Editing Hobo (section)

===Hobo signs and graffiti===
[[File:Beggersignsinfrance-sept1921.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|1920s guide to a supposed traditional beggar's code in France<br />1.&nbsp;Poor unwelcome, disagreeable people. 2.&nbsp;Danger. 3.&nbsp;Beware of prison. 4.&nbsp;Nothing doing. 5.&nbsp;Eats. 6.&nbsp;Can get anything by threatening. 7.&nbsp;Do not threaten the people in the house. 8.&nbsp;Take vengeance. 9.&nbsp;Might give in. 10.&nbsp;Look out for the dog. 11.&nbsp;Brutal owner. 12.&nbsp;Money given here. 13.&nbsp;Men and dogs ready to attack. 14.&nbsp;Woman alone with child or servant. 15.&nbsp;Hard luck stories are profitable. 16.&nbsp;Charity given. 17.&nbsp;Insist and they'll give in. 18.&nbsp;Talk religion<ref>https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1921-09-18/ed-1/seq-53/</ref>]]

Almost from the beginning of the existence of hoboes, as early as the 1870s,<ref name=":1" /> it was reported that they communicated with each other by way of a system of cryptic "hobo signs", which would be chalked in prominent or relevant places to clandestinely alert future hoboes about important local information. Many listings of these symbols have been made. A few symbols include:
* A triangle with hands, signifying that the homeowner has a gun.<ref name="university">Moon, Gypsy: "Done and Been", p. 198. Indiana University Press, 1996.</ref>
* A horizontal zigzag signifying a barking dog.<ref name="Moon">Moon, Gypsy: "Done and Been", p. 24. Indiana University Press, 1996.</ref>
* A circle with two parallel arrows meaning "Get out fast," as hoboes are not welcome in the area.<ref name="Moon" />
* A cat signifying that a kind lady lives here.<ref name="Moon" />

Reports of hoboes using these symbols appeared in newspapers and popular books straight through the Depression, and continue to turn up in American popular culture; for example, [[John Hodgman]]'s book ''[[The Areas of My Expertise]]'' features a section on hobo signs listing signs found in newspapers of the day as well as several whimsical ones invented by Hodgman,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hodgman, John.|title=The areas of my expertise : an almanac of complete world knowledge compiled with instructive annotation and arranged in useful order ...|date=2006|publisher=Riverhead|isbn=978-1594482229|edition=Riverhead trade pbk.|location=New York|oclc=70672414|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/areasofmyexperti00hodg}}</ref> and the [[Free Art and Technology Lab]] released a [[QR code|QR]] Hobo Code, with a QR stenciler, in July 2011.<ref>{{cite web
| title = QR Code Stencil Generator and QR Hobo Codes
| work = F.A.T., Free Art and Technology Lab
| access-date = July 18, 2012
| date = July 19, 2011
| url = http://fffff.at/qr-stenciler-and-qr-hobo-codes/
}}</ref> Displays on hobo signs have been exhibited in the [[Steamtown National Historic Site]] at [[Scranton, Pennsylvania]], operated by the [[National Park Service]], and in the [[National Cryptologic Museum]] in [[Annapolis Junction, Maryland]],<ref name="Rothstein">{{cite news|last1=Rothstein|first1=Edward|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/02/arts/design/national-cryptologic-museum-is-the-nsas-public-face.html|title=Security Secrets, Dated but Real|date=August 1, 2014|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=August 2, 2014}}</ref><ref name="NCMLibrary">{{cite web|url=http://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic_heritage/museum/virtual_tour/museum_tour_text.shtml|title=National Cryptological Museum – Virtual Tour|access-date=October 5, 2010}}</ref> and Webster's ''Third New International Dictionary'' supplies a listing of hobo signs under the entry for "hobo".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Webster's third new international dictionary of the English language, unabridged|date=1993|publisher=Merriam-Webster|others=Gove, Philip Babcock|isbn=0877792011|location=Springfield, Mass.|oclc=27936328|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/webstersthirdne001gove}}</ref>

[[File:19-06-376-carter.jpg|thumb|upright|Mailbox at [[Jimmy Carter National Historical Park]]. The symbols on the post were originally drawn by hoboes during the Great Depression.]]
Despite an apparently strong record of authentication, however, there is doubt as to whether hobo signs were ever actually in practical use by hoboes. They may simply have been invented early on by a writer or writers seeking to add to the folklore surrounding hoboes soon after they acquired the name, an invention perpetuated and embellished by others over the years, aided occasionally by amenable hoboes themselves.<ref name=":1" /> Several hoboes during the days that the signs were reportedly most in use asserted that they were in fact a "popular fancy" or "a fabrication".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.historicgraffiti.org/post/hobo-signs-code-of-the-road|title=Hobo Signs: Code of the Road?|last1=Wray|first1=Mike|last2=Wray|first2=Charlie|date=2018|website=Historic Graffiti Society|language=en|access-date=February 25, 2020}}</ref> [[Nels Anderson]], who both hoboed himself and studied hoboes extensively for a [[University of Chicago]] master's thesis,<ref name=":1" /> wrote in 1932,<blockquote>Another merit of the book [Godfrey Irwin's 1931 ''American Tramp and Underworld Slang''] is that the author has not subscribed to the fiction that American tramps have a sign language, as so many professors are wont to believe.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Anderson|first=Nels|date=March 1932|title=American Tramp and Underworld Slang. Godfrey Irwin (book review)|journal=American Journal of Sociology|volume=37|issue=5|pages=842|doi=10.1086/215902}}</ref></blockquote> Though newspapers in the early and peak days of hoboing (1870s through the [[Great Depression|Depression]]) printed photos and drawings of hoboes leaving these signs, these may have been staged in order to add color to the story.

Nonetheless, it is certain that hoboes have used some graffiti to communicate, in the form of '[[Moniker (graffiti)|monikers]]' (sometimes 'monicas'). These generally consisted simply of a road name (moniker), a date, and the direction the hobo was heading then. This would be written in a prominent location where other hoboes would see it. [[Jack London]], in recounting his hobo days, wrote,<blockquote>Water-tanks are tramp directories. Not all in idle wantonness do tramps carve their monicas, dates, and courses. Often and often have I met hoboes earnestly inquiring if I had seen anywhere such and such a "stiff" or his monica. And more than once I have been able to give the monica of recent date, the water-tank, and the direction in which he was then bound. And promptly the hobo to whom I gave the information lit out after his pal. I have met hoboes who, in trying to catch a pal, had pursued clear across the continent and back again, and were still going.<ref>{{Cite book|last=London|first=Jack|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14658/14658-h/14658-h.htm|title=The Road|publisher=Project Gutenberg|year=2005|orig-year=1907}}</ref></blockquote>The use of monikers persists to this day, although since the rise of cell phones a moniker is more often used simply to "tag" a train car or location. Some moniker writers have tagged train cars extensively; one who tagged under the name Bozo Texino during the 1970s and ’80s estimated that in one year ("where I went overboard") he marked over 30,000 train cars.<ref name=":2">Daniel, Bill. ''Who Is Bozo Texino?'' (documentary). Self-published: billdaniel.net, 2005.</ref> However, not all moniker writers (or "boxcar artists") are hoboes; Bozo Texino in fact worked for the railroad, though others such as "A No. 1" and "Palm Tree Herby" rode trains as tramps or hoboes.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historicgraffiti.org/post/moniker-mark-of-the-tramp|title=Moniker: Mark of the Tramp|last1=Wray|first1=Mike|last2=Wray|first2=Charlie|date=2018|website=Historic Graffiti Society|language=en|access-date=February 25, 2020}}</ref>