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Two hoboes, one carrying a bindle, walking along railroad tracks after being put off a train (c. 1880s –1930s). A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. [1] [2] Hoboes, tramps, and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; a bum neither travels nor works.
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The bindle is colloquially known as the blanket stick, particularly within the Northeastern hobo community. A hobo who carried a bindle was known as a bindlestiff. According to James Blish in his novel A Life for the Stars, a bindlestiff was specifically a hobo who had stolen another hobo's bindle, from the colloquium stiff, as in steal.
Illegally hopping a ride on a private freight car began with the invention of the train. In the United States, freighthopping became a common means of transportation following the American Civil War as the railroads began pushing westward, especially among migrant workers who became known as "hobos".
The hobo colleges, which How started in several cities, primarily offered lodging and meals, but as the name implies also education and a place to meet. [5] The education would be scheduled certain nights and included basic social science, industrial law, vagrancy laws, public speaking, searching for jobs, venereal disease and anything that may ...
Hobo jungle A well organised hobo encampment, maintained collectively by those that live there. Hobo jungles frequently offered a place for the hobo to lay his or her bindle, meals (cobbled together from food contributed by residents of the encampment), information about work, and music & song (provided by the hoboes themselves).
Leon Ray Livingston (1872–1944) was a famous hobo and author, travelling under the name "A-No.1" and often referred to as "The Rambler." He perfected the hobo symbols system, which let other hobos know where there are generous people, free food, jobs, vicious dogs, and so forth. He was not a poor man; he simply preferred a life of travelling ...
In the 19th century, Australian bush poetry grew in popularity alongside an emerging sense of Australian nationalism. The swagman was venerated in poetry and literature as symbolic of Australian nationalistic and egalitarian ideals. Popular poems about swagmen include Henry Lawson's Out Back (1893) and Shaw Neilson's The Sundowner (1908).