Hobo Communication Symbols

wilkoi

wilkoi

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2012
Messages
717
Reaction score
1,025
Location
Eastern Ma.
A few years back while visiting my son in Memphis we went to the Memphis railroad museum.

The Memphis Railroad & Trolley Museum is located at 545 South Main Street on the ground floor of the Central Station in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. The museum is dedicated to document the local history of Railroad and the Memphis Trolleys.

A small section wall had symbols hobos left for each other as a way to warn or advise other hobos of food, danger ect. Here are a couple images of hobo communication. I hope you can see the images, they are taken from my Google plus photo account. Some say photos from that account do not appear on their screens.

ysNXP8aThHcTrWraXQvCYBGIa3N0oVK2kc13I9bOzsxpIEI_YJwwYb62e_R9cbtzTxz4CG13T3rFX2XUR29Hqjm12JTSH3jOGg3vCfrFxTLti6wJmNqSCslflXWNir2QKEVQZsaMrCb2BDb_a3SU9bNshS_rGwNhKE6T-SeLIrVocj9cxjTA1DXuVIECi4zowjtO6_KUWOKK46ssWWjQHeMyZ24LZTrIbt_3rFXfWSRtKGXiuovogaudlU3zPCPbxEvjIZbB5xdEi2ZjA1Blep8RHMow_nGEYPz86awIdPjMOWTI73ImoXzUvF3ug93uun7z8nywfxaEMesXMU5oZ7lWlZ48YDVxXv9w6UuPhLqJS8pNPFBdqs9lrQRXaRGeWdtkNtHBhPZ3CV5hNHHnihxXMJRDmJY0fc2ZkPrFDbTgYZZcLhXSLbyacVN_7kjF8XAve_99bYOorrDzEsl5RCHVCTBZOc6AsznTONgJ0kswrP6Yc6kQHyWJnKOcsB8eRi7mry5Tx_-0Zhg0x52JhAyUvVoAzSqamhRZ-D1chQQbcqOPTveKdHNc0Y2OIPMxfInRPzR1mau4mLwNiyrMNIAG0kzUbIXjef5ZbmbZ80l0oFViTZ5nig=w1633-h919-no


xJ4QH5Ba80dja3Ov85D9KR3EOTLVurWdMI6nDeEVh9gQJSuK8TxZa7mDTq-_B13mSHMf9pbyfsHPVteD_zqRMCsHJU9Rt1eDTK_ZX21BBY-Bz4lZx9y9DOMsrPvluXppEfrVg-E75XrTXA_B7zWtO-pFIggZVUYg41p1GaHq00ZXUtQFA01LCZnrOICCIo21EKSrYcxZpCSkBDNZo_DlmY2b_rH0wrHAB914IdNSWG3q8RP-ACy3VSSNqhT7229zE5E7r5ZO4zVSfMSe-C5eHYfDnsDUvP6aN2QhrCdt0TfskmV9LQvQI6BJPAMyox9nvXpWdPB7VxdmaN93ShFZHTnEkvRLgjLuyLBy46Poig6zwi6Jk1QlrbVN0NhpRZmmC0GubpfZXhkTsyEtFxO41f69p2LrSh3eK6rOko1zeC3_un2ZhHTPk9wZoMhDWE2NuqCSlJyW0wfxaxEKG9v1JoFnv1gEfwMuFefp13WJzS6eBX4hYsclprERYB0vabRVLKdbh4GRrEwg2KGDgs5b1JRDBb6FJlTjCT50NCgn4Eyr6zdm0bM3j5xHFLwx6hp0PHNF5hAX07tgGnoVa-Bp3h3QP5G3ECZlRl6AnPVZbaqMuCixTcqrVQ=w1633-h919-no
 
Register to hide this ad
wilkoi said:
A few years back while visiting my son in Memphis we went to the Memphis railroad museum.

The Memphis Railroad & Trolley Museum is located at 545 South Main Street on the ground floor of the Central Station in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. The museum is dedicated to document the local history of Railroad and the Memphis Trolleys.

A small section wall had symbols hobos left for each other as a way to warn or advise other hobos of food, danger ect. Here are a couple images of hobo communication. I hope you can see the images, they are taken from my Google plus photo account. Some say photos from that account do not appear on their screens.

ysNXP8aThHcTrWraXQvCYBGIa3N0oVK2kc13I9bOzsxpIEI_YJwwYb62e_R9cbtzTxz4CG13T3rFX2XUR29Hqjm12JTSH3jOGg3vCfrFxTLti6wJmNqSCslflXWNir2QKEVQZsaMrCb2BDb_a3SU9bNshS_rGwNhKE6T-SeLIrVocj9cxjTA1DXuVIECi4zowjtO6_KUWOKK46ssWWjQHeMyZ24LZTrIbt_3rFXfWSRtKGXiuovogaudlU3zPCPbxEvjIZbB5xdEi2ZjA1Blep8RHMow_nGEYPz86awIdPjMOWTI73ImoXzUvF3ug93uun7z8nywfxaEMesXMU5oZ7lWlZ48YDVxXv9w6UuPhLqJS8pNPFBdqs9lrQRXaRGeWdtkNtHBhPZ3CV5hNHHnihxXMJRDmJY0fc2ZkPrFDbTgYZZcLhXSLbyacVN_7kjF8XAve_99bYOorrDzEsl5RCHVCTBZOc6AsznTONgJ0kswrP6Yc6kQHyWJnKOcsB8eRi7mry5Tx_-0Zhg0x52JhAyUvVoAzSqamhRZ-D1chQQbcqOPTveKdHNc0Y2OIPMxfInRPzR1mau4mLwNiyrMNIAG0kzUbIXjef5ZbmbZ80l0oFViTZ5nig=w1633-h919-no


