The (mostly) true story of hobo graffiti
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- Опубликовано: 15 июл 2018
- What we know about hobo graffiti comes from hobos - a group that took pride in embellishing stories.
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Hobos, or tramps, were itinerant workers and wanderers who illegally hopped freight cars on the newly expanding railroad in the United States in the late 19th century. They used graffiti, also known as tramp writing, as a messaging system to tell their fellow travelers where they were and where they were going. Hobos would carve or draw their road persona, or moniker, on stationary objects near railroad tracks, like water towers and bridges.
But news stories at the time spread tales of a different kind of graffiti. They included coded symbols that were supposedly drawn on fence posts and houses to convey simple messages to tramps. Seeing an image of a cat on a fence post indicated “kind lady lives here,” for example. While this language probably existed to a certain extent, it certainly was not as widespread as the media led readers to believe. In reality, these stories were largely informed by hobos - a group that took pride in embellishing stories so they could remain elusive.
![Pack Like a Hobo! [ 1930s Minimalist Travel Tips! ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Bq-Ym8qq7AE/mqdefault.jpg)
![Pack Like a Hobo! [ 1930s Minimalist Travel Tips! ]](/img/tr.png)
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The one rule of the Hobo code is that you do not talk about the Hobo code
What code? Your comment is clearly just random words...
David the fight club reference
Second rule is YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE HOBO CODE
the dudes not a hobo
You might see it as a reference. Others might see it as a crude fusion of the content of the video and the movie fight club. A completely unoriginal joke.
My great-grandmother's house was definitely marked. She would make biscuits and gravy for any hobo or drifter that knocked on her door but she never advertised that so her house had to be marked.
William Fisher That was so sweet of her
Thats super cool!
or the hobos talked to each other?
pics or itz not trve!
show us some eazy-bake selfies!
My mother tells me my great-grandmother used to feed hobos as well. According to her it was because my great-grandfather had to ride the rails for a time after he got back from WWI. My mom was a child at the time and she asked one of them how they knew to come to their house for food. He specifically told her there were markings down by the tracks saying food was available at their house.
I saw some graffiti in a city in Socal with the USB and Wifi symbol. Started looking for a hotspot.
And, did it work? :D
update?
Go on....
History repeats itself
Teach me your ways head hobo!
Hobos and Hobo culture still excist even today. Back in the 90s I even hopped a few freight trains with some.
Where Did You go ?
I've looked into it, it's almost a dead art. Union Pacific now has X Ray scanners, heat sensors, and so many bulls in the railyard it's almost a death sentence
What was train hopping like? I know people that want to do it.
@@brittneybrisbin744 Search for people doing it on youtube
@@user-cp3tv1lp2g no it's not bulls can't legally touch you now if they do there liable we are still here and as for the scaners we already beat them
half an hour from my house there is graffiti that says
" I found a bottle of spray paint"
I wonder what it means
Half an hour......?
@@shmik17 means some kid doesn't know the difference between a bottle and a can...
@@kevinm.p9989 some people measure distance by how long it takes to get there by various modes of transportation, usually by car.
@Colorado Strong thanks for noticing, I fixed it
*"Thieves guild shadowmarks explained"*
ah was looking for this comment
The Senate beat me to it
Omg
Nice
was searching for this comment
I thought the title said hobo giraffe, I’m disappointed
my kind of people
Great idea for a children's book
I read the title correct and was satisfied that the accompanying video was both engaging and relevant with regard to said title...
But after reading this comment I am now also disappointed and saddened by the lack of a hobo giraffe.
on this video i got TWO ads for the skittles giraffe so apparently the bots thought so too
"..woah..
You got her too."
Incidentally, I now _also_ have a better understanding of the intention of the title, *"Lady and the Tramp"* than I did before watching this video.
Pierce Arner ikr
Me too
"Peak Hobodom"... I like that term
"Peak Homodom"
goals
So if femdom is wanting to be dominated by a female. Wisdom is wanting to be dominated by a wizard so hobodom.....
I think you should have a least mentioned other forms of Hobo art, like one of my favorites, Hobo nickles. It's basically a nickel or other coin that's been carved to have a new image, often depicting a hobo or a hobo scene.
Maybe because it's illegal? I guess this is also though
Sarah Evan, 🤨🤔I was interested in cutting the backgrounds from coins so I called the U.S. Treasury direct and was told "As long as the money was rendered unspendable it would not be an offense by law" ‼ Yup❗😃 G-G.
