Category:Hobo Life
From Eurêka
Contents |
Railroad Hobos
Hobo ('Bo) Tramp, term is said to have originated on Burlington Route as a corruption of “Hello, boy!” which construction workers used in greeting one another.
Boxcar tourist Hobo
(alphabetical listing)
Big Rock Candy Mountains Hobo’s paradise, as described in song by Harry K. McClintock.
- Indian Valley Line IImaginary railroad “at the end of the rainbow,” on which you could always find a good job and ideal working conditions. Boomers resigning or being fired would say they were going to the Indian Valley. The term is sometimes used to mean death or the railroader’s Heaven.
Note Indian Valley Line does not refer to the former twenty-one-mile railroad of that name between Paxton and Engels, Calif.)
Blind baggage (Riding the blinds) Hobo riding head end of baggage car next to tender, where no door is placed.
Bo chaser Freight brakeman or railroad policeman Club (Brake club) Club winder is switchman or brakeman. A brakeman’s club was usually his only weapon of defense against hoboes
Open-air navigator Hobo riding freight on top
- Ridin’ ‘em high Traveling on tops of boxcars.
Ridin’ the rods Hobo practice, now virtually obsolete. The hobo would place a board across truss rods under a car and ride on it. This was very dangerous even in pleasant weather, and the possibility was ever present that you might doze, get careless, become too cramped, or lose your nerve-and roll under the wheels
Rustling the bums Searching a freight train for hobos. It was common practice for trainmen to collect money from freight-riding ‘bos, often at the rate of a dollar a division
Side-doop pullman Boxcar used by hobos in stealing rides
Railroad Hobo Gangs
Railroad gangs (AmE) Gangs of hobos found on the railroad.
Hole in the Wall gang (AmE) First railroad gang based in Minneapolis, that pioneered the fashion for bandannas, 1930s.
- Goon Squad (AmE) Formed by the Hole in the Wall gang to enforce the code of rail, 1940s.
Freight Train Riders of America (FTRA) (AmE) White supremacist gang of hobos active in the Western US, 1980s.
Wrecking Crew (AmE) Gang of drunken thugs.
Start the Party (STP) (AmE) Gang noted for drinking alcohol laced with LSD.
Resistance Crew (AmE) Young gang of hobos.
Train tramps (AmE) Self-preferred term for hobos, 1990s.
Hobo Life
Hangout (AmE) Hobo slang for any loafing place, a recognized meeting place, c. 1895.
Jungle (Crum; Crumb; The weeds) (AmE) Hobo camp and rendezvous, usually a clear space in a thicket (for fuel), near a railroad (for transportation), and ideally near water on the outskirts of a city.
- Pot gang (AmE) Group of hobos gathered about the ‘pot’ or cooking vessel in a jungle.
- Jungle buzzard (AmE) Hobo who lives in a jungle and begs or steals from other hobos.
Bitch lamp (AmE) Makeshift lamp, usually a container of grease or oil with a rag for a wick, c.1920.
Kip Bed or place to sleep.
- Kip dough (Kip jack) Money for bed or lodging.
Crumb roll (AmE) Bedroll, blanket or pack.
Bindle stiff (Blanket stiff) Hobo who totes a blanket and uses it wherever night finds him.
- Bindle Corruption of bundle.
Rookery (AmE) Place frequented by hobos.
Shack (AmE) Any public place, town or region where hobos meet.
Hobo Food
Mungy (Mongee; Mungey) (AmE) Hobo slang for food. Also soldiers’ slang in World War I (perhaps from Fr., manger = to eat).
Irish turkey (AmE) Corned beef and cabbage.
Minister's face (Minister's head) (AmE) Pig’s head cooked for a meal.
Mulligan (AmE) Stew made of any available meat(s) or vegetable(s).
Slum (AmE) Any meat-and-vegetable stew, especially one made of boiled salt-beef and potatoes. Also army use.
- Black mike (AmE) Meat and vegetable stew, logger and hobo use.
- Peoria (AmE) Thin soup made by boiling a few scraps of vegetable or meat in a lot of water.
Load of culls (AmE) Plate of hash.
Poultice (AmE) Bread and gravy.
Salve (AmE) Butter.
