Hoboes, Tramps, but No Thieves

I referenced Bum's Jungle in my previous entry, and how the hoboes would hop on and off the steam trains that would go by, spend the night in the hobo camp in the woods that were behind our house and then move on. Fortunately, we never had any come to the door asking for food or money.

My mother spent her younger years growing up in southern Minnesota on a farm, where it wasn't uncommon for men to come walking up to the farmhouse looking for a handout. Some of them would offer to fix things in return for some food, others just wanted to be fed. She said her mother always managed to find something to feed them regardless of the time of day, just to make sure that there would be no trouble. She would make them fresh coffee, sit them down on the back porch and give them a plate of food. My Mom always remembers them as being polite and saying thank you for whatever they were given. Occasionally there would be one or two that her father would hire to help with the field work if needed. They would sleep in the barn in the hay and considered it to be pretty comfy and warm compared to sleeping in the boxcars on trains.

Apparently, they had their own sign language and would leave "marks" in conspicuous places for the hobos that followed to let them know what the conditions of the area were - where you could always get a good handout or where you might be met with a shotgun.

My parents were married in the early 30's, during the Great Depression. My father tried to farm in central North Dakota where things were pretty dry. He said he put seed in the ground for seven years before he finally got any kind of a crop, and there were times when his cows had to eat thistles because there was no grass.

Because of these conditions there were a lot of men moving about the country looking for work, using any method of transportation they could - the railroads being the most common. My Mom was always a shutterbug and I think must have carried her Brownie Box Camera with her wherever she went. I found this picture in one of her scrapbooks.

She said it was taken in the spring of the year and the top of the train was full of young men headed west. She had gone to town to sell some chickens to get some cash to buy groceries and managed to snap this picture as the train went through town.

Apparently their farm was far enough away from the railroad tracks that they had very few hoboes approach the house just for food. If any one of them managed to go that far into the country they were looking for work, and of course with no crops, there wasn't any work to be had.

A movie that you might find interesting on this issue is called Emperor of the North. It stars Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine. Marvin plays "A" Number One, a famous bum who rode the rails, and Borgnine plays the part of a railroad cop whose mission in life is to keep "his" train clear of any freeloaders. It gives you a good peak into what life must have been like back then for these people.

Times - they sure were different back then.

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