Those markings were real. My father told me about how his brothers rode trains across the country after WW1. And they had a system of signals along with the use of rocks and sticks to pass information.
that cool
I guess we all want to be remembered
This is a wholesome comment, short but true.
Ah, The Hobo Code. One of my favorite episodes of Mad Men.
Marc Shanahan is it a good show?
Angel Gutierrez It's a very slow and methodical show. You have to stick with it for some time to see the threads of psychological dilemma that are brilliantly woven into the characters. I like it a lot, but I wouldn't call it a binge-show like Breaking Bad or Mr. Robot. It's closer to something like The Wire in terms of pacing.
Angel Gutierrez in short yes, it is a very good show
Marc Shanahan perfect description.
Marc Shanahan I don't know what you mean. I binged it... like a lot! Every episode is a step forward or backwards to the characters, but seen togheter you can really see what they've been dealing with this season and everything togheter shows a larger picture of an evolution.
This is one of my most favourite channel, you get to learn so much stuff you will never need in your life and yet still wont feel like you are wasting your time watching their videos instead of studying or working. And they are great at explaining complicated things in a simple way, especially visualy
Ok Bot
If you want to hear more about this lifestyle, I highly recommend “You Can’t Win” by a drifter/cat-burglar named Jack Black who died in the 1930’s. It’s a book that I regularly give as a gift to people. Also, they called their personalized symbol a “Moniger”; not Moniker. That’s one thing I learned from the book.
One of my favorite books!
the hoboes are smarter than the guys who can use the typewriter
Sorry Vox for being too perfectionist, in the minute 0:16 you show the photo of a Rock, that Rock is called "La Piedra Movediza" or "The Moving Stone" it's In Tandil, not in Buenos Aires, I just say it because I live there and I'm HYPED!
...Tandil is in Buenos Aires tho
Yes, it is located in the province of Bs.As, but is in the city of Tandil, it is just a little thing that ticked me since I feel a connection with that place.
Someone at vox surfs reddit
True :')
I wouldn't be surprised if most of them do. It's a popular website, and useful for ideas.
they kinda have to..
Which subreddit would that be in particular?
Benoit Travers last weekish (can't remember exactly when though) in r/RBI they were investigating some graffiti outside a flat that was recently robbed and this topic came up
0:27 You can’t call this a Tag this is a throw up or piece (however you define Pieces)
kilRoy was here
I was here to, buddy
.
Fascinating! Thank you for posting this!!
Awesome Video Vox Team.
Always great coverage vox
Did the hobo graffiti inspire the house markings for thiefs for Skyrim?
Like a Hobo I was born, to walk alone ...
Going down the only road I've ever known!
:D :D
MickeyKnox, when u walk, through a storm, keep your head up high. Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone
on the lonely road of the boulevard of broken dream
MickeyKnox very cool, Mickey. 🤘🏽
I discovered Hobo Sign just under 1 year ago and have been studying it every chance I get! Great summary!
2:02
Hobo: draws duck
Also hobo: this means free telephone
messenger dove?
I would've thought "here lives a bad doctor"...
OMG I've seen these hobo signs when I played "Secret of the Old Clock" from Nancy Drew. I've always wondered what this was used for!
Great article. Thank you Vox.
Now I want to play Jet Set Radio Future.
I really enjoyed this fascinating documentary. I remembered this from MAD MEN. More, please.
I remember this from an episode of Mad Men.
I went to the national cryptology museum and they had a brief description of this. This is interesting and more detailed.
you should buy the full movie "who is bozo texino" its excellent.. i have a wife and kid, but it makes me just want to ride the rails. sure its a lot tougher these days though
This is awesome, and Bill is so well spoken.
Love the quality and feel!
*I was here*
Just awesome. Thanks again Vox.
This is soooo cool! I really want to see those books
As a Graff writer this bit of history was wonderful information I appreciate it
The Massillon Museum (aka MassMu) in Massillon Ohio did a comprehensive exhibit of hobo tagging called "Moniker" last year. They tracked down a lot of the actual taggers or their families and had samples of their tags made by the artists and placed in the archives of the museum
Us hobos are still here we still use the old codes .
The Texas roadrunner /hobo roadrunner
That’s interesting to know. Do you guys use the same symbols that they used in the early 1900s?
