FOOTNOTES:
[58] H. Kemp, The Cry of Youth, p. 60. By special permission of the publisher, Mitchell Kennerley.
[59] H. H. Knibbs, Songs of the Outlands, p. 50. By permission, and special arrangement with, Houghton, Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers.
[60] H. Kemp, The Cry of Youth, p. 78. By permission of the publisher, Mitchell Kennerley.
[61] Arturo Giovannitti, Arrows in the Gale, p. 40.
[62] From The Spell of the Yukon, p. 15, by Robert W. Service, author of Ballads of a Cheechako, Rhymes of a Red Cross Man, and Ballads of a Bohemian, published by Barse & Hopkins, Newark, N.J.
[63] Hobo News, June, 1917.
CHAPTER XV
THE SOAP BOX AND THE OPEN FORUM
“Killing time” is a problem with the homeless man. The movie and the burlesque are the only forms of commercialized amusements within the range of his purse. Even these are only patronized infrequently and by a few. For the vast majority there is no pastime save the passing show of the crowded thoroughfare. Most of them spend their leisure time shuffling along the street reading the menu cards in the cheap restaurants, or in other forms of “window shopping.” Sometimes they stray out of the “stem” into the Loop. Perhaps they will go to the parks and lie on the grass, or to the lake front where they may sit down and look out on the water.
The homeless man, as he meanders along the street, is looking for something to break the monotony. He will stand on the curb for hours, watching people pass. He notices every conspicuous person and follows with interest, perhaps sometimes with envy, the wavering movements of every passing drunk. If a policeman stops anyone on the street, he also stops and listens in. If he notices a man running into an alley his curiosity is aroused. Wherever he sees a group gathered, he lingers. He will stop to listen if two men are arguing. He will spend hours sitting on the curb talking with a congenial companion.
During the summer, time hangs heavier on the hobo’s hands than in winter. In cold weather, he is usually hard pressed to find food and shelter. If the inclement weather overtakes him without funds and jobless, and this is generally the case, he is absorbed with the problem of “getting by.” He is driven to his wits’ end to find a warm place to sleep at night and a comfortable place to loaf during the day. It often takes a whole day’s scouting to find a place to sleep at night and food enough to appease his gnawing and growling stomach.
There are homeless men who have time on their hands even in winter. They are those who have the rare ability to save enough in summer to live in winter. The parks are no longer inviting. The soap-box orators have either gone out of business or are forced indoors. The hobo follows them and, where he can afford it, helps to support them inside much as he did in the open. He spends more time in the movies and burlesques and will sit for half a day at times watching one show.
Listening to speeches is a popular pastime in Hobohemia. Nothing, unless it is reading, occupies so much of the homeless man’s leisure time.