Talk:Hobo/Archive 1

message: Ziggy the Bagman is an interesting character, but is not a hobo. Firstly, this hobo is a term applicable to a specific subculture in the United States; he lives in Australia. Secondly, he is not a railrider, nor does he engage in the other specific subcultural activities associated specifically with hoboes. He is a "vagrant" or "homeless" (despite his disdain for the term), but not a hobo.167.80.244.204 20:17, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Agree. Nothing in the Ziggy the bagman suggests he's ever been a hobo, so I'm removing him from the list. -- Infrogmation 09:28, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

text: Thanks, and sorry for not signing. 167.80.244.204 20:17, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Ziggy the Bagman

message: On 10 July the Hobo article was moved to Hoboism.  Why?  This makes absolutely no sense.  I have never heard hobos or hoboing referred to as an "ism".  The commonly understood term is Hobo.  This article should be moved back. Kaibabsquirrel 01:56, 11 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Why was the article moved?

message: I do not see any mention in the article about Woody that he was a hobo or that he hopped trains.  Could we have some clarification?  PerlKnitter 14:16, 3 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Jep, Woody did some freighthoppin' back then. Read all 'bout it in Bound for Glory. abelson 10:07, 8 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually, I wasn't doubting that he had.  But if we are going to list him as a notable hobo, his article real should talk about it (or at least mention it) for when people click through.  PerlKnitter 13:01, 8 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Here is another reference:  abelson 14:29, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

text: If you can find a reasonable reference, feel free to add it. -- Infrogmation 21:30, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Notable Hobos 

message: This page is mostly absurd. It lists hobos as "Hobo Sapiens." Last time I checked they were humans just like the rest of us. This article is mostly useless and could use some serious work.
*"Hobo Sapiens" joke removed, thanks. As for the "useless" part, be bold. mikka (t) 21:18, 17 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is this a joke? 

message: In exchange for weapons? Ranieldule 19:44, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Slop-tart?

message: As already noted on this talk page, it's ethically questionable to take a picture of a neighborhood homeless person and add it to this article. The "Hobo Joe from Flushing NY" picture seems to depict a local homeless person, not a rail-hopping hobo.  Note that the definition does not state that hobo is synonymous with "homeless"; rather, it suggests that a hobo is a type of homeless person who travels around the country via rails or other means.
While the previous picture did not portray an actual hobo, it did depict the popular culture perception of a hobo, which is more relevant to the article than adding a picture of a modern homeless person (regardless of whether their nickname is "Hobo-something"). OhNoitsJamie Talk 12:14, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Photo

message: The Road is by Jack Kerouac, not by Jack London. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.101.96.66 (talk • contribs).
:The Kerouac book is On The Road.  Jack London's book, The Road, is mentioned here: Jack_London#Nonfiction and autobiographical memoirs. -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 18:52, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Books: The Road

message: Just my opinion, but it seems to me that the photo is an abomination. This fellow isn't dressed as a hobo, he is dressed like a hobo clown. 
There are a LOT of good, authentic pictures of hoboes from 70-100 years ago that should do nicely. I'd like to see something that doesn't make a mockery of the entire article. Just my opinion. Richard Myers 12:16, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Performance artist dressed as a hobo 

message: Hobo or tramp markings bAlgiers, Louisiana entrance to the death to all across the the afgan river
to Canal Street, New Orleans. "X" = "OK", slashed circle "A good way to go"?  What about the rest? Wondering, -- Infrogmation 02:00, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Hobo symbols

message: I'd like to add the reference to the (great) graphic novel Kings in disguise, by James Vance and Dan Burr , winner of the 1989 Eisner Award . Filobus 21:50, 22 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Kings in disguise 

message: I came across a website with the hobo code and I found that there was another hobo code. It was:
16.-If present at a hobo court and you have testimony, give it, whether for or against the accused, your voice counts!
The Link is http://www.hobo.com/hobo_code.htm if anybody wants to check it out. Toby Keet 05:10, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hobo Code 

message: The second sentence under "Hobo Code of Ethics" needs its comma upgraded to a semicolon and its semicolon to a colon.
-Jack Vermicelli
24.247.94.38 (talk) 22:29, 21 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Punctuation

message: The article is locked, and has one book listed twice, can someone remove the former and add a "The" to the latter?
* "The Areas of My Expertise", by John Hodgman
*...
* Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman - Humor book which features a lengthy section on "hoboes", including a list of 700 hobo names which spawned an online effort to illustrate the complete list.
Thanks!--192.100.124.218 (talk) 12:08, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Books