Tin cow (Tinned cow) (AmE) Canned milk, hobo use as early as c.1930.
Looseners (AmE) Prunes or any other fruit that is a regulator of the bowels.
Light (AmE) Hungry, not having eaten recently.
- John Hollowleg (AmE) Hobo slang for a hungry man.
- Wind pudding (AmE) Nothing to eat.
- Chuck habit (AmE) Fear of not having enough to eat, therefore a compulsion to eat as much as possible whenever food is available.
Charitable Organization
The Mitt (AmE) Any charitable or religious organization that gives food and lodging to hobos.
- Nose-dive (AmE) Act of accepting religion at a mission revival, usually in order to receive a free meal.
- Mission-stiff (AmE) Tramp or bum who makes it his business to be “redeemed” in order to obtain food and lodging at mission or rescue society shelters.
Hash foundry (AmE) Charitable institution that provides free meals to the destitute.
Angel food (AmE) Doctrine or religious teaching expounded by a mission or other charitable or temperance organization.
Salvation rancher (Mission squawker) (AmE) Preacher, mission attaché or evangelist.
- Heaven reacher (Hallelujah peddler) (AmE) Preacher, who sells salvation.
Hobo Begging
Pling (To spear) (AmE, Hobo argot) v To beg.
Slam a gate (AmE) v To beg food at a house.
Handout (AmE) Some food handed out from a house to a beggar, hobo use from the 1880s.
Sit-down (AmE) Meal, usually a free meal, eaten while sitting at a table, as on a back porch or the like. Hobo use since c.1850.
Ring (AmE) Hobo slang for a doorbell since c.1925.
Hobo Employment
Slave market (AmE) Employment office.
Deep-sea chef (AmE) Hobo slang for a dishwasher.
Mush-faker (AmE) Hobo use for an itinerant peddler, tinker, or especially umbrella mender.
Qualley-worker (AmE) Itinerant worker who makes wire coat-hangers, bottle cleaners, etc. Perhaps from quarl.
- Quarl (AmE) Coil, as of wire.
Hobo Homosexuality
Queer (Bunker; Burglar) (AmE) Originally hobo slang for homosexual in the 1920s, then taken up generally to become a standard derogatory colloquialism, 1930s-1980s.
Jocker (Wolf) Homosexual hobo who lives off the begging of his boy companion.
- Gonzel kid (Ball and chain; Ganzel kid; Preshen; Prushun; Wife) (AmE) Catamite boy who is the traveling companion of a homosexual hobo.
- Lamb (AmE) Young tramp, especially one under a jocker or wolf.
- Kid simple (AmE) Hobo slang for a pederast.
- Angel (AmE) Hobo homosexual with a quiet, rather subdued manner, early-20th cent.
- Bunker shy (AmE) Afraid of homosexuality, usually said of a prushun or lamb not yet under complete control of his jocker or wolf.
Hobo Miscellaneous Lexicon
Dead one (AmE) Hobo who has retired from the road.
Gay-cat (AmE) Newcomer to the hobo way of life.
Gazooney (Gazoony) (AmE) Young hobo, an inexperienced youth.
Gooseberry (AmE) v To steal clothes from a clothesline.
- Monday man (AmE) Hobo who steals off clotheslines, Monday being the traditional washday.
Kisser Slang for face or mouth.
Knee-bender Church-goers, a self-righteous person.
Mokus (AmE) Hobo slang for drunk.
Monkey (AmE) Average man, i.e. not a hobo.
- Homeguard (AmE) Man who stays in the one place, i.e. not a hobo.
Piker Tramp who walked the turnpikes.
- Pikey (AmE) Vagrant, from piker.
Ring-tail Hobo slang for a grouchy person.
Rubber sock Timid, delicate or cowardly person.
Rubber tramping (AmE) Hobo for hitch-hiking.
Shack fever (AmE) Hobo slang for fatigue or sleepiness, but it also has widespread connotations including fear of hopping a freight, the desire to remain out of sight, failing health, a disgust with the life as a hobo, or anything that keeps a hobo from travelling.
Spill one's gut (AmE) Hobo slang to tell everything one knows.
Ten-minute man (AmE) Hobo slang for a fast talker, a go-getter.
