Blog
A No. 1
“Chicago is the greatest railway center in the United States. No one knows these facts better than the hobo. It is a fact that trains from all poi...
The Penny Poker Bird
“Never play cards with a man named Doc, never eat at a place called “Mom’s”, and never sleep with a woman who is in more trouble than you are.”
—...
The Crying Map
In the exqiusite Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Ironweed, author William Kennedy introduces us to Francis Phelan, former star pitcher, and now-dis...
The Blue Wound
“Boys caught in freight yards were summarily beaten by notorious railroad bulls like Texas Slim, who ruled the yards at Longview, Texas. Denver B...
Tiger Weeds
In almost all of the hobo lore I’ve read, plants are a prominent theme. Plants that are edible. Plants that are poisonous. Plants that get yo...
Coal City Cockfighter
In the 1974 Monte Hellman film, Cockfighter, the late, great Warren Oates plays a miserable sonofabitch named Frank Mansfield who, in the film’s...
Hudson King
There was no shortage of hobos in New York City during The Depression. Along the Hudson River, there were were hobo jungles almost the full len...
The Orange Beast
"A train is not a man, and a man is not a train. . .”
George Milburn, The Hobo’s Hornbook
Hey–
To live outdoors during The Depression was to h...
Sister of the Road
Nobody knows if there was such a person as “Boxcar Bertha.” Dr. Ben Reitman wrote her “as told to” memoir in 1937 and the feeling is that she w...
The Last Ride
Hey–
In George Milburn’s, The Hobo’s Hornbook, a 1930 collection of hobo balladry and poems and songs, he draws a distinction between hobos and ...
The Road Hawk
Hey–
In Timothy Egan’s, The Worst Hard Time, a riveting account of the horrors of the dustbowl and The Great Depression, dust storms are rendere...