The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1922-08-27
LIFE Of HOBOES
HAS funny SIDE
Knights of the Road Have
Jokes and Lingo all their
Own-Some Real Talent
Found Among Them.

CHlCAG, Ill.-The hobo has litera-
ture OF his own. He has his ballads as
we'll as the cowboy, the mountaineer
and the sailor. Much of his literature
~ srai. but one hobo organization has
runlshed a paper. bound anthology of
verse and another issues a magazine.
Much hobo verse lacks poetic quail
ity, because the author is trying 10 pre-
sent brief. TO voice u grievance said
Nels Anderson, who is making a study
Of migratory men, under the auspices
OF Chicago philanthropic agencies. In
some, on the other hand, there is gen.
uine feeling. The work Of the late Bill
Quirke is particularly meritorious."
The paper-bound anthology hears on
the cover some discriminating defini-
lions; "A hobo Is a migratory worker.
A tramp is a migratory non-worker A
bum is a stationary non-worker."
THE migratory worker" said Mr.. An.
derson, is essential to industry. sheep.
sheering and salmon fishing, being sea
sonal tasks. can only be performed by
wanderers. Occupational diseases send
men from one kind OF work to another.
Other men wander because they lack
the backbone TO stay at one job. because
they are queer and fail to fit into their
original environment, or because they
have lost out in the struggle of llfe."
One of Bill Quirkes effors contains
these lines:
Have you rotted wet in a grading camp
Or scorched in a desert line?
OR done your night stunt with your
lamp,
Watching the timbers drip with damp
And hearing the oil rig whine?
I do no kicking at God or fate
| keep my shoes for the road,
The long gray road, and l love it mate,
Hay foot, straw-foot. that's my gait,
And l carry no other mans load.
Grim humor characterizes A Story
OF the Jungles" 1t relates the boasting
Of genial liar who was supposed to
be cooking "Mullgan Stew for his
comrades at hobo camp
Now Checkers, he was a good fellow,
AS far as goodfelowship goes.
But he will never again be hero.
Or Kill any more of his foes.
He is sleeping at peace In the valley,
Ger his head grow the laurel and fern;
He shall ride no more rattlers or ponies
For he let that Mulligan burn.
The hobo working stiff defends
himself from abuse as follows
When the wheat is ripe in the field Of
grain,
He climbs on passenger blind.
And haggard sways on that trembling
train,
AS it rushes through the rough night
wind
on the road, he's a cat. a bloody fink.
And a scissor bill to spare.
And bindle.stiff is a gentle link
In the names he has to bear.
And the truth of it is. he's neither
tramp
A fink or Johnny Yesg
4 fly-by-night. vagrant scamp,
Or much Of a fellow to beg.
Yes. the hcbo worker is the lad that
pods.
Up the track as the train goes by,
He builds the road and rides the rods,
And his cities light the sky
Put he has never bed to lay his head
or roof to hide his CRIME,
He harvests the wheat, that the world
may eat,
And goes hungry most OF the time
Mr.. Anderson defined some of the un-
usual terms used here. A scissor-bill is
hobo who grinds scissors, though the
term has been transferred TO apply TO
any man who is new TO the road a
green horn. A fink or yegg. is Grim
inai. A bindlestiff or bundle stiff is a
worker who carries his bedding IN a