The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless ManAnderson, Nels
General
The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man
Anderson, Nels
Chicago (Ill.) -- Social conditions; Tramps
No desire to vote and no legal residence 28
Having legal residence but no desire to vote 54
No legal residence but desire to vote 129
Under twenty-one 88
Aliens 38*
In military service 9
Disfranchised 2
Not known 4
---
Total 352
* Sixty-one foreign-born in 400; 23 naturalized.
There were 28 men both ineligible to vote and indifferent to the
ballot. The group of 54 who had no desire to vote included men
who were at home, or near their legal residence, and could have
voted had they been interested. The two listed as disfranchised
were both men who had been dishonorably discharged from the navy.
Both were under twenty-one and had enlisted under the pressure of
wartime enthusiasm. One of these was not interested in voting and
the other said that the vote was a joke anyway.
THE HOMELESS MAN AND THE LAW
The migratory worker is not saddled with responsibility for law and
order. As he makes his way about the country, he is unincumbered.
He has nothing to lose and nothing to protect but his person,
and that he protects best by constantly moving. The homeless man
has no interest in common with the settled man of the community
who has attachments and property, and at whose expense he often
lives. The migratory worker, for a time, may be physically a part
of a community, but he actually does not become absorbed into its
social life. The wanderer who fails to win a place in the life of a
community often takes his own course. This course is sometimes in
harmony with the interests of the community, but more often counter
to them, and he fails under the surveillance of the law.
To the tramp and the hobo the police are the guardian angels
of organized society, created to protect the community against
criminals and migrants. To him there are two varieties of
police--civil and private. The uniformed upholder of the law,
the civil police, is given the uncomplimentary epithet, “harness
bull.” The plain-clothes men are called “dicks,” “fly cops,” and
“stool pigeons.” The private police who protect the property of the
railroad are held in even lower contempt.
THE PRIVATE POLICE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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