The Hobo News

The Wikipedia page.

A nice essay with pix.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 07, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Newspapers, Twentieth Century

The Hobo Jungle Murder

You might or might not be surprised at the number of hits one gets when searching for "hobo murder." I guess that milieu was a really violent one. In any case, I highlight this instance for the great hobo names. I assume "Knubbs" meant "nubs," referring to the dead man's lack of hands.

What would your own hobo name be, by the way?

Posted By: Paul - Tue Sep 26, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Death, Odd Names, Police and Other Law Enforcement, 1940s

James Eads How, The Millionaire Hobo

His Wikipedia page.

In addition to advocating for hobos, How chose to live as one, even though he had both money and education. He wore a shaggy beard and rough tramplike clothes. It was said that even ordinary hobos looked well dressed compared to How.[3] From about age 25, he traveled around doing hard work for a living.[11] One of How's contemporaries, sociologist Nels Anderson, describes how fully How immersed himself in the hobo lifestyle and how seriously How took his work:

Millionaire that he is, How has not failed to familiarize himself with every aspect of tramp life. He knows the life better than many of the veteran hobos. He has become so thoroughly absorbed in the work of what he describes as organizing the "migratory, casual, and unemployed"...workers that he practically loses interest in himself. He becomes obsessed with some task at times that he will walk the streets all day without stopping long enough to eat.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jun 10, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Eccentrics, Money, Twentieth Century

National Hobo Convention

The Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 17, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Conventions, Regionalism, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers, Trains and Other Vehicles on Rails

Reuben Lindstrom’s Wind Driven Vehicle

In 1940, Reuben Lindstrom was granted a patent for a "wind driven vehicle". It was a toy made out of tin cans. It resembled a model train, and the wind could make it go by itself. In his patent, Lindstrom explained that he deliberately avoided using a sail to propel the toy.


Instead, he had shaped the wheels "to constitute wind responsive impeller blades".



Digging more deeply into the history of this patent, it turns out that Lindstrom was quite a character. For a start, he never cut his hair because, so he said, whenever he did he got heart trouble. In America, in the 1940s, this was unusual enough that it made the news.

Warren Times Mirror - June 28, 1949

He was a regular fixture around Wisconsin Rapids. A 2001 article in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune called him "our most unforgettable character."

In addition to his wind-driven toy train, he had built a kind of motorized bicycle, described as a "weird contraption of bicycle wheel, one cylinder gas motor, pulley, levers, scooter and miscellany." He used this to get around on roads and railroad lines.

He basically lived as a street person/free spirit, always carrying around "a picture of a woman with a large snake wrapped around her neck." Some people referred to him as the "inventor hobo".

One of the quotations attributed to him: "Fashion is the main religion of this world. If you are different, they think you are nuts. Most people stay away from me because they think I'm a religious fanatic. The girls also stay away from me."

Also: "Dirt's natural and it keeps human diseases from penetrating the skin and entering my body."

He died in 1988.

There's some more info about him at randyjack.com.

Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune - June 9, 2001

Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 11, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Inventions, Patents, Toys, 1940s, Trains

The Tramp’s Unexpected Skate

Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 04, 2020 - Comments (0)
Category: Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Juvenile Delinquency, 1900s

Harry Partch’s Zymo-Xyl

We've posted before about "hobo composer" Harry Partch. (Specifically, about his composition 'Barstow' inspired by hitchhiker graffiti he found on the outskirts of Barstow, CA).

Another of his oddities was his zymo xyl — a musical instrument he made out of 17 upside-down liquor bottles, 14 oak blocks, hubcaps from 1952 and '52 Fords, and an aluminum kettle top. It was said to sound a bit like a xylophone. He specified that the liquor bottles should include two Old Heaven Hill bourbon bottles, two Gordon's gin, and two Barclay's whiskeys.

You can hear him play the zymo xyl at the end of the clip below.

Los Angeles Times - June 30, 1996

image source: wiktionary

Posted By: Alex - Sat May 16, 2020 - Comments (2)
Category: Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Music

Edmund Love and His Restaurant Quest

In 1964, THE SATURDAY EVENING POST profiled Edmund G. Love, who intended to eat his way through approximately 5000 NYC restaurants.





By 1973, when THE NEW YORK TIMES took notice, his quest had ballooned to 6000.





His 1990 obituary in the NYT says he managed to hit 1750 of them.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Nov 07, 2019 - Comments (4)
Category: Addictions, Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Eccentrics, Food, Restaurants, World Records, Twentieth Century

The Garbage Pail Kids Movie

The Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Feb 08, 2019 - Comments (2)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Antisocial Activities, Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Disasters, Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Movies, 1980s, Fictional Monsters

Lived in a box

Joseph Porcos of Chicago lived in a box. In hindsight, perhaps he could be seen as a pioneer of the tiny home movement.

The Columbus Republic - Jan 24, 1957

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jun 10, 2016 - Comments (4)
Category: Buildings and Other Structures, Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, 1950s