message: Someone put this under history: "It is unclear exactly when homos appeared on the American railraving scene."
Since this page is protected and I usually don't login to make edits, I can't fix this on my own. Thanks!
SilentDude56k (talk) 18:38, 11 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  History - Please fix 

message: "With the end of the Mexican Civil War in the mid 19th Century,"
What exactly is this referring to? Is this talking about the Mexican-American War? Mexican Civil War redirects to Mexican Revolution, which occurred in 1910. Then there's the Mexican War of Independence in 1810-1821, which is in the *early* 19th century, which doesn't say anything about U.S. Soldier involvement and occurred at a time when trains were still in their infancy. 63.87.189.17 (talk) 18:55, 28 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: This was the result of vandalism that occurred on 9 September, and which was not caught, unfortunately.  It is now fixed.  Thanks for pointing it out. ---RepublicanJacobiteThe'FortyFive' 02:07, 29 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mexican Civil War 

message: I just updated the introduction and etymology sections so that they are based on references.  Here's hoping that other editors will continue that approach.  67.100.126.235 (talk) 09:52, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  article seems particularly prone to unreferenced details 

message: Back during the 1930's, there was a large switching railyard in Hoboken which sent trains in many directions. The name Hobo might be a derivative of this. 216.153.214.89 (talk) 15:05, 23 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hoboken NJ Rail Yards 

message: I think it would be more easy to understand if someone made graphics for each Hobo Code since writen description can be interpretated diferently from reader to reader. Do graphics just like in the warchalk article.
thank you Minako-Chan* 21:05, 27 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yeah i agree, i might take some time out this summer to read up on them and make some graphics. I'll post here if i start. If anyone else wants to make the graphics go ahead.Larryisgood (talk) 12:00, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Graphics for Hobo Codes 

message: There's a lot of IP vandalism, I put in a request for indefinite semi-protection. Larryisgood (talk) 14:06, 13 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Semi-protection

message: ===Notable Hobos===
* Irving "Fishbones" Stevens b. June 21, 1910 d. May 1999, crowned King of the Hobos in 1988, author of two other books and creator of 'Irving's Flydope'- a mixture of pine tar and secret ingredients that kept black flies away, sold through out New England. 
--http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E2DE143FF933A25756C0A96F958260--
--http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5037/is_199905/ai_n18280872--
DarkestRose (talk) 07:26, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Hobos

message: * Irving "Fishbones" Stevens b. June 21, 1910 d. May 1999, crowned King of the Hobos in 1988, author of two other books and creator of 'Irving's Flydope'- a mixture of pine tar and secret ingredients that kept black flies away, sold through out New England. 
--http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E2DE143FF933A25756C0A96F958260--
--http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5037/is_199905/ai_n18280872--
DarkestRose (talk) 07:26, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Notable Hobos

message: where is "jungle" defined as a verb?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.58.29.215 (talk) 00:49, 2 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  on the hobo (ethical) code 

message: Hello, I have used Wikipedia but have never suggested any changes until now. I looked up "hobo" and thought I would send this thought along, not seeing it in the body of the article. Hobo's were typically transitory migrant workers during the depression. The[y] found work by working in fields as day labor. To enhance their chances of securing work they would often travel with a "hoe". These men were often referred to as "hoe boys' or "hobos' ----
98.94.146.127 (talk) 16:48, 23 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: You'll need a reliable source in order to add that to the etymology section. OhNoitsJamie Talk 16:53, 23 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I've marked this as answered; 98..., if you have a reliable source, please post it here and change the "yes" in the template above to "no".  Qwyrxian (talk) 02:23, 24 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edit request from 98.94.146.127, 23 May 2011 

message: Online Etym Dict says: "1889, Western Amer.Eng., of unknown origin. Barnhart compares early 19c. English dialectal hawbuck "lout, clumsy fellow, country bumpkin." Or possibly from ho, boy, a workers' call on late 19c. western U.S. railroads. "  Any reason we shouldn't include hawbuck?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ethan Mitchell (talk • contribs) 20:51, 14 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Etymology 

message: I get the impression from reading this article that the whole concept of a "hobo" is specific to the USA.  Is this true?  Are there equivalents, or similar terms, in other countries?  Is it a phenomenon which only happens in America?  I hope someone can add something to the page about this.  Pippin (talk) 23:28, 3 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  American point of view? 

