DANIEL HORSLEY, “PROFESSOR” AND BOOKDEALER
Daniel Horsley is a bookseller. His establishment, at 1237 West Madison Street, is called the hobo bookstore. The place is known as the “Proletariat” to the men on the “stem.” Here many men who have no other address receive their mail. Says one man, “Where is —— lately, Dan?” “I don’t know, but I suppose he is on his way to Chicago. I have had some mail for him for two weeks.” The men meet their friends at the “Proletariat,” or they leave things there for safekeeping. They all know Mr. Horsley, and he has the good will of all the “bos.”
Horsley has been somewhat of a hobo himself, as the following excerpt will show:
My occupation during the past 14 years has carried me through many grades of labor. First, the coal mining industry was for many years my sole occupation. The miner, having more dangers to confront than most workers, does not last long. The industry claimed two of my brothers. After having received a dose of black damps (foul air), my health was not of the best so I decided the open air would be the most beneficial.
I started with a picture machine to earn my living as I recuperated. I traveled through Nebraska, Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Alberta, Canada. In every small town we would generally come across some of the boys (hobos). Returning from the Northwest I came back East without the machine. I stayed a while in Iowa and then went back to the West. Previous to and during the war I was in the shipbuilding industry. Leaving there I worked for a short while in the woods but decided to come East again. Visiting the eastern seaboard I saw great industries closing down so I finally landed in Chicago.
Dan’s work is selling books and periodicals but he gets his recreation by mounting the soap box occasionally. He is a devout student of Marxian economics, and he likes nothing better than to talk economics to an audience of workers. At the “Hobo College” he is known as “professor,” and he gives lectures there now and then on economics, or his other favorite topic, current history.
The Hobo News has printed a number of his articles on economic subjects. His writing, like his teaching and soap-boxing, is along Marxian lines. He has little patience for anyone who sees things differently. His hobby is education, and the book business gives him a chance to get to the homeless man and all other workers the kind of literature that he thinks will start them thinking.