Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-10-21
Many Turn Toward Big Cities
While Others Begin Their
Pilgrimage to the Sunny
South
By FREDERIC j. HASKIN

DA 4GAILAIA@A0 ws AAAAhSAAA~E
WASHINGTON, D. c., Oct. 49,
At this season of the year, that vast
! footloose and carefree tribe gener.
ally known as the hobo fraternity
starts pouring into our l~~rge cities.
with the idea of locating comfortable
quarters for the winter. Already the
historic reading room at New York g
Cooper Union is crowded with vet
eran vagabonds, snooZing over their
unread encyclopedias while the
cheap lodging houses along the Bow
cry are rapidly filling up with win
ter boarders. At the same time Bos-
ton, Buffalo and Philadelphia all re-
port a large increase in street beg.
gars.
By late November the weather is
so cold that tramping on wide
spread scale is out OF the question,
even when aided aided by frequent
rides on freight trains, SO that for at
least three monthsin the year the
wanderers wanderlust must be held
in check and he must live the fixed
existence of the ordinary citizen.
Some Of them manage to spend this
enforced period Of retirement In GER
tain $500 which do not require much
work on tho -~~~t Of the inmates;
others earn regular incomes from
street or office begging, while still
others loaf comfortably on 40 or so
cents s~~ lived up from their
summer earnings.
Hoboes who have enjoyed espec-
tally prosperous summers in the beg
ging line usually go south in the
winter "to rest up" New Orleans,
st. Augustine, Jacksonville, Talla-
hassee and Atlanta are the favor1te
resorts Of these fatigued idlers--
especially New Orleans, where a.
we'll trained beggar can nearly al
ways earn a dollar a day, II neces-
sary, and easily discover a congen-
ial dive in which to spend 1t. This
wholesale migration to the south
starts about October l and lasts for
month or more, during which time
the southern railroads are heavily
burdened with free passengers. One
sociologist, who has made a valuable
study Of tramps by mingling among
them and temporarily adopting their
habits, says that on one trip which
he made to Florida there were over
70 tramps travelling on the same
train with him.
Except for the winter months,
however, the south as a whole is
largely free from these nonadic par
asites, because it is not good work
ing territory" In other words, the
hospitality for which this section Of
the country is famous evidently does
not extend to hoboes. The negroes,
who usually have full charge Of the
southern kitchens, have a shrewd
method Of getting rid Of unwelcome
strangers. When such a one ap.
plies for a meal at the kitchen door
they inform him that they are not
permitted to give away food without
permission from their mistress and
refer him to the front door. But
when the tramp applies at the front
door he is invariably informed that
the mistress is not at home. Big
cities, which are the chief mainstay
Of the vagabond brotherhood, are
also much farther apart in the south
than they are in the north, which
greatly adds to ths difficulties Of
tramping.
A Sterile Field.
For practically the same reasons
New England, with the exception
Of Boston, is carefully Stunned by
hoboes during the entire year. The
average southerner has a marked dis
taste for tramps, but the New Eng
lander Is aggressively opposed to
them. He not only refuses to feed
them upon his well scrubbed door
step, but he seizes the first oppor-
tunity to place them in jail where
tunity to place them with plenty Of
hard work. And as hard work is
the last thing that hobo is willing
to do, the New England states are
not much bothered with peripatetic
beggars.
Undoubtedly, the greatest strong
hold of the hobo tribe in this coun-
try is New York City, particularly in
winter, but to a large extent through
out the entire year. Here the profess
sional vagabond finds an abundance
of cheap lodgings, renting from Is to
IS cents a night; and here during
the winter he may be practically
certain Of at least one meal a day
in the free bread lines and soup
kitchens, where it takes an expert
eye to distinguish his species in the
groups of normal working men, only
temporarily out Of jobs. Here more
over, the career Of the beggar offers
the most brilliant opportunities.
When the New York police made
one Of their infrequent but spectac-
ular raids upon street beggars re-
Gently, the city's courts We're liter
ally filled with prosperous beggars