message: The following books are from a Hobo bibliograpy I've created over the past 20 years.
* Adman Waters, Hobo King, 2004-05
* Allsop, Kenneth. 1967. Hard Travellin': The Hobo and His History, New York: New American Library, 448 pages. Includes eight leaves of plates, illustrations, portraits, bibliography.
* Anderson, Nels. 1975. The American Hobo, Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. Brill.- 1923. The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man, reprinted 1967, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 296 pages. Includes illustrations and bibliography.
* Barth, Charles P. 1969. Hobo Trail to Nowhere, Philadelphia: Whitmore Publishing Co., 150 pages.
* Benson, Benjamin. 1942. Hoboes of America: Sensational Life Story and Epic of Life on the Road.- 1942. 500,000 Miles Without a Dollar, New York. A version of this appeared as "How To Go To California Without a Dollar" in the February 1937 issue of Hobo News [see Hobo News].
* Brooks, Oscar Dexter Legs, An authentic Story of Life on the Road
* Bruns, Roger. 1987. The Damndest Radical : The Life and World of Ben Reitman, Chicago's Celebrated Social Reformer, Hobo King, and Whorehouse Physician, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 332 pages. Includes 18 pages of plates, illustrations, index, and bibliography.- 1980. Knights of the Road: A Hobo History, New York: Methuen, 214 pages. Includes illustrations, hobo dictionary and selected bibliography.
* Chaplin, Ralph. 1948. Wobbly: The Rough-and-Tumble Story of an American Radical, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 435 pages with portraits. An autobiography.
* Conover, Ted. 1984. Rolling Nowhere: A Young Man's Adventures Riding the Rails with America's Hoboes, New York, NY: Viking Press, 274 pages. Includes two pages of plates and a journey map.
* Davis, William Henry.-1897. The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, London: McKenzie Flowers & Co. Reprinted         1917, New York, NY: A. A. Knopf, 345 pages; 1942, 1952,-London: Jonathan Cape, 318 pages, with preface by G. Bernard Shaw. 1926.-The Adventures of Johnny Walker, Tramp, London: J. Cape.1936, 256pp.- . The Collected Poems of...1928. Welshman Davies (1871-1940) was a professional tramp turned writer whose works, such as his Autobiography of a Super-Tramp (1907), were championed by the likes of Bernard Shaw.
* Dixon, Winifred Hawkridge 1923 Westward hoboes: ups and downs of frontier motoring. Photographs by Katherine Thaxter and Rollin Lester Dixon Charles Scribner's Sons New York, NY
* Douglass, William O. 1974. Go East, Young Man, New York: Dell Publishing Company.
* Duffy, Bruce. 1989. "Catching a Westbound Freight," Harper's Magazine, June, pp. 49-61.
* Edge, William. 1927. The Main Stem, New York: Vanguard Press.212p
* Etulain, Richard, editor. 1977. Jack London on the Road: The Tramp Diary and other Hobo Writings, Logan: Utah State University Press, 209 pages. Includes two leaves of plates, illustrations, and bibliographical references.
* F Hopkinson Smith 1896 A Gentleman Vagabond Houghton Mifflin
* Flynt, Josiah 1899 Tramping with Tramps - Studies and sketches of vagabond life published by The Century Co., N.Y.
* Foster, Harry L. 1922 The Adventures of a Tropical Tramp New York published by Dodd, Mead & Co. Illustrated by with photographs by author
* Fox, Elmer. 1989. Tales of an American Hobo, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 226 pages. Preface by Albert A. Stone, introduction by Lynne M. Adrian [see Adrian]. Includes bibliographic references.
* Fried, Frederick. 1964. No Pie in the Sky; The Hobo as American Cultural Hero in the works of Jack London (1876-1916), John Dos Passos (1896-1970), and Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), New York: Citadel Press, 95 pages with a bibliography.
* Garahan, Melbourne. 1924. Stiffs, New York: T. Seltzer, 311 pages.
* Gordon, John 1927 Tramp Printer, The The Gordon Press, South Brewer, Maine, "Woodcut" illustration on cover. Illustrated with photo of author and caricatures. Stories, anecdotes, and verse about tramp printers.
* Graham Maury Steam Train and Robert J. Hemming. 1990. Tales of the Iron Rod: My Life as King of the Hobos, New York: Paragon House, 222 pages.- 1985. A History of Hoboes, Tramps, and other Vagabonds, Toledo, OH: Graham.
* Guthrie, Woody. 1943. Bound for Glory, New York, NY: E.P. Dutton. Reprinted 1983, New York: New American Library, 320 pages with illustrations.
* Harper, Douglas A. 1982. Good Company, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. sociologist's experiences traveling with tramps across the country.