Hitchhiking in southern Texas in 1980 I saw the tag at @5:08 top right page sombrero siesta man with palm. It was undated and signed "H.B." and the palm was shorter and the man larger and overall more square than tall it was chalked over and over again on every car of a sided train . It went on for about 80 cars always on the same place on every car. I was still seeing those on passing trains in the Midwest 11 years later.
Herby!
This reminds me of that early episode of 'Mad Men' where we see a young Don encounter a hobo played by Paul Schulze.
The good old drifter days, great vid!
Okay, somebody has to make a hobo app now.
Hey Vox, could you guys do a video on the standard of living across multiple states and the cost of fast food respectively video?
Rail workers also would just write information right on the old boxcars, you still see it from time to time.
This intrigues me. I remember this from mad men and don drapers childhood.
There's a fun comic by the name of Rock Candy Mountain that revolves around the noble hobos in the late 19th century to early twentieth.
Pip IV Big Rock Candy Mountain is a song also.
Pip IV commented for future ref! also where is your profile pic from?
Listen to train hop story rag by black death Allstars
So... essentially Dark Soul's Soul Signs?
"BEWARE, HUGE CHEST AHEAD"
Some person: Graffiti has NO thought to it!
Me:
that was the perfect way to end it and why I love painting or marking cutty spots "woah you got here too"
When Vox starts making Tom Scott videos
Not complaining... cool little lessons
Interesting, might change up some of my graffiti with some hobo symbols now.
1 UP what u write
I want to tag now
Under the Silver Lake brought me here. Love that film!
I remember an old comic book that had this as a plot. The protagonist (think he might have been an antropomorphic pigeon) saw a hobo leave a mark on the gatepost to his girlfriend's house. He got angry that his girlfriend was putting herself in danger by inviting strangers over for food, so he decided to "teach her a lesson" by dressing up and attacking her. But her shouts for help were heard by the first hobo who got there and knocked him down for hassling the nice lady. It was the only comic I ever read with that specific character so I still don't know if we were meant to sympathize with him or not.
My favorite band Circa Survive uses the hobo code for "safe camp" as their logo. It was the first time I ever came across hobo graffiti/language. Coming from The Bronx and seeing the parallels between the graffiti I grew up seeing and they origins or hobo communications is really cool . Thanks for sharing and I'll go by "Bronx Kidd Jessy" now I guess lol
I think the name comes first then the signifier/moniker?
ahhh, I figured I might've gotten that wrong lol. My name also got auto corrected but good to know thx
Jessy Montoya it's cool that you have already come up with your hobo name, I'm still thinking about mine.
Holy smokes, what is that drum break at the beggining? Need it so much
7 seconds in the location is at Gladstone and Queen, Toronto. For as U.S. centric I was surprised to see this show up in the stock footage. The shot even manages to capture the UP Express train.
How could a code like that be centralized? I can't see how. Can you?
Word of mouth? I realize this was in the time before cell phones, back when people did stuff, but I hear that's how people passed information back then.
Aim duh
The simple answer that it wasn't. It was distributed, from hobo to hobo. Hobos probably met each other a lot, especially on trains. So they taught each other.
Was it standardized? Probably not and probably the opposite.
There’s examples of this is swedish culture, for example “Rasmus på luffen” they mark the house’s fence with a sign that means the house is either nice or not
Great video
Liked seeing my Home Town of North Adams,Massachusetts getting into the mix
The idea of "leaking" misleading information to the outside reminds me of some Romani (Gypsy) stuff that's allegedly the same. Ideas of grand gatherings to elect "Gypsy Kings" for example are probably largely made up to spur the mystery and fascination of outsiders.
Idk. every gypsie family here in northern countries have a king and a queen. ive had a few gypsy associates and heard a bit about their culture.
Too cool. Nice to see Bill is doing good.
Cool story bro. I mean that genuinely, and you managed it in an appropriate amount of time.
What is fascinating about this sort of thing is that you can still find similar ideas online. For instance, on the minecraft server 2b2t, it is common place for people to leave signs with their name and the date.
As a fellow graffiti artist I was always intrigued by the hobo oil marker drawings next to the pieces I would paint on box cars
this is one reason i love graffiti, it isnt hurting anyone. even the freight workers did it
If they published books with the meaning of the symbols, wouldn't that help the police catch them ? Just wondering. . .
