Nearly if not quite one-half of the homeless men in Hobohemia are stationary casual laborers. These men, contemptuously termed “home guards” by the hobo and the tramp, work regularly or irregularly at unskilled work, day labor, and odd jobs. They live or at least spend their leisure time on the “main stem,” but seldom come to the attention of the charities or the police, or ask alms on the street. Many of them have lived in Chicago for years. Others after a migratory career as hobos or tramps “settle down” to a stationary existence. This group includes remittance men, often the “black sheep” of families of standing in far-off communities who send them a small regular allowance to remain away from home.
47. L. E. was born on the West Side and at present his family lives in Logan Square. He is twenty-three years old and has been away from home a year. He claims that after his mother’s death he and his father could not agree. He immediately found his way to West Madison Street where he has lived since. During the winter (1921-22) he was converted in the Bible Rescue Mission but later he got drunk and would not try again. However, he used to visit the mission after that when he had no bed and was hungry. He is a teamster and works regularly though he saves no money. He has no decent clothing and cares for none. He cares only to spend his Sundays and leisure time on West Madison Street, where he has a few acquaintances. He usually returns to work Monday morning after such visits, sick from the moonshine whisky. His health is not good. Most of his teeth are decayed but he will not save money to get dental work done. If he has any money to spend aside from that wanted for booze he goes to the movies and loafs the time away. He also attends the Haymarket or the Star and Garter theaters. He left his job two or three times during the summer. While he was not working he slept in stables. He doesn’t go home nor communicate with his people.
The tendency for the casual worker to sink to the level of the bum is illustrated by the case of “Shorty”:
48. “Shorty” claims that he has lived in the Hobohemian areas on South State and West Madison streets for thirty-nine years. He has never lived anywhere else. He doesn’t care to go anywhere else. He tried married life a while but failed because of drink and returned to the “street.” Drink is still getting him into trouble. He has dropped down the economic scale from an occasional worker to the status of a bum. This summer (1922) he has been arrested several times, and he has served two terms at the House of Correction. All the arrests were for drunkenness and disorder. He is developing into a professional panhandler or beggar. During the summer he has had two or three jobs. Once he was at the stockyards where he claims to have worked steadily in the early days. Being well known on the “streets” he is able to get odd jobs now and then that give him money enough to “get by.” He has not been divorced from his wife. She won’t live with him and he does not care. He has a child twelve or thirteen years old but he has not seen her for several years. He does not know where she is. He is not interested. He spends his leisure time on Madison Street near Desplaines where he may be found almost every day standing on the corner or sitting on the curb talking to some other “bo.”
THE BUM
In every city there are ne’er-do-wells—men who are wholly or partially dependent and frequently delinquent as well. The most hopeless and the most helpless of all the homeless men is the bum, including in this type the inveterate drunkard and drug addicts. Old, helpless, and unemployable, these are the most pitiable and the most repulsive types of the down-and-outs. From this class are recruited the so-called “mission stiffs” who are so unpopular among the Hobohemian population.
49. L. D., forty-five years old, is a typical so-called “mission bum.” He has not been known to work for eight months. During winter he is always present in some mission. Once he permitted himself to be led forward and knelt in prayer but was put out of the same mission later for being drunk. He claims that he was a prize fighter in his youth. He has traveled a great deal but he has always been a drinking man. When he is sober he is morose and quiet. As soon as spring permitted him to sleep out he ceased to visit the missions.
He has spent most of the summer on the docks along the river where he sleeps nights and where he has been getting work now and then unloading the fruit boats that ply between Chicago and Michigan. During the eight months he has been observed he has bought no new clothes. Not once during the summer has he left the city. He says that he has been in town for three years. The future seems to mean nothing to him. He does not worry about the coming winter.
50. A. B. is an habitual drunkard. He migrates a great deal but it seems that his migrations are to escape tedium and monotony rather than to work. He is a little, hollow-chested, undersized man and he claims to be thirty-two. He says that his health has not been good. He has a work history, it seems, but it is a record of light jobs. He picked berries, washed dishes, peddled, but he was also a successful beggar. His success in begging seems to lie in the ability to look pitiful. He has been in but four or five states of the Middle West but has been in most of the large cities. He does not patronize the missions because he says he can do better begging.