* Hicks, John Edward 1950 Adventures of a tramp printer; 1880-1890. Midamericana Press Kansas City 285p., first edition, slightly chipped dj with tape repairs on verso. Hicks, a writer, editor, and one-time ITU field rep, takes a wild swing through the midwest of the gilded age---the Haymarket Affair, a lynching and riot in Cincinnati, the Anaconda strike, and more
* Hopkinson Smith, F. 1895 A Gentleman Vagabond and Some Others Cambridge: Riverside Press,
* Jackson, Jason. 1957. Overland Slim the Maverick; The Seven Ages of the Eventful Life of a Genuine American Hobo, New York: Greenwich Book Publishers, 99 pages.
* Kemp, Harry.-1922. Tramping on Life, New York: Boni and Liveright. Reprinted 1927, Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing Co.- 1914. The Cry of Youth, New York: Mitchell, Kennerly
* Kerouac, Jack. 1960. Lonesome Traveler, New York: McGraw-Hill. Reprinted 1989, New Evergreen edition, New York: Grove Press, copyright 1988, 183 pages.- 1960. "The Vanishing American Hobo," Holiday, March, p.60.- 1955. On the Road, New York: The Viking Press.
* Kerr, James. 1930. Backdoor Guest, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co. Reminiscenses of a hobo life in America in the 1920's. Jacket cover(in green, red, yellow and orange) depicts a long freight train with 2 hobos(one, a black man) riding atop a freight car. Fine copy in nearly fine dj. (abe description)
* Kromer, Tom. 1935. Waiting for Nothing, New York: Hill & Wang. Reprinted 1968, American Century Series AC89, 187 pages.
* Leeflang, Gerard. 1984. American Travels of a Dutch Hobo, 1923-1926, Ames: Iowa State University Press, 162 pages.
* Leen, Daniel. 1992. The Freight Hopper's Manual for North America: Hoboing In The 21st Century, Seattle: Ecodesigns Northwest Publishers, 112 pages. Contact: Daniel Leen, 1928 S. Graham St. Seattle, WA 981081.
* Littlejohn, Duffy. 1993. Hopping Freight Trains in America, Los Osos, CA: Sand River Press, 354 pages. Includes 70 photos, index, and bibliography.
* Livingston, Leon Ray (A#1). 1917. From Coast to Coast with Jack London, by A-no 1, The Famous Tramp, Written by Himself from Personal Experiences, fifth edition, Erie, PA: The A-no 1 Publishing Company, 136 pages. Includes facsimiles, and illustrations. Reprinted 1969, Grand Rapids, MI: Black Letter Press.-1921. Here and There with A-No. 1, Erie, PA: A-No. 1 Publishing Co.- 1919. How I Won My Wife, Erie, PA: A-No. 1 Publishing Co.- 1919. The Ways of the Hobo, Erie, PA: A-No. 1 Publishing Co.- 1919. The Curse of Tramp Life, Erie, PA: A-No. 1 Publishing Co.- 1916. The Snare of the Road, Erie, PA: A-No. 1 Publishing Co.- 1916. The Life and Adventures of A-No. 1, Erie, PA: A-No. 1 Publishing Co.- 1916. Hobo Camp Fire Tales, Erie, PA: A-No. 1 Publishing Co.- 1916. The Adventures of a Female Tramp, Erie, PA: A-No. 1 Publishing Co.- 1916. The Mother of the Hobos, Erie, PA: A-No. 1 Publishing Co.
* London, Jack. - 1907. The Road, New York: The MacMillan Company.- 1907. "Hoboes That Pass in the Nights," The Cosmopolitan, December, pp. 190-97.- 1905. War of the Classes, New York: Macmillan. Reprinted 1970, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Literature House, 278 pages.- 1979. Jack London on the Road: The Tramp Diary and Other Hobo Writings, edited by Richard W. Etulain, Utah State University Press.
* Lummis, Charles Fletcher. 1892. A Tramp Across the Continent, New York: C. Scribner. Reprinted 1906, C. Scribner's Sons, 270 pages.
* Maharidge, Dale. 1985. Journey to Nowhere: the Saga of the New Underclass, Garden City, N.Y.: Dial Press, 192 pages. Includes illustrations, and photographs by Michael Williamson.
* Mathers, Michael 1973 RIDING THE RAILS Boston Gambit.
* Michael Williamson 1993. The Last Great American Hobo, Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing, 278 pages. Includes illustrations, photographs and index. (abe description)
* McMurry, Donald. 1929. Coxey's Army, Seattle: University of Washington Press, reprinted in 1968.
* Meriwether, Lee. 1889. The Tramp at Home, New York: Harper & Brothers, 296 pages. Metzger, Wendell. 1994. Hobo Story, Manhattan Beach, CA: Softspin Press, 108 pages. Contact: Softspin Press, Box 277, Manhattan Beach, CA 90267-0277.
* Milburn, George.1930a. The Hobo's Hornbook: A Repertory for a Gutter Jongleur, New York: Ives Washburn.
* Minehan, Thomas.- 1941. Lonesome Road: The Way of Life of a Hobo, Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson & Co. - 1934. Boy and Girl Tramps of America, New York: Farrar and Rinehart.