Sona maybe they made it up or stayed the opposite meanings/ different meanings to confuse them. Furthermore, if people began drawing ‘ no good ‘ signs from what they’d seen in the paper, it might’ve given them the illusion that hobos would just supposedly not be in those places
Sona nope
in the video they say this lore about hobo codes was probably flourished (maybe even completely fabricated?) but even regardless of that if you're living on the street you still probably have a lot of know how about stealthiness and being in hiding. a symbol that lets you know that theres resources doesn't mean you're just going to flock to it and chill there, or you'd risk exposing it
Any traveler can tell you it definitely isnt made up. Almost certainly embellished, but even briefly travelling ive seen symbols and im glad I followed them. Some have evolved to be more clear to anyone, like an arrow with an X and a police hat - unfriendly police. X over waves was beside a weir and on an old dirty well in the middle of nowhere screamed DONT DRINK/SWIM. With hobo culture barely existing anymore and even travelling culture being rare, the symbols are much less rare, but follow a train line for a while and youll see some. Look outside train yard out of town, youll almost always see an unfriendly bull symbol of some kind. Bull horns under an X outside of a train yard tells me "Bad bull here" which means don't hop from here. IDK if it was an old unwashed symbol or what but I found a barn omw back to town with a fairly large symbol (like no way the owners never saw it big) pointing towards the hayloft being okay to sleep in. Was never bothered, didnt see anyone and went on my way the next morning, so idk if that was an intentional thing left there because they were just past the last yard before reaching town and not far from the tracks. IDK how much of the older symbols are used though, because we have more than chalk now and less hobos to communicate with, thres gonna be less symbols and they are going to change over time.
being a hobo wasnt seen as something so illegal back then it was just the way of life back then
Hieroglyphics:
As deeply embedded as our nature itself. And still useful.
Mad men made this code seem so important.
best video vox ever created
0:14 That's the "piedra movediza" in the city of Tandil (province of Buenos Aires) not Buenos Aires city.
My great grandma used to feed and house hobos who was looking for work in my city long ago. She was just being a good Christian, helping others in need. 😊
Hey vox the photo of Argentina at the start isn't from Buenos Aires,it is located in Tandil
As a Hobo...thanks for this. 🤨
Bought Bill Daniel's book off a guy operating a street stand in Chicago who said it was his favorite book. For the past year I've been watching the freight roll out while I wait for my trains, looking to see if Bozo or Herby made it on one.
May someone please can link me the 2nd music track? Can't find it anywhere!
2:34 there's a business in my hometown called Wilson Trailer Company whose logo looks exactly like logo 21 but with a C at the bottom. i wonder if that's on purpose
I remember a reference to this in Mad Men
My grandfather was a hobo in the early 1900s.
When I was really little, I thought all graffiti was done by hobos to communicate with one another. So it's cool to know that it was indeed a thing.
Hello Vox!
Okay, that was incredibly entertaining.
That title is funny because all of there content is JUST mostly true😂
-Hobo? What's hobo?
-This one.
R I P Stobers..❤✌
“A dishonest man lives here.”
Orange man with small hands
4:58. 5:07 I worked for Santa Fe and lived in a Pullman coach in the yards. He'd show up every so often and we'd have dinner and coffee.
How cute that the "kind ladie lives here" is a litte cat :')
Best graff doc ever these guys went all city
I remember this from Mad Men!!!
I actually knew a “retired hobo” at some point during his hobo career he decided to get a job! There was a standardize type of symbols/writing. But it tended to be known within groups that knew each other from job site to job site and eventually they would go their separate ways but they would have their own symbols/writing. And if they should see in their travels assemble and they knew it it be the equivalent of seeing someone you know on the street.
At least Hobos in the 19th century had formal clothes but now, their clothes are expensive.
Johnny Clarkson ikr. They get the new yeezy lineup for free ):
*POLITICALLY ENRAGED COMMENT*
Sup Justin.
You are legit omnipresent! I see you everywhere
Justin Y. How did you fund your life? Using ur parents money?
REEEEEE
Justin Y.
Sup Justin
@Vox: Another group uses symbols to communicate: prisioners. An English police officer fed a database and noticed the pattern (if I'm not mistaken). A clown for killing, a Tasmanian devil for drug deliverer etc.
How many times did he say "kind of" in that interview?
Utah Phillips talks about hobo slang and hobo writing in some of his stories. Also did a pretty good rendition of Hallelujah I'm a Bum, written by the same guy that wrote Big Rock Candy Mountain.
"My God! that"s M**se T**d Pie! It's good though."