xJ4QH5Ba80dja3Ov85D9KR3EOTLVurWdMI6nDeEVh9gQJSuK8TxZa7mDTq-_B13mSHMf9pbyfsHPVteD_zqRMCsHJU9Rt1eDTK_ZX21BBY-Bz4lZx9y9DOMsrPvluXppEfrVg-E75XrTXA_B7zWtO-pFIggZVUYg41p1GaHq00ZXUtQFA01LCZnrOICCIo21EKSrYcxZpCSkBDNZo_DlmY2b_rH0wrHAB914IdNSWG3q8RP-ACy3VSSNqhT7229zE5E7r5ZO4zVSfMSe-C5eHYfDnsDUvP6aN2QhrCdt0TfskmV9LQvQI6BJPAMyox9nvXpWdPB7VxdmaN93ShFZHTnEkvRLgjLuyLBy46Poig6zwi6Jk1QlrbVN0NhpRZmmC0GubpfZXhkTsyEtFxO41f69p2LrSh3eK6rOko1zeC3_un2ZhHTPk9wZoMhDWE2NuqCSlJyW0wfxaxEKG9v1JoFnv1gEfwMuFefp13WJzS6eBX4hYsclprERYB0vabRVLKdbh4GRrEwg2KGDgs5b1JRDBb6FJlTjCT50NCgn4Eyr6zdm0bM3j5xHFLwx6hp0PHNF5hAX07tgGnoVa-Bp3h3QP5G3ECZlRl6AnPVZbaqMuCixTcqrVQ=w1633-h919-no
Click to expand...

Very clear, easy to look at. Also very interesting, Thanks!:)
 
Interesting!

But some of the symbols are kinda confusingly similar: Don't give up/Hobos arrested on sight; Good road to follow/Worth robbing; Unsafe place/Jail Fyeggs.

"Fyeggs?" "Yegg" meant burglar....

When I lived in Frankfurt as a child, in the 1950s, beggars would go door to door, and if the house gave them some food or similar — as my mother invariably would — they'd leave a mark in chalk on the wall near the entrance.
 
my mother's uncle ran a grain elevator next to the railroad a long time ago and the hobos had it marked as a stop. the wife would give them sandwiches and coffee. I think there was an honor code for them as they were friendly and never caused any trouble.
 
The National Cryptologic Museum, located at Fort Meade, MD has a section on Hobo codes. There is also a model train layout that features different symbols in it at the museum.

(The forum software is a bit particular, won't let me put the scale of the trains as I guess it considers it derogatory :rolleyes:)

National Cryptologic Museum Exhibit Information
 
As a kid on the side of Columbus, Ohio, mom would feed any person that ask. We were the closest house in the neighborhood to the track with anybody home all day. Not that we had anything of value, but houses all around us had problems with stuff missing. There was a camp about 1 1/2 miles south of our home. when my brother and I would cut through we were always greeted and talked to, other neighborhood kids were run off.

My family has always tried to be kind to strangers! We have family stories dating into the 1880's and a little earlier, of some itinerant artists that would stop at great grandpa's farm for a week or two every spring, before heading north for the summer. They would leave small paintings and drawings. Mom became an antiques and art dealer in the 50's on into the 90's. Many of those drawing and some of the paintings got several of our families through hard times.

One saying is: What goes around, comes around.

The Bible says it this way: God is not mocked! Whatsoever a man sows, so shall he reap!

Ivan
 
We could see the rail's from our front porch and I know our house must have been marked. When I was a kid I seen more than a few and my Mom would feed anybody who asked. Heck I think she would of given the devil himself lunch and then scold him!
 
The images don't show for me, but this reminds me of a book in our local library that deciphered many of the Gypsey tree markings used in Pennsylvania during the 18th & 19th centuries...... meaningless to most, but most helpful if you knew the code.
 
Rustyt1953 said:
From "Emperor of the North"
Click to expand...
That movie came to mind as soon as I opened this thread. That scene with the sadistic railroad cop, Ernest Borgnine, and his lead at the end of the rope, bouncing down under the cars, trying to dislodge the stowaway hobo, still gives me the willies decades after seeing that flick!
 
Onomea said:
That movie came to mind as soon as I opened this thread. That scene with the sadistic railroad cop, Ernest Borgnine, and his lead at the end of the rope, bouncing down under the cars, trying to dislodge the stowaway hobo, still gives me the willies decades after seeing that flick!
Click to expand...
I've called that the best fight scene ever. Big Lee and Ernest Borgnine on that flatcar roaring through Big Sur. Hard men. And marlin fishing buddies in real life.
 
the town i was born in, britt, iowa, has a celebration every august for the hobos. there is a lot of folklore and tradition among these people. now, they travel by auto more than rail-i guess borgnine scared 'em off!
 
I am wondering why some can not see the images. Perhaps someone here can capture them and post in a different format as a reply to this post. I am using a windows computer, Firefox 51, and the pictures are JPEG taken from Google plus photo account.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

ddeanjohnson
  • Locked
WITHDRAWN -- Collection reduction: 40 guns (15 S&W + Colts, etc.)
2
Replies
26
Views
10K
ddeanjohnson
ddeanjohnson
ddeanjohnson
  • Locked
WITHDRAWN
2
Replies
22
Views
12K
Truckman
Truckman
walkin jack
Once Upon A Time In California.....
Replies
12
Views
2K
george minze
G
shaggist
Lucas Replacement Smoke Kit
Replies
2
Views
1K
Rustyt1953
Rustyt1953

Latest posts

Back
Top