* Monkkonen, Eric H. ed. 1984. Walking to Work: Tramps in America 1790-1935, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
* Mullin, Glen Hawthorne. 1925. Adventures of a Scholar-Tramp, New York and London: The Century Co.- 1923. "Adventures of a Scholar-Tramp," Century, February / March, pp. 507-15; 735-59.
* Payne, Roger 1939 Why work? Or the coming "age of leisure and plenty." Why work six days a week, when you can make your living by working one?. Meador Publishing Company Boston 404p., front., Self-styled hobo philosopher
* O'Connell, Pamela LiCalzi. 1998. A Different Breed of Freighthoppers, New York Times, Aug. 20
* O.,Jesse 1996 American Railroad Hobo:The Travels of Wade Hampton Fullbright-A Collection of Short Stories Ballington Books Anderson,N.C. 1st Edition Hardbound V-Fine Illus B&W Photos,Maps 8vo, 199,
* Patric, John 1945 YANKEE HOBO IN THE ORIENT.Florence OR Frying Pan Creek.
* Reitman, Ben L. (as told to). 1937. Sister of the Road: The Autobiography of Box-Car Bertha as Told to Dr. Ben L. Reitman, New York: Harper & Row Publishers.
* SANDBURG, CARL 1927 AMERICAN SONGBAG HARCOURT BRACE
* Schockman, Carl. 1937. We Turned Hobo, Columbus, OH: F.J. Heer Printing Co.
* STEAMTRAIN MAURY GRAHAM 1967 Tales Of The Irion Road My Life As King Of The Hobos PARAGON HOUSE
* Terkel, Studs. 1970. Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, New York: Pantheon Books. Reprinted 1971, New York: Avon Books.
* Tully, Jim- 1924. Beggars of Life: A Hobo Autobiography, New York: Albert & Charles Boni, and Random House, 336 pages. Also published by Garden City Publishing Co., Garden City, NJ.
* Twain, Mark- 1907 A Tramp Abroad: Volume I New York, NY Harper & Brothers
* VAUGHN, (J.B.) 1975 THE WANDERING YEARS. (Saanichton, British Columbia): Hancock House,. First edition, hardcover issue. Black boards. (iii), 250, (3) pp. Text paper tanned, as usual, else fine in fine jacket. "An Odyssey of the 'Dirty Thirties' - the Hobo Jungles - the logging camps - and the trapper's wilderness." - jacket. BC author's memoirs of hard times and various means of getting by
* Welsh, Herbert 1921 The New Gentlemen of the Road Philadelphia William F. Fell
* Willard, Josiah Flynt. 1968. The Little Brother; A Story of Tramp Life, by Josiah Flynt, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Gregg Press 254 pages. [Originally published ?]- 1899. Tramping With Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond Life, New York: Century Company. Reprinted 1972, Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith Publishing Corp.
* Williams, Cliff "Oats," editor. 1995. Around the Jungle Fire: A Collection of Original Hobo Poetry, Deerfield, IL: Hobo Press, 44 pages.
* Williamson, Michael & Maharidge, Dale ( "Montana Blackie" )1993 Last Great American Hobo, The Prima, CA o/s h/c w/ dj; 8-1/2 x 9-1/2"; 278 pp; profusely illus.w/full-pg.B&W glossy photos, & map on bank endpaper; Williamson photos, Maharidge text; gilt-lettered blk.qtr.cloth over beige boards; B&W photographic dj; As New, in protective clear mylar sleeve. .... In 1928 as a teenage lark, a boy hopped a freight train... then rode through the Great Depression, in search of work, earning the moniker "Montana Blackie".... In 1988, Blackie was still on the road, probably the last active Depression-era Hobo.... moving account of a way of life out of time and place, but more and more common now, as the homeless meet up with the hobos, and the old ways of the hobo's creed are forgotten
* Woirol, Gregory R. 1992. In the Floating Army, F.C. Mills on Itinerant Life in California, 1914, Univ. of Illinois Press.
* Worby, John. 1942. The Other Half: The Autobiography of a Tramp, New York: Arden Book Company, 307 pages with illustrations.
* Wormser, Richard. 1994. Hoboes: Wandering in America 1870-1940, Walker Publishing Company. Includes hobo dictionary, index, and bibliography.
* Wren, Daniel A. 1987. White Collar Hobo: The Travels of Whiting Williams, Ames: Iowa State University Press, 165 pages. Includes portraits, index, and bibliography.
* Wyckoff, Walter Augustus. 1901. A Day with a Tramp and Other Days, New York: C. Scribner. Reprinted 1971, New York: B. Blom, 191 pages.
: You might want to add this classical sociological enquiry into the Hobo's habits: "Niels Andersen, The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1923)."
Thanks, very interesting. One addition is this article: In search of the Female Hobo by Heather Tapley
http://dc.msvu.ca/journals/index.php/atlantis/article/view/219/209 --94.223.3.213 (talk) 03:48, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sociology of the Hobo 

