Editing Hobo (section)

==History==
[[File:Riding on the rods.jpg|thumb|Two men riding underneath a freight train, 1894]]
While there have been drifters in every society, the term became common only after the broad adoption of railroads provided free, though illegal, travel by [[freighthopping|hopping aboard train cars]] (so-called "[[freighthopping]]"). With the end of the [[American Civil War]] in the 1860s, many discharged veterans returning home began to hop freight trains. Others looking for work on the [[American frontier]] followed the railways west aboard freight trains in the late 19th century.

In 1906, Professor Layal Shafee, after an exhaustive study, put the number of tramps in the United States at about 500,000 (about 0.6% of the US population at the time). His article "What Tramps Cost Nation" was published by ''The New York Telegraph'' in 1911, when he estimated the number had surged to 700,000.<ref>''The New York Telegraph'': "What Tramps Cost Nation", page D2. ''The Washington Post'', June 18, 1911.</ref>

The number of hoboes increased greatly during the [[Great Depression]] era of the 1930s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.virginia.edu/sociology/publications/faculty%20articles/OlickArticles/galeholocaust.pdf |title=Virginia.edu |access-date=May 7, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017095750/http://www.virginia.edu/sociology/publications/faculty%20articles/OlickArticles/galeholocaust.pdf |archive-date=October 17, 2012 }}</ref> With no work and no prospects at home, many decided to try their luck elsewhere by freight train.

Hobo life was dangerous. Itinerant, poor, far from home and support, hoboes also faced the hostility of many train crews and the [[railroad police]], nicknamed "bulls", who often dealt violently with trespassers.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Riding the Rails |last=Mathers, Michael H.|date=1973|publisher=Gambit|isbn=0876450788|location=Boston|page=[https://archive.org/details/ridingrails00math/page/30 30]|oclc=757486|url=https://archive.org/details/ridingrails00math/page/30}}</ref> British poet [[W. H. Davies]], author of ''[[The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp]]'', lost a foot when he fell under the wheels trying to jump aboard a train. It was easy to get trapped between cars, and one could freeze to death in cold weather. When freezer cars were loaded at an ice factory, any hobo inside was likely to be killed.<ref name="Life and Times">{{cite web |url=http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6813169-life-and-times-of-an-american-hobo |title=Life and Times of an American Hobo |publisher=Allvoices |date=September 21, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013144103/http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6813169-life-and-times-of-an-american-hobo |archive-date=October 13, 2012 |access-date=November 1, 2015 }}</ref>

Around the end of [[World War II]], railroads began to move from steam to [[diesel engine|diesel]] locomotives, making jumping freight trains more difficult due to higher speeds and less frequent stops. This, along with postwar prosperity, led to a decline in the number of hoboes. In the 1970s and 1980s hobo numbers were augmented by returning [[Vietnam War]] veterans, many of whom were disillusioned with settled [[american middle class|society]]. Overall, the national economic demand for a mobile surplus labor force has declined over time, leading to fewer hoboes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://people.howstuffworks.com/still-riding-the-rails-life-modern-hobo.htm|title=Still Riding the Rails: Life as a Modern Hobo|date=February 11, 2016|website=HowStuffWorks}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/last-great-american-hobos-180971913/|title=The Last of the Great American Hobos|first1=Jeff|last1=MacGregor|first2=Alyssa|last2=Schukar|website=Smithsonian Magazine|date= May 2019}}</ref>