From Wikipedia: “Tramps and hobos are commonly lumped together, but in their own sight they are sharply differentiated. A hobo or bo is simply a migratory laborer; he may take some longish holidays, but soon or late he returns to work. A tramp never works if it can be avoided; he simply travels. Lower than either is the bum, who neither works nor travels, save when impelled to motion by the police.”
If I recall correctly, Anderson grew up in poverty and personally experience life as a seasonal casual laborer and ranch hand; he was taken under the wing of a kind farm family in Utah who encouraged him to complete his secondary education.
Tramp: traveling bum. (Usually alcoholic/malingering former hobo.)
Bum: sedentary (former) tramp.
The term street people seems applicable to Anderson’s categories of bum and tramp.
There is a large marginal economy associated with the up to 60,000 men Anderson describes as populating Chicago over winter.
I'm old enough to remember "hoboes."
From Wikipedia: “Tramps and hobos are commonly lumped together, but in their own sight they are sharply differentiated. A hobo or bo is simply a migratory laborer; he may take some longish holidays, but soon or late he returns to work. A tramp never works if it can be avoided; he simply travels. Lower than either is the bum, who neither works nor travels, save when impelled to motion by the police.”
It’s a dynamic spiral.
The locus classicus is “Hobo: Sociology of the Homeless Man” Nels Anderson doctoral thesis, U Chicago Press, 1923.
No longer copyrighted. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/67300/67300-h/67300-h.htm
If I recall correctly, Anderson grew up in poverty and personally experience life as a seasonal casual laborer and ranch hand; he was taken under the wing of a kind farm family in Utah who encouraged him to complete his secondary education.
Tramp: traveling bum. (Usually alcoholic/malingering former hobo.)
Bum: sedentary (former) tramp.
The term street people seems applicable to Anderson’s categories of bum and tramp.
There is a large marginal economy associated with the up to 60,000 men Anderson describes as populating Chicago over winter.
I’ll bet there was a lot less mental illness in 1923.