message: "...has more self-respect, is usually young, and may, I believe, be called a tramp in the first stage..."
Not necessarily original research, but it sure sounds like personal opinion not fit for encyclopedia. It shouldn't be like this, right? I would fix it myself if I knew anything of the subject matter. --M.A. 10:20, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  "I believe" this is original research 

message: The article states that 'hobo' is now a vulgar word. However I have heard some shows or films made in America, even children's ones, that use it. Is it really a rude term?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 101.166.150.53 (talk) 10:51, 9 October 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  A vulgar term? 

message: I am going to make my way through, dropping anyone who does not have a source...  if they are no longer living and their article says they hoboed.User talk:Unfriend12 14:46, 10 October 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  People who have hoboed 

message: Signs and symbols were often used by Gypsies in Europe: See Romany Rye, for example. Numanonja````  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Numanonja (talk • contribs) 10:40, 14 January 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  European traditions 

message: Why does every page on wikipedia have to either have something pro-gay or something against other sexual minorities? What is the sick agenda with all of this propaganda garbage?67.238.153.126 (talk) 21:48, 25 April 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Why? 

message: Does that mean don't molest children like the "don't molest the wildlife" signs in parks or don't molest them like Penn State?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.231.176.54 (talk) 04:07, 10 May 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  hobo code (ethical) use of word "molest" in item 13 

message: I added the only picture I could find in Wikimedia Commons. A quick Google of "hobo symbols images" turns up plenty of diagrams and photos.  Could somebody find or make a suitable rights-released chart with a few dozen of the most commonly-seen  symbols?  Reify-tech (talk) 22:32, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Key to hobo signs (symbols) 

message: A new section has been added by a newbie (WP:AGF) editor, but in the wrong location.  The material probably ought to be a separate WP:STUB article, but the new editor may not have the ability to create a new article as of yet.  Also, the newly-added info is unreferenced, although the new editor may simply not have had time to do this yet.  Suggestions?  Reify-tech (talk) 20:53, 5 May 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: I have temporary patched up the article, and flagged the material as unreferenced. I have also cautioned the new editor at User talk:Weinerdogdog that they must provide WP:RS for their new material, and will give them some time to respond.  Reify-tech (talk) 21:09, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

text: I have removed the material as a probable hoax.  Also, the new article Leah Hughes appears to be a hoax,  and candidate for WP:SD.  Reify-tech (talk) 22:30, 5 May 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  New section "The Hobo Musical" 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Hobo. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20121017095750/http://www.virginia.edu/sociology/publications/faculty%20articles/OlickArticles/galeholocaust.pdf to http://www.virginia.edu/sociology/publications/faculty%20articles/OlickArticles/galeholocaust.pdf
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20121010092154/http://www.george-orwell.org/Down_and_Out_in_Paris_and_London/index.html to http://www.george-orwell.org/Down_and_Out_in_Paris_and_London/index.html
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers. —cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 19:21, 28 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: The In mainstream culture section is out of control. I would remove the whole section, thoughts ?  - FlightTime (open channel) 00:49, 23 October 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  In mainstream culture 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Only 5 of the 29 names at present have sources. I think any names included need to have sources, otherwise anybody could include any names. 
The list includes some, such as Woody Guthrie, who are well known to have hoboed.  Some others, such as Nels Anderson, Jack Kerouac, Carl Sandburg, are very likely candidates for the list and their WP articles might confirm it.
 
