The Unsung History of America’s Hard-Working Hoboes

(via Collector’s Weekly)

Hoboes are not bums.  They were really migratory workers. When they first emerged in the United States in the late 1800s, hoboes—like bums and tramps—were often vilified as useless vagrants by the communities they traveled to. But, according to Roger A. Bruns’ 1980 book Knights of the Road: A Hobo History, hoboes helped build the very railroads they traveled on, as well as the sewer systems, water lines, roads, bridges, and homes that have filled up the West.  Collector’s Weekly has more on the history of this often misunderstood group.