TRIVIA
Can You Identify These Historic Weapons?
6 Minute Quiz 6 Min
By: Ian Fortey
7 Min Quiz
For as long as we've had towns and space between them we've had journeymen, transients, drifters and hobos traveling from place to place to eke out an existence and see if there are greener pastures somewhere in the distance. The word hobo dates back to the 1890s int he United States, likely in the Northwestern or Western part of the country though it's hard to say for sure. These days the word is used pretty loosely and is, for many people, synonymous with a bum or a homeless person, but all of those words had different meanings once upon a time. For instance, a bum was a term for someone who does no work at all. A hobo, however, is someone who wants to work and travels around to do so. They ride the rails to where opportunity lies and see what new towns have to offer. But it's never just that easy.
Life as a hobo could be rough and full of danger. In order to try to help one another out there arose a kind of hobo alphabet, a series of signs and symbols they could scrawl in easy to see places that would allow others who came through to know what was up. Symbols could let another hobo know if a home would have a spare room in exchange for work, or free food. Others could warn of guard dogs or other dangers. If you think you can translate the hobo symbols of old, take the quiz and show your stuff!
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