Some of the names are surprising, if not extremely dubious. One is Dr. Phil McGraw.  I haven't found anywhere that confirms he has hoboed, and to be honest he seems the kind of person who absolutely would not hobo.  I've taken his name off of the list.
Some might have done things that relate to the hobo lifestyle but, strictly speaking, have not actually hoboed.  Mike Patton, for example, might have "used field recordings of hopping freight in musical composition", but that does not qualify him as having hoboed, so I took his name off the list.
Additionally, names who already listed under "Notable hobos" should not appear again under "Notables who have hoboed". I spotted Harry McLintock and Seasick Steve in both lists, so I've also removed their names from the second list. 2602:30A:2C4A:1CB0:B170:DDD8:D552:C628 (talk) 18:15, 12 December 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Notables who have hoboed - names without sources. 

message: A Google Books Search turns up this criticism of hobos in the Iron Molders' Journal from 1872:
https://books.google.com/books?id=o5qfAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA519&dq=hobo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjijsTT9c3fAhWImOAKHZ_GAcM4ChDoAQgpMAA#v=onepage&q=hobo&f=false
--The actual article seems to be from 1896  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.57.205.168 (talk) 15:08, 7 July 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  1872 Reference to "Hobo" 

message: These sections are entirely fictional and should be removed. There is no verifiable source and it is a prank.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:643:4301:37D4:2DFD:AE97:95A9:FF52 (talk) 15:52, 24 August 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hobo Convention and Ethical Code 

message: I know there are citations here -- I'm still not buying that the claimed differentiation between the three 'classes' is anything but a recent, ROMANTIC invention.  (Also, the way I've heard it, which I prefer is: "A hobo is one who travels (ed: "is a transient"), and does honest labor when necessary; a tramp travels, but won't work (ed:"do honest labor"), and a 'bum' neither works nor travels."
(I accept that these definitions may exist as a neologism these days -- and I don't have any doubt that in the world of the, well, poor, that there are always distinctions maintained between social classes.  People are people.) -- and now I get my own SMACKDOWN: now that I finally get to the website of the cite given, I see it was Mencken who claimed its use during the Depression.  This, boys and girls, is why you verify the cites FIRST.  <bows, departs>  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.235.56.24 (talk) 05:25, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: In his memoir The Road, real life 1890s hobo and keen sociologist Jack London uses the terms tramp and hobo interchangebly. Count Robert of Paris (talk) 12:11, 2 December 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hobos vs. Tramps vs. Bums 

message: The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:
* 
Participate in the deletion discussion at the . —Community Tech bot (talk) 01:57, 9 January 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion 

message: I've been keeping an eye on this page and just noticed some reverted changes made by User:Thehistoricgraffitisociety. The thrust of what was added and then deleted is that "hobo signs" are an imagination story that has persisted for well over a hundred years now. This is an assertion I had read elsewhere as well, but only in passing; I had been hoping to find something to back it up, but so far I hadn't.
I agree that the changes made by Thehistoricgraffitisociety were not very encyclopedic or very well worked into the article. But User:Theroadislong's assertion in the changelog that the edits served solely to shill for the Historic Graffiti Society's website seems unjustified. The edits in question (1, 2) do mention that organization in the body of the text, which is certainly questionable. But that's one mention among quite a bit of apparently quite well-researched information, and I believe that the idea that hobo signs were never in widespread use should certainly be incorporated into the page, at least as one viewpoint, if not as the accepted fact. Every source besides the Historic Graffiti Society that I've read on hobo signs simply takes it as granted that they were a real phenomenon, but none of them provided an authentic photograph or firsthand account from a hobo who used them in real, day-to-day traveling—it's always some glossary of signs or a staged photograph. The Historic Graffiti Society's article is the first I've seen that looks even somewhat authoritative.
User Thehistoricgraffitisociety has now been banned, apparently for those edits. (I think that was extreme; I believe a warning should have sufficed. But this isn't the place to discuss that.) I plan to incorporate their viewpoint into the article soon, and wanted to take this space to assure everyone that I'm not in fact an alias for Thehistoricgraffitisociety. I don't even know them. But theirs is a legitimate viewpoint that I hope to spread.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nondirectional (talk • contribs) 05:52, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hobo signs not real 

