University of Oregon monthly., April 01, 1908, Image 4

X IN IV E R S E T V O E O R E G O N
M O N T H L Y
vop. x i ,
APRir/i&OS'/-'
NO.-t
Origin of the Hobo
Hobos, like the. poor,-we have, with us alway. , .j\t th is, season
of the. year, not a dusty '.country road,, is without them. Basking
in the sunlight on the parb benches of our, cities or hidden away
snug and out of the way on our wEarfs, they spend long days in
sleep and idleness: They really constitute an ever present ever
threatening-1 problem, social as well as pconotpic. „ It is. said that
in this country, before the Civil War, they lyere-practically unknown.
¿Now there- are over a- million of- them. Where; ,in theNiyorld did
they ~alb come from? “Wanderlust”, as the ,Germans 'call it, or the
call of the road, is responsible for a large partin the making of them.
Every, individual feels it. The business man’s, jaunt to the
sea-shore ,or our short week cud. at the inn in the iiio,untairis sat­
isfies this longing in u s / The hobo has not the means to gratify
his-desire in a conventional way, so, being resourceful, he shoulders
his bundle and takes to the foad. This feeling is',common to all
peoples and classes in every age./
-'.W ere not the crusaders and the pilgrims of-the early centuries
affected by'it?-,bit was not altogether the religious fervor that first;,
started them on their journeys, but the lure of long roads with their
many turns which led through farm lands, over the hills and through
densely shaded - forests. The thought of distant lands with their
strange customs, folkways and dwellings led them on—that restless,
unsalable desire to be off, seeing new things and feeling new ex­
periences,
•N.