A GUIDE TO HOBO SIGNS & THEIR MEANINGS

The San Perdido Trading Co is proud to offer "The Hobo Talisman Necklace" - designed to bring Good Drink (bottle opener), Good Food (boar's tooth), and Good Luck (hand-made hobo nickel) when living on the road or traveling abroad.  We created this necklace to celebrate the hundreds of thousands of traveling workers of the 18th and 19th centuries, their way of life, and their resilience. 

By the late 1800s, if one were to use the word "Hobo," it would not refer to someone who is merely homeless, nor someone who is a beggar, a tramp, nor a drunk.  To be a Hobo was a necessary way of life for over half a million Americans by the turn of the 20th Century; to be a Hobo was to be a traveling worker - hopping train cars from town to town, in search of labor to merely survive.  Hobos had their own complex culture, their own formal code and laws, their own special terms an dialect, and even their own secret writing system.    

As a hobo would arrive (by train) to a new town, the first step would be to check the water tower at the train station: this functioned as a "registry book" for hobos.  If one were not literate, this didn't matter: Hobo writing can be read almost naturally, and often Hobos signed their name with a personal "glyph" (a picture) rather than a written name. And often on the water tower, and elsewhere in town, Hobos would leave "glyphs" (one of their terms for their secret writing system) about the nature of the town and its people.  Below is our handy guide to Hobo Signs and explanations of their meanings: 

1). MAN - the triangle often functioned as a generic form for a man. 

2). RICH MAN - a man holding a top hat. 

3). RICH MAN - a top hat. 

4). WOMAN - a "Bim"; an image of a woman in a dress. 

5). NICE LADY - the image of a cat is likely to imply a woman who is  pleasant and... "generous."

6). DOCTOR - a "Croaker"; the skull and crossbones relates to the Hobo cultural suspicion of doctors: many were brought to doctors (with tuberculosis, etc.) and were treated with medicine from the legendary "Black Bottle" and were never seen again.  

7). POLICE - the image of a police helmet.

8). JUDGE - the image of a curl (from the Judge's wig). 

9). DISHONEST MAN - a "Bad Actor"; a sicle: suggesting throat-cutting. 

10). ARMED ROBBERS - a man with his hands in the air, indicating that someone is armed. 

11). WATCH FOR THIEVES - 2/10 is based-upon the expression "Keep your TWO eyes on the TEN fingers."

12). POOR MAN - may be an image of a whimpering mouth. 

13). TELL A HARD-LUCK STORY - likely a man with hands held out, in a gesture of having nothing. 

14). TELL A SAD STORY - a man with "three young children" back home. 

15). FAKE AN ILLNESS - the triangle/man upside down. 

16). WILL CARE FOR SICK - a cane; this person will be your crutch. 

17). POLICE WILL BEAT HOBOS - this is a billy-club. 

18). POLICE DISLIKE HOBOS - these are handcuffs. 

19). JAIL - the "Calaboose" (town jail); the bars of a jail cell. 

20). ANGRY DOG - a "Bone Polisher"; the sharp teeth of a dog. 

21). TWO DOGS HERE - a house or fence with an image of a dog inside, the number of dogs listed nearby. 

22). GUARDED HOME - a house with a line across the door; hobos not welcome here; previous Hobos or thieves may have spoiled it. 

23). SOMEONE HOME - likely a gate or door latch open. 

24). NO ONE HOME - likely a gate or door latch locked/closed. 

25). HOBO CAMP - a "Jungle"; the traditional "railroad" sign, with water above it: locations outside of town, near the train station and a water source were preferable places for a Hobo camp. 

26). CAMP HERE - may be an empty pot or an empty box. 

27). TRAIN STATION - the image of a locomotive.

28). TROLLEY STATION - the image of a trolley. 

29). TELEPHONE - a bird, perhaps originally a carrier pigeon. 

30). SLEEP IN HAY LOFT - the image of an elevated barn hay loft.

31). SIT-DOWN MEALS - a "Sit-Down"; the image of a bench, common to large public meals. 

32). FOOD HANDOUTS - a "Lump"; the image of a bun or a roll; a single-serving handout. 

33). ALCOHOL - an oilcan; a metaphor for being drunk ("well-oiled").

34). BREAD - a loaf of bread. 

35). MONEY HANDOUTS - "to stem for shiners and thin ones" (to beg for change); an image of coins (as they would appear dropped into a hat or cigar box). 

36). RELIGIOUS TALK FOR FOOD - to go "Doughnut Christian" or seek "Angel Food"; to sit through religious services for free doughnuts and coffee. 

37). WORK HERE - two shovels, indicating manual labor available here. 

38). WORK FOR FOOD - likely a stick figure using a hammer. 

39). WORK FOR FOOD - a hammer. 

40). PROTECT YOURSELF - likely a knife or spear point. 

41). UNSAFE PLACE - three lines; likely to show scratching out a previous image. 

42). BE QUIET - a diamond shape; possibly came from the shape of the mouth making a "Ssshhhh!" sound. 

43). DANGER - iconic origins of this sign are uncertain. 

44). NOTHING HERE - a zero. 

45). YES, LIKELY - a plus sign: affirmative, or more likely positive than negative. 

46). NO, DOUBTFUL - a minus sign: negative, more likely bad than good. 

47). VERY GOOD - may have originally been a ring or a halo. 

48). GO HERE - pointing to the direction where to travel. Two arrows indicate to leave this way in haste (to "Cheese It").