Like their rail-hopping ancestors, these new codes are being designed to be obscure. However, modern day hobos are still hoping to keep the written hobo code alive and are working towards creating new symbols to represent the availability of things like Wi-Fi and free power outlets. 'Prior to 2005 or so, all of this was simply done word-of-mouth, which is how it was done for over 100 years,' a hobo called Huck told Newsweek in 2015. Website including and exist to point towards opportunities for finding food and free Wi-Fi hotspots. The hobo code tradition continues in the present day, but are now digitally enhanced since hobos now have access to cell phones and computers. 'As an artist and art historian I've have always been fascinated by these symbols - a wonderful form of communication, and a creative, unique form of American art,' Stickney said in a statement. Stickney first saw examples of the hobo code glyphs when he was riding a bike on an Erie Canal bridge in the 1950s, according to the Tampa Bay Times. In the series, Stickney showcases the hobo code pictographs by painting them over brilliantly colored scenes. Meanwhile, artist Patrick Stickney has created a series of paintings he's titled Hobo Hieroglyphics, which are on display at the New Port Richey, Florida's Pasco Fine Arts Council through November 10. In 2007, TV series Mad Men centered an episode around the concept, naturally titled The Hobo Code, during which one character shows another character various pictographs and what they mean. 1' or 'The Rambler' - made the rounds by highlighting both the hobo lifestyle and the hobo code drawings in interviews and books he wrote, such as 1911's Hobo Camp Fire and 1914's The Ways of the Hobo.įlorida artist Patrick Stickney has created a series of paintings incorporating hobo code marks In the 1910s, famed hobo Leon Ray Livingston - AKA 'A-No. News reports of the time appeared to exaggerate the widespread use of the hobo code pictographs, though, likely because hobos were the ones talking about their codes and, as a group, they tended to be fond of embellishing the truth, according to Vox. The pictographs were chosen because they didn't require hobos to be literate to understand or draw them, plus they were sufficiently obscure enough that they'd be ignored by anyone who didn't know the code, according to 99% Invisible. Meanwhile, circles and arrows would indicate directions hobos were better off traveling in. By the early 1900s, there were said to be more than 500,000 hobos traveling the railsĪccording to the code, a drawing of a cat indicated that a kind woman lived in the hours, while a cross mean that hobos could expect to receive food at the end of a sermon and shovels revealed that work was available.
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