Etiquette: “Hobos, Tramps or Bums”

“Clip this out and paste it in your book of etiquette. You may need it sometimes to save yourself from one of those embarrassing moments, warns the Knickerbocker Press.” – Above, one of the several “kind woman” symbols used by Hobos in the United States in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Common were the outlines and whiskers, with the outline of a heart in the chest.

They Are Different  Very Distinct Class Lines Drawn Among These Groups

To the average man the words “hobo”, “tramp” and “bum” are synonymous terms, used to designate a type of foot-loose, homeless specimen of the genus hobo. They are terms of derogation and opprobrium Not s0! Before calling a hobo a tramp, or either man a bum, be sure you say it with a smile. For there are very distinct class lines drawn among these group: of unskilled and itinerant workers. 

A hobo is a hard worker of the migratory type. He is possessed of a keen sense of his own importance and value to the world that would suffer without his services. The wheat fields of the Southwest, the timberlands in the Northwest, the fruit lands in various parts of the country could not show a profit without the presence of the hobo at strategic moments. 

To displace him in the economic scheme of things would be to keep on hand well fed and employed the whole year around, thousands of men whose services are only required a few weeks or months a year. Another distinction: The hobo travels on wheels, although the ticket office is not always a part of his traveling experience.

The tramp, on the other hand, migrates according to whim chance. And he always walks. Having nowhere in mind to get, he gets there at his leisure. If he works, as he does now and then, it is because of necessity and not through any sense of personal responsibility to society at large. In the mind of the self-respecting hobo, the tramp is distinctly an inferior.

The bum is looked down upon and despised, both by the hobo and tramp. The bum travels nowhere, does nothing and is nobody. He is a parasite of the city, begging. borrowing, stealing, loafing.

Clip this out and paste it in your book of etiquette. You may need it sometimes to save yourself from one of those embarrassing moments, warns the Knickerbocker Press. — The Campbell Press, 1935 

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia