Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond LifeFlynt, Josiah
History
Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond Life
Flynt, Josiah
Tramps
Hoboes take most delight in what is called the sack-coat. "Tailed
jackets" are inconvenient, especially when one is riding on the trucks
of a train; the skirts are liable to catch on something and thus delay
matters. It is the inside of a tramp s coat, however, that is most
interesting. It is usually furnished with numerous pockets, one of them
being called the "poke-out pocket," in which he stows away his lunches.
The others are used for brushes, tattooing-tools, combs, white rags,
string, and other little notions that may "come handy" to a traveler.
But in none of the pockets will there ever be found one bit of paper
which might identify the bearer or implicate him in any suspicious work.
He is too "foxy" to ever allow his real name to crop out in any telltale
evidence on his person, except, perhaps, when he may have been foolish
enough to have it tattooed somewhere on his body.
He is proudest of his hat and shoes, and with reason. The former is
usually a soft black felt, but stiff hats are also _à la mode_, and I
have even seen a "stove-pipe" on the road. It was unique, however, and
the owner did a good business with it; his "clients" used to feed him
simply on account of his oddity. The foot-gear consists generally of
laced shoes, but boots have to be accepted now and then. Socks, although
much in vogue, often yield to white-linen rags wound smoothly around
the feet. This is particularly true among the tramps of Germany. They
take long walks, and contend that socks chafe the feet too much. There
is truth in this, and while I lived with them I followed their custom to
the extent of wearing the rags next to my feet and then drawing the
socks over them. And I was very little troubled with sore feet while I
did so; but for the one week when I tried to go without the rags I
suffered considerably.
Overcoats are worn by the hoboes who go South in winter, but tramps who
spend the cold months in jail do not need them, and if they beg any,
usually sell them. Underclothes in some form or other are worn all the
time, not so much for warmth as for cleanliness. Even the cleanest
hoboes cannot keep entirely free of vermin, and they wear underclothes
to protect their outer garments, changing the former as often as they
can, and throwing away or burning the discarded pieces. The tramp's
shirt is always of flannel, if he can find it, and very often he wears
two, either for the sake of trade or to keep warm. Other garments are
doubled also, and one finds men wearing two coats, two vests, and two
pairs of trousers. It is by no means uncommon to see a tramp who wears
linen and cotton shirts with two or three layers on his back. As one
becomes soiled he throws it away, and so on till the three are
discarded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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