message: In the "Etymology" section, this statement appears: 
In 1906, Professor Layal Shafee, after an exhaustive study, put the number of tramps in the United States at about 500,000
Later in the same section, this statement appears: 
According to Ted Conover in Rolling Nowhere (1984), at some unknown point in time, as many as 20,000 people were living a hobo life in North America.
These statements are contradictory -- the lack of clear distinction between tramps and hobos may have led to the disparity in numbers. In any case, it is confusing.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:268:C185:3618:D11A:B2B4:C083:BF4 (talk) 11:14, 17 May 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Inconsistent terms and numbers  

message: I see that someone has posted that the Cuban colloquial expression correr jobos might be a source for the American English term.  There is no citation for this, and I would hope one would be forthcoming.  But it is plausible, except that one wonders how a Cuban expression for  truancy or vagrancy would come to the US in the 19th century.  A good possibility, but beyond my resources for support at this time, is that the expression was shared across the Gulf region to the Gulf coast of Mexico (where the jobo tree also grows) and from there, along the rails north to the US.  The time period is right.  And Mexican trackworker (traquero) shantytowns---usually made from old boxcars---were widespread across the Southwest US for decades.  It's too bad there are no easily accessible Mexican Spanish etymologies for colloquialisms...or are there? Tmangray (talk) 00:44, 28 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Etymology

message: The section has no sources cited, is written as an argumentative essay, and is entirely redundant because the convention has its own page. WahooSS238 (talk) 17:14, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Can we remove the section on the national hobo convention? 

message: I would argue we need an estimate from a reliable source to make this article a bit better. Cynthia-Coriníon (talk) 03:23, 23 December 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  How many people today go a-hoboing? 

message: Why is this so prominent in the article? 2001:420:C0C4:1005:0:0:0:20 (talk) 14:44, 11 February 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Prominent hobo stove image? 

message: There is a difference between "old school" hobos and "new school" ones. New ones usually use backpacks, often have mobile phones, and use sleeping bags a lot. Old school often used makeshift bags or bundles, apparently started with civil war soldiers. 188.210.27.247 (talk) 14:04, 15 May 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hobo subculture nearly dead 

message: How is only possible to narrow this down to within half a century. Why would you use circa then a 50 year range. 62.194.63.113 (talk) 06:27, 17 July 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: This is the sort of thing libraries and similar collectors do quite frequently. They have simply classified the pic as being part of a larger batch of photos that were taken over that period. And often they aren't 100% of the precise boundaries within which a photo fits. HiLo48 (talk) 06:43, 17 July 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Photo caption includes: “c. 1880s - 1930s” 

message: I have altered the text’s mention in “History” of hoboes’ appearance “on the railroading scene,” for here it’s a non sequitur, the hobo being described above as merely migratory, not specifically a rail migrant. But this connection suggests that clandestine train travel deserves mention in the introductory summary. Note this article’s repeated mentions of hoboes riding the rails, including to hobo conventions.
In that connection, the "History" section's assertion that the "transition from steam to diesel locomotives [made] jumping freight trains more difficult" deserves explanation. The transition from ordinary boxcars to containerized ones for hauling freight would be a more obvious source of difficulty. Mucketymuck (talk) 06:45, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hoboes' reliance on railroads 

message: Hello, I was just checking out the main page, and noticed there is no "hobos now", or "hobos in North America today" section.  Fact of the matter is, there is a huge explosion in tent cities and homeless in USA, and obviously the same dynamic as in the 1930s Great Depression, e.g. massive economic downturn, super hi layoffs equals more and more hobos and homeless.  Man, San Francisco is full of homeless vagrants, as is Portland, Oregon.  Fact of the matter is there is a HUGE homeless encampment by the PDX Portland Airport.  There are loads of folks living out of their cars nowadays, or in friend's cars.  The term hobo applies to these folks today facing such hard times, going city to city by train, hitchhike, etc.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.7.5.132 (talk) 01:36, 2 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with you, it is now nearly 2024, 14 years after your comment, and still no effort was made to expand the section to show statistics about hobos during modernity. They are all lobbed up together as "homeless", without differentiation about who is a willing traveler beset by wanderlust and who are legitimatly "out of luck" people who are trying to make ends meet and who would rather stay at a permanent residence than wander around the continent looking for work. 85.65.223.211 (talk) 01:39, 21 July 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Suggestion for expanding article