Hobo's and the Great Depression

In the current economic conditions we are presently in, it seemed appropriate to post this info from American Heritage magazine. It is about those who rode freight trains in the 1930's. Hobo's were the upper crust of the wandering class and were considered an "established underclass". Many famous Americans were part of this culture: Jack London, Upton Sinclair, Zane Grey and John Steinbeck. Many hobo's were skilled workers like lumberjacks. A lower level of this class were Tramps who were most likely thugs or others on the outs with the law. Bums were the lowest level and were likely to be panhandlers. Freight trains gave the hobo a means of traveling around the country; some have estimated there were a million of these homeless on the road during this period. This source notes two books on the subject. Duffy Littlejohn's Hopping Freight Trains in America, and Errol Lincoln Uys' Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the move during the Great Depression. The historian John Toland refers to hobo's as "bindle stiffs", so named because the pack they carried was called a "bindle". Wikipedia notes that George and Lenny from Of Mice and Men were bindle stiffs. There is also a country band called Bindle Stiffs.

(Source: "Flipping The Meat Train" by Dale Wasserman. American Heritage Feb/Mar 2001).