The distinctions between the seasonal worker, the hobo, and the tramp, while important, are not hard and fast. The seasonal worker may descend into the ranks of the hobos, and a hobo may sink to the level of the tramp. But the knowledge of this tendency to pass from one migratory group to another is significant for any program that attempts to deal with the homeless man. Significant, also, but not sufficiently recognized, is the difference between these migratory types and the stationary types of homeless men, the “home guard” and the “bum.”
FOOTNOTES:
[25] One Thousand Homeless Men, p. 209.
[26] Dearborn Independent, March 18, 1922.
[27] The seasonal worker may be regarded also as the upper-class hobo.
[28] The first three types of homeless men are described in this chapter; the last two types are considered in chapter vii.
CHAPTER VII
THE HOME GUARD AND THE BUM
The seasonal worker, the hobo, and the tramp are migratory types; the home guard and the bum are relatively stationary. The home guard, like the hobo, is a casual laborer, but he works, often only by the day, now at one and again at another of the multitude of unskilled jobs in the city. The bum, like the tramp, is unwilling to work and lives by begging and petty thieving.