AMERICAN “HOBOES”

Lake Wakatip Mail, Volume 4185, Issue 4185, 20 November 1934, Page 7

AMERICAN “HOBOES”

MUST WORK FOR DOLEDepression has forced the Government to deal with that colourful character the American hobo, who has always heretofore been a local problem, states an American correspondent of the London ‘ Morning Post.’ With his battered hat, torn coat, patched trousers, broken shoes, and general unkempt and down-at-the-heel appearance this drifter has moved back and forth across the northern section of the country in the summer and the southern parts in the winter. The true hobo has scorned work, even when it was plentiful, and turned up his nose at the “ gay cats,” as he cads the itinerant workers who are not afraid of honest toil when it presents itself. Now, with drought impoverishing the farms at which he begged in the summer and with his ranks swelled by thousands anxious to work and seeking new localities in the hope that steady jobs will be found there, the bona fide hobo has had to turn to the Government for aid. And in order to get it he is forced to become at least something of a “ gay cat.” At a Government depot for hoboes some work must be done before the drifter is given a ticket which can be transformed into food, tobacco, or even second-hand clothing if his ragged garments are refusing to hang together longer. The F.E.R.A. (Federal Emergency Relief Administration) had the problem of dealing with the hobo, and in handling it this agency has shown a wisdom unfortunately not always found in emergency bureaux. ' Hundreds of depots have been established in all parts of the country ordinarily near the hobo “ jungles,” those colonies ®f rude shacks located on waste land outside cities’ railway division points. On arriving at one of the depots the drifter is forced to register. It matters not what name is given so long as it is a name. Naturally John Smiths and Tom Browns predominate, but occasionally some grinningly set themselves down as John Gilbert or Clark Gable. After they have registered the drifters are told they may earn 2s by working for an hour and a-half. They have the option of working longer at the same rate of pay if they desire, but they must work at least that long for their dole. Most of the hoboes are satisfied with 2s.

EASIER TRAIN TRAVEL. Once they have eaten and bought tobacco the hoboes wander back to the “ jungle,” either to sleep or to wait for a train going in the direction they wish. The “ hard-boiled ” attitude of train crews toward the hobo has been softened by the times and by the fact that so many honest job-seekers are forced to make their way from town to town. Only where there are attempts to tamper with loaded cars do they drive off the drifters or turn them over to the police. Otherwise they are permitted to ride unmolested in empty cars in much greater comfort than was the case when the hobo had to “ ride the rods,” as concealment on brake rods under the cars is called. The real hobo still prefers railway travel. He rather scorns the hitchhiker, who begs rides from motorists, and who, in hobo argot, is a “ scenery bum.” To be a successful hitch-hiket one must be sufficiently well dressed so that the motorists will not put on speed in alarm at the signalled request for a lift. ... , , The hobo is not a criminal, although should any crooks be so reduced in circumstances as to seek shelter in a “ jungle,” there is little danger of their being turned over to the police.

buri vse enprynted after the forme of this preset letter which ben wel and truly correctl late hym come to vvestmouestre in to the almonesry at the reed pale and he shall haue hem good chepe.” Even on his deathbed Caxton still worked. His successor, Wynken de Worde, who had been his foreman and mechanic, finishing a book of which Caxton wrote the last words practically as he lay dying, 1 Vita Patrum.’ The exact date of Caxton’s death is not known, but it was probably toward the end of 1491. There have been claims made that printing was done in England before Caxton’s time, but these have been shown to have been pre-supposed from a brief prepared by one Richard Atkyns in an effort to make printing a prerogative of the Crown, and was based on an x dropped out of a date in Roman numerals, making 1468 of what should have been 1478, is a treatise on the Apostles’ Creed from the Oxford Press As a technical printer Caxton does not cut any great figure, for he did not trouble about pagination, signatures, or headlines, and none of his books carried a title page, although these had been the practice on the Continent for some time. Nor did he go in for ornamentation or use oi colour, such as red initials, to any extent.