are employable, to what degree some of them are partially employable, and to what extent the whole group is unemployable is a question that cannot be finally answered.[31]

The problem of the homeless men is variously interpreted. The courts and the police are interested in them as offenders. As offenders, they are generally recidivists; to the social worker and the missionary they represent a body of men who have no purpose or direction.

One mission worker says:

A few of them can hold their own. They manage to work most
of the time and pay their way, but most of them are “broke”
some of the time and some of them are without money all the
time. They are always making resolutions and never keeping
them. They don’t seem to have any stiffening in their
backbone.

However we may classify this group, the fact remains that we have here a great body of persons, probably more than a million in the United States,[32] and that they furnish a problem that seems to be ever present. It is, as we shall see later, a great heterogeneous group, unorganized and incapable of being organized. They have been gathered from every walk of life and for a thousand different reasons find themselves in this class. There are restless and normal boys and young men who are out in the world for adventure and whose stay in the class is more or less temporary; there are able-bodied men of more mature age who are either wholly self-supporting or are self-supporting most of the time; and there are old men who are too aged and infirm to work and too proud to surrender themselves to an institution. There are the physically incapacitated and the mentally inadequate who are more or less dependent and are likely to continue so, and there are many types of persons who are the victims of lingering diseases or who are addicted to drink or drugs and are not able to hold their own. All these are making the best struggle that their wits, their strength, and their opportunities permit to get a living. Some of them are in the group by choice and have their minds clearly made up to climb out, others hope to get out and strive to but never will, and yet others never have any such visions.

RELATIVE NUMBERS OF DIFFERENT TYPES

An estimate has already been made that the number of homeless men in Chicago range from 30,000 in the summer to 60,000 in the winter, reaching 75,000 in periods of unemployment. Any attempt to state the numbers of the different types of homeless men can be little more than a guess. The difficulty is the greater because individuals are continually passing from one group into another group. One man in his lifetime may perchance have been, in turn, seasonal laborer, hobo, tramp, home guard, and bum.

The public generally fails to distinguish between these types. The group of bums, beggars, and petty thieves, often mistakenly thought of as representative of the homeless men’s group, probably does not exceed in Chicago a total number of 2,500. The number of the home-guard type, the stationary casual worker, has been placed at 30,000, the summer population of Hobohemia on the basis of the number of permanent guests at lodging-house and hotel, and the number of registered voters among the homeless men.[33] The number of tramps who visit Chicago each year can only be roughly estimated at 150,000,[34] or an average of perhaps 5,000 at any given time. The migratory worker, including both the seasonal laborer and the hobo, number on the average around 10,000 and reach a total of 300,000 or more persons who come to Chicago for the winter or to secure a shipment to work outside the city. In periods of economic depression the numbers of homeless men in Hobohemia are swollen with men out of work, the majority of whom for the first time have been turned adrift on the “main stem.”

FOOTNOTES:

[29] The term “punk” is an instance; it had a special meaning at one time but is beginning to have a milder and more general use and the term “lamb” is taking its place.

[30] _Mother Delcassee of the Hobos_, pp. 43-44.

[31] The unemployables are a more or less permanent class and do not come and go with the seasons as do the employables. Able-bodied employables are an effect of economic depression.

[32] Estimates vary; Lescohier (Commons, _Trade Unionism and Labor Problems_, 133) gives the number as “more than half a million men,” while Speek (_Annals of the American Academy_, 1917) refers to estimates that go as high as five million.

[33] See p. 14 n.

[34] These numbers indicate the number of visits rather than the number of separate individuals since a certain proportion of men visit Chicago two or more times during the year.