File this under random. I have a strange fascination with hobo culture. In fact, two of my very different interests (it should be pointed out that I have a lot of odd diversions), intersected in the first season of Mad Men when a young Dick Whitman (aka Don Draper) meets a hobo man that teaches him a lesson about life. Amazing. Everything you need to know about how to get by as a hobo can be seen below. Given the current economy, this might actually have real world applications.

Hobo code from the National Hobo Museum (thanks to Manna from Brooklyn for the find). It should be said that the gentleman above is a rail worker not a hobo. But that’s what I would guess they looked like.



Hobo lingo in use up to the 1940s (from Wikipedia)

* Accommodation car – The caboose of a train

* Angellina – young inexperienced kid

* Bad Road – A train line rendered useless by some hobo’s bad action

* Banjo – (1) A small portable frying pan. (2) A short, “D” handled shovel

* Barnacle – a person who sticks to one job a year or more

* Beachcomber – a hobo that hangs around docks or seaports

* Big House – Prison

* Bindle stick – Collection of belongings wrapped in cloth and tied around a stick

* Bindlestiff – A hobo who steals from other hobos.

* Blowed-in-the-glass – a genuine, trustworthy individual

* “‘Bo” – the common way one hobo referred to another: “I met that ‘Bo on the way to Bangor last spring”.

* Boil Up – Specifically, to boil one’s clothes to kill lice and their eggs. Generally, to get oneself as clean as possible

* Bone polisher – A mean dog

* Bone orchard – a graveyard

* Bull – A railroad officer

* Bullets – Beans

* Buck – a Catholic priest good for a dollar

* C, H, and D – indicates an individual is Cold, Hungry, and Dry (thirsty)

* California Blankets – Newspapers, intended to be used for bedding

* Calling In – Using another’s campfire to warm up or cook

* Cannonball – A fast train

* Carrying the Banner – Keeping in constant motion so as to avoid being picked up for loitering or to keep from freezing

* Catch the Westbound – to die

* Chuck a dummy – Pretend to faint

* Cover with the moon – Sleep out in the open

* Cow crate – A railroad stock car

* Crumbs – Lice

* Doggin’ it – Traveling by bus, especially on the Greyhound bus line

* Easy mark – A hobo sign or mark that identifies a person or place where one can get food and a place to stay overnight

* Elevated – under the influence of drugs or alcohol

* Flip – to board a moving train

* Flop – a place to sleep, by extension: “Flophouse”, a cheap hotel.

* Glad Rags – One’s best clothes

* Graybacks – Lice

* Grease the Track – to be run over by a train

* Gump – a scrap of meat

* Honey dipping – Working with a shovel in the sewer

* Hot – (1) A fugitive hobo. (2) A decent meal: “I could use three hots and a flop.”

* Hot Shot – train with priority freight, stops rarely, goes faster. synonym for “Cannonball”

* Jungle – An area off a railroad where hobos camp and congregate

* Jungle Buzzard – a hobo or tramp that preys on their own

* Knowledge bus – A school bus used for shelter

* Main Drag – the busiest road in a town

* Moniker / Monica – A nickname

* Mulligan – a type of community stew, created by several hobos combining whatever food they have or can collect

* Nickel note – five-dollar bill

* On The Fly – jumping a moving train

* Padding the hoof – to travel by foot

* Possum Belly – to ride on the roof of a passenger car. One must lay flat, on his/her stomach, to not be blown off

* Pullman – a rail car

* Punk – any young kid

* Reefer – A compression of “refrigerator car”.

* Road kid – A young hobo who apprentices himself to an older hobo in order to learn the ways of the road

* Road stake – the small amount of money a hobo may have in case of an emergency

* Rum dum – A drunkard

* Sky pilot – a preacher or minister

* Soup bowl- A place to get soup, bread and drinks

* Snipes – Cigarette butts “sniped” (eg. in ashtrays)

* Spear biscuits – Looking for food in garbage cans

* Stemming – panhandling or mooching along the streets

* Tokay Blanket – drinking alcohol to stay warm

* Yegg – A traveling professional thief