A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. The origin of the term is unknown. According to etymologist Anatoly Liberman, the only certain detail about its origin is the word was first noticed in American English circa 1890. Tramps and hobo stew are commonly lumped together, but in their own sight they are sharply differentiated.

Lower than either is the bum, who neither works nor travels, save when impelled to motion by the police. While drifters have always existed, it is unclear exactly when hoboes first appeared on the American railroading scene. With the end of the American Civil War in the 1860s, many discharged veterans returning home began hopping freight trains. His article “What Tramps Cost Nation” was published by The New York Telegraph in 1911, when he estimated the number had surged to 700,000. The number of hoboes increased greatly during the Great Depression era of the 1930s.

With no work and no prospects at home, many decided to travel for free by freight train and try their luck elsewhere. Life as a hobo was dangerous. In addition to the problems of being itinerant, poor, and far from home and support, plus the hostility of many train crews, they faced the railroad police, nicknamed “bulls”, who had a reputation of violence against trespassers. Moreover, riding on a freight train is dangerous in itself.

Around the end of World War II, railroads began to transition from steam to diesel locomotives, making jumping freight trains more difficult. This, in combination with increased postwar prosperity, led to a decline in the number of hoboes. 20,000 people were living a hobo life in North America. Modern freight trains are much faster and thus harder to ride than in the 1930s, but they can still be boarded in railyards. Hoboes were noted for, among other things, the distinctive lingo that arose among them.

I met that ‘bo on the way to Bangor last spring. Many hobo terms have become part of common language, such as “big house”, “glad rags”, “main drag”, and others. 1920s guide to a supposed traditional beggar’s code in France. Do not threaten the people in the house.