Hobos have a nostalgic appeal of an earlier time when itinerant labors traveled the country looking for work.  Their clothes were torn, tattered and well worn while their faces were road mapped with heavy road weary lines of a hard way of life. The Four Hobos in the picture on the left are carved caricatures whose names are left to right: Suds Larry, Soup Bone, Gunny Sack and Sulky Sal.

In spite of it all there was something romantic about  these knights of the road that gave a wanderlust appearance of an easy go lucky  way of life while there was none in reality.

A Hobo would travel looking for work while a Tramp simply traveled not looking for work and a Bum would neither travel nor look for work possessing only a hard luck story to con easy money.  The Hobo was the “common stiff” who was somebody’s friend, acquaintance or relative who showed up from time to time of itinerant travels following news of the next job. Read the rest of this entry »