SPLITTING HAIRS

Please, don't call me a bum.


A homeless person who travels great distances looking for work is a hobo. During the Great Depression of the 1920's, there were a great number of hobos in the U.S. Hobos travel by train by free-loading on boxcars. It is a very dangerous thing to do. Hobos consider what they do as honorable and they live by a code of ethics. Author John Steinbeck and musician Woody Guthrie, both hobos at one time, portrayed the lifestyle in books and in song. Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath are books everyone should read. Guthrie wrote and sang the classic This Land is Your Land.


A homeless person who travels not looking for work is a tramp. You may find tramps mixed in with hobos. The hobo will accept handouts and will stop when they find work. The tramp will stop when they find the best handouts.



A bum is a homeless person who neither travels nor looks for work. They sit and wait for the handout to come to them.


So, when you're calling someone a derogatory name, be sure to get it right!