Hobos (a word that is thought to derive from the term hoe-boy, describing a farm hand) were Depression-era itinerant workers who illegally hopped freight trains and journeyed across the United States, taking odd jobs wherever they could find them. By the early 1900s, it is said that there were more than 500,000 hobos in the US.
The “hobo code” is a system of symbols purportedly used by hobos to communicate information about resources and conditions at locations along their routes. The pictographic symbols were often scratched or painted on buildings or other structures in locations where hobos were known to congregate. The code was devised as an easy-to-understand, universal hobo language that helped fellow hobos keep one another safe. Nice.
The pictographic code contains several elements that appear in more than one symbol. Other symbols are less abstract and easier to decipher, e.g. a cross means that there is a church in the vicinity and the possibility of scoring a free meal and perhaps shelter for the night.
The story goes that hobos tagged tree trunks or scrawled impermanent coded messages in chalk, charcoal or grease pencil in boxcars, under bridges, on water tower bases, walls, fences and other surfaces in or near railroad yards where other hobos were likely to pass by.
The lore of the hobo code seems to have originated with Leon Ray Livingston, better known as A-No.1, America’s self-proclaimed “most famous tramp who traveled 500,000 miles [804,672 kilometres] for $7.61”. Livingston expounded the use of the hobo code to a variety of newspapers as he travelled throughout the country and published the code in his 1911 book entitled Hobo Campfire Tales.
While there may be little evidence to prove that the hobo code was actually widely used and not just a media concoction, we do know for certain that hobos left their marks. But instead of code, they were generally monikers: markings with the hobo’s nickname, the date and an indication of direction of travel – a precursor to modern day tagging by street artists.
The TV series Mad Men helped spark viewer curiosity about the reality of this practice. In a 2007 episode titled The Hobo Code, the series protagonist recalls an experience from his childhood in which a hobo explained a few key symbols.
Recent interest in hobo codes has inspired some people to reimagine this communication system for the digital era. A group called Free Art & Technology Lab, for example, launched a stencil-based “QR Hobo Code” project in 2011. “These stencils can be understood as a covert markup scheme for urban spaces,” explain the creators, “providing directions, information, and warnings to digital nomads and other indigenterati. We present these as modern equivalents of the chalk-based ‘hobo signs’ developed by 19th-century vagabonds and migratory workers to cope with the difficulty of nomadic life.”
But the QR Hobo Code stencils inventory went beyond the conventional “dangerous dog” type messages to ones that are specific to contemporary conditions: “free wifi”, “hidden cameras”, “vegans beware” or (our favourites) “unexpectedly good coffee” and “owner gives to GOP”.
Story Idea: Tom Fenley
REMORANDOM Book Chapter
Fascinating stuff!!