Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1920-05-14
HOBO IS I'm BAD
Knight of the Road Confronted
With Hated Work.
High Cost Of Living Has Made II Hard
for 'tInerants to Pick Up an Easy
ExIstence-Not Like Good
Old Times.

No other art has suffered greater de-
terioration through price manipulation
than that Of kitchen panhandllng, and
a wall is now going up from a thou
sand "jungles" all over the quiet land.
Even the price of soap, which is occa-
sionally used, though not encouraged,
promises to make the American hobo
look like a mud-bedraggled soldier
after a long vigil in a cootie-ridden
trench.
This years convention, in a sense,
will be memorable inasmuch as the
war has revolutionized the craft of
hoboing and many novel and startling
suggestions as to how to live and
travel without work will be presented
by scores of delegates, hailing from
every section Of the country. jungle"
philosophy likewise has undergone a
great change and the high cost of liv-
ing has only served to rub a sore laid
open when the hand Of industry during
the war reached into box cars, down
into the trucks underneath" combed
the "blind baggage" and paved over
the roofs Of sleepers and day coaches
Of ten thousand trains.
Wars brutal order to work scared
and burned, 1t is true, but 1t did not
crush the spirit of the hobo cult nor
deprive the hobo Of his wits The
coming convention will be parade of
wits, in fact, largely devoted to the
question Of "How to get by with prices
so high"
Many a sigh will go up from thou
sand bosoms when the old order Of
things is mentioned. Five years ago
every hamlet, town and city in Amer
lea had "jungle," or conventional rem
devious for hoboes, where they could
cook their own "mulligans," boil up"
and shoot dice to see whether they
would hop a train for north, south,
east or west and where they could
evade the surveillance of the bulls"
But today things are different. Five
years ago 1t was tolerably easy to ap-
proach the kitchen door, If the dog was
tied up and the backyard showed no
traces Of wood pile, deliver a remi-
niscent tale Of home and mother, to the
kindly housewife and come away with
beefsteak, pie and cake. 1t was easy
five years ago to "mootch" the ordl-
nary bucolic sojourner for the price Of
meat, potatoes and onions with which
to "stew up" "mulligan."
And Eve years ago it was possible
for certain of the hobo gentry to talk
the average restaurant keeper out of a
meal and sidestep the dish pan. But
nowadays 1t appears to the American
hobo that there are but three words
In the lexicon of the average citizen
"work" and beat it."
Hoboes are purchasing no nourish-
ment In Job lots these days. The ap-
proved plan is to band together, each
"Bo" taking certain territory to can
vass, turn the collections" into a gen.
eral fund and buy calf or a pig on
the hoof, lead the animal to the sum
giles" and there prepare the "nulligan."
Down at the South, as Col. Waiter
son would say, the hoboes this year
will find practically every hand turned
against them, every kitchen door
closed tight, for the high cost of living
Is holding hilarious carnival in those
parts and the demand for labor is
greater than ever before.-New York
EVeninO Gun