Hoboes

mle@well.sf.ca.us
18 Mar 1993 06:37:26

I've recently read the following three excellent books about
hoboes:

Bruns, Roger A. KNIGHTS OF THE ROAD: A HOBO HISTORY. New York:
Methuen, Inc., 1980.

Bruns, Roger A. THE DAMNDEST RADICAL: THE LIFE AND WORLD OF BEN
REITMAN, CHICAGO'S CELEBRATED SOCIAL REFORMER, HOBO KING,
AND WHOREHOUSE PHYSICIAN. Urbana and Chicago: University of
Illinois Press, 1987.

Reitman, Ben L., Dr. (As Told to). BOXCAR BERTHA: AN
AUTOBIOGRAPHY. New York: Amok Press, 1988. (Afterword by
Roger A. Bruns).

Most interestingly, I learned that hoboing began after the War
Between The States with all the displaced veterans, perhaps
suffering psychic traumas not unlike many of today's Vietnam
veterans, coupled with the westward spread of the railroads at
that time. I learned about General Jacob Coxey, who lead the
1893 March on Washington, known as "Coxey's Army," during the
recession of 1893, the "Millionaire Hobo," James Eads How of St.
Louis, who started the International Brotherhood Welfare
Association (IBWA), their local "Hobo Colleges," and HOBO NEWS,
and about Dr. Ben Reitman's extensive, intimate connection with
Emma Goldman, the "Queen of Anarchy," and the early Pro
Child/Choice movement. Perhaps the most interesting part of
BOXCAR BERTHA was the descriptions of her youth spent on a rural
pacifist commune in the Pacific Northwest and of their anti-war
activities during the First World War. These people were neither
violent anarchists or terrorists, nor fascistic totalitarian
communists. These people are our people and must not be
forgotten; their struggle is our struggle.

>James Eads How's paternal grandfather, John How, was mayor of
>St. Louis several times before the Civil War; his father, James
>F. How, was vice-president and general manager of the Wabash
>railroad; his maternal grandfather, James Buchanan Eads, was the
>builder of the Eads Bridge across the Mississippi River at St.
>Louis. Educated at Harvard, Meadville Theological Seminary, and
>the College of Physicians in St. Louis, How became a licensed
>physician but, much to the chagrin of his family, never a
>practicing one. Instead, rebelling against his patrician
>upbringing, How began to live a spartan life-style. He
>furnished his home with only the barest necessities, wore
>threadbare clothes, and adopted a scanty vegetarian diet.

>At some hobo college rallies, military intelligence agents were
>elbowing FBI men trying to get a look at the infamous
>"Millionaire Hobo." Numerous reports to the central offices in
>Washington traced How's movements around the United States and
>in Europe. Although one agent confused the HOBO NEWS with the
>HEBREW NEWS, the investigators did a thorough job of tracing
>their prey and left a detailed record of How's peregrinations.
>Typical of their reports are the following comments: "I searched
>the Howard House used by said How but found only the regular
>socialist pamphlets. . . . How is shabby and ill-kept, looks
>like he needs a bath, and probably does, wears side whiskers
>slightly and gold rim eye-glasses and has an idiotic grin for
>everybody he meets." The agent's conclusion: "This man I
>consider dangerous."

>The National Archives in Washington, D.C., has extensive
>investigative files on Reitman as well as on Emma Goldman,
>Alexander Berkman, James Eads How, and other radicals. These
>are located in Record Group 65, Records of the Federal Bureau of
>Investigation, and Record Group 165, Records of the War
>Department General and Special Staffs, Records of the Office of
>the Director of Intelligence.

>Roger A. Bruns is Director of Publications for the National
>Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National
>Archives in Washington, D.C.

= = =

See also:

Falk, Candice. LOVE, ANARCHY, AND EMMA GOLDMAN. New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, 1984.

McMurry, Donald. COXEY'S ARMY. Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 1968.

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