Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 161, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1920 — HOBOES STRIKE TRAIL FOR WEST [ARTICLE]

HOBOES STRIKE TRAIL FOR WEST

New York, July s.—The city is the hobo’s mecca in the winter. Along about the time of lovers* fancy and house cleaning and robins he seeks the trail of the rail and ties- Somewhere the wanderlust will lead him but it must not be far from the desires of the hobian epicure. It matters not to the knight of the road what he wears on his beck, his stomach must be full. Wheat harvest is swinging along out in the middle west There the hoboes, who nest themselves in the east during the winter begin their summer vacation. As the yellow rain ripens with the season, moving gradually northward, the vaabond rovers move with it. • And the day has changed for the lowly disciples of the open road! There was a day when the hoboes who joined j n an exodus from New Yor k and other large cities for the summer had to work occasionally for their fare. The fanner of the west was not begging for a hand in the hay field or at the threshing machine. He was not pleading, threatening, feeding, nor down on his kpees to any man. But Paradise Regained! The hobo westward band now finds open arms for him, meals ready and steaming, anything his heart desires if he will but go to the field and work. Short handed, with the golden millions unharvested the tenner is to become a slave of his master, 4;he hired man, will help him reap the product of his year’s work. The hobo, which .made up the former ranks of the migratory labor and was the principal support in harvest time for the grain fanner and fruit grower, is greatly thinned in ranks. Times are too prosperous \ and there are too many steady jobs. The hobo clan now consists of college boys out for the summer, land girls, farmers whose crops have faHed at home, and the old time hobo goes because he likes traveling.