July 16, 2020 • 38 mins
As the Great Depression devastates the nation, roughly 2 million people find themselves out of home and hope, migrating toward distant promises of jobs, distant family members -- some distant idea of a better life. The concept of the 'hobo' becomes a mainstream concern. Leon Ray Livingston warns about living a life "on the road."
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you
so much for tuning in. This is part two, an
hour two part series on the self proclaimed hobo king
of not just the United States, but also believes in
Central America. He goes by two or three names. He
was born Leon Ray Livingston in eighteen seventy two. He
(00:51):
is perhaps better known on the roads and rails of
North America as a Number one. If you haven't heard
part one today's episode, please please please pause this listen
to that part and then tune into this episode, because
I promise you it will it will make way more sense. Uh.
(01:12):
My my name is Ben. I will not reveal my
hobo name on air. Yeah. I still go by the
squeaky chair. Um. That's my hobo name. Noel is my
my Christian name. Uh the name my mother gave me.
Is it your middle name? Christian? Yes, it actually is.
That's that's I didn't even think about that. Uh, Noel Christian,
(01:33):
squeaky chair Brown. That's what they call me on the rails. Um.
A number one is what they called our boy Livingston
on the rails. Uh. And it was after his return
from that time spent in Central America that he decided
to give himself this nickname that would really cement his legacy,
a number one. He wrote first about this in his
(01:54):
book Um. He said the Moniker was given to him
by a traveling hanging by the name of Frenchie. Um.
He said, every tramp gives his kid a nickname, a
name that will distinguish him from all other members of
the craft. I love that, referring to this life as
the craft. Um, you have been a good lad while
you have been with me, In fact, been always a
(02:16):
number one and everything he had to do. And kid,
take my advice. If you have to be anything in life,
even if a tramp, try to be a number one
all the time and in everything you undertake Um. He
also recommended that that he that that livingstone leave his
mark literally everywhere that he went by carving a number
(02:37):
one into mile markers UM as he passed them on
on his train travels. Uh, so people would know that
he'd been there. Um. And this really gets into our
idea of hobo code and of a secret language of
symbols that were used by those in this kind of
(02:58):
freewheeling traveling lie to help communicate with one another non verbally.
And here's the thing been to your point in the
previous episode, Uh, today you can still find a number
one scribbles under bridges. In addition to this kind of
series of hieroglyphs that Livingston supposedly at the very least
(03:21):
helped to proliferate and preserve and possibly even created. Um
something that I know you've been fascinated with for a
long time, Ben hobo code. Yeah, what a first off
shout out someone who has written their mark in all
of our hearts. I would say one of my favorite
off the grid travelers, Le Bush, who is a close
(03:42):
associate of our super producer Casey Pegram. You're right, Noel,
hobo code is a fascinating thing to the point about
a one I know a lot of us listening today
or one dream about the etymology of the phrase. We
(04:04):
know that it traces at least back to eighteen thirty seven.
It was probably used in Lloyd's of London, the insurance
companies UH maritime system for rating of merchant vessels of
commercial watercraft, which actually jibes with Livingstone's story of you know,
(04:29):
hitting the ocean as well. As the rails, So perhaps
Frenchie himself had some sort of sailor stories in his background.
Also not a bad steak sauce. Hobo code is a
is a tricky thing, right you'll you know, one of
the big revelations that you can learn about hoboeing in general,
(04:54):
the tramp lifestyle, the vagabond lifestyle, is that it still
exists here in the United tod States, uh, and in
other parts of the world. But how how often was
hobo code used, how ubiquitous was it or how rare
was it. We know that you can find books dating
(05:16):
back to the early twenty century that show at least
some of these pictograms. There are the things that we
each described in episode one. Uh, you know, like a
circle with an arrow saying go this way or nol
you mentioned the a frame tattoo that you're considering. Yeah,
(05:37):
it just means safe harbor, which is kind of broad.
I like that as a concept, just the idea of like,
you know, finding refuge somewhere. I think that's sort of
the idea. There would be ones that would indicate the
water is bad. They would be like you know, people
would draw it, maybe with a piece of chalk, on
a well, implying that the water was contaminated in some way.
There would be very specific ones like there's a kindly
(06:00):
old lady in this town that will give you free food,
you know, things like that. It really was interesting how
specific some of them would get when you look at
them pulled back like you can. You can google these.
They really do resemble hieroglyphics in a lot of ways.
Is the shape of them. Oh and by the way,
you can get a hobo code coffee mug from Society
(06:21):
six right now, um, which is pretty cool. There's one
that says, uh, yeah, kind lady lives here. Um. That
is actually a cute little kittie cat. Two lines next
to each other, parallel lines says the sky is the limit.
Not quite sure what that means. There's one that looks
like a fermata, which is a musical symbol that you
(06:43):
put over a note implying that you hold it indefinitely. Um.
So it's like an arc and a little dot in
the middle. And I do believe that one means that
the authorities in this town are hostile. And that would
be a lot of these, because you know, hoboes weren't
taken too kindly in some cities, in some towns, they
would be around a town on a rail where that
(07:04):
came from um and you know, so they these symbols
would be to kind of warren fellow travelers that maybe
your presence here would not be welcomed, that you'd be
met with hostility and even violence. Yeah, and it makes
sense that these sort of symbols would proliferate. They have
three very clever things about them. First, they function in
(07:29):
a camouflaged way. If you are not familiar with where
to look, if you are not familiar with what these
symbols mean, they could easily be taken as errant graffiti. Second,
they're very easy to make. There's nothing, you know, you
(07:50):
don't have to be a master artist to carve out
uh you know, straight lines, triangles and circles. But it's
still conveys the message. And Third, it functions as an
invisible language. It's it's a form of communication, right. That
(08:10):
is strictly for those in the know. It's not clear
yet whether Livingstone played a huge role in creating a
lot of hobo code, but he is credited with mainstreaming this.
I would say because for a lot of people in
the us, especially people who are well off enough to
(08:33):
buy books and to you know, have the leisure time
to read books. This is the moment they learn about
this secret language. They learn about it from the self
appointed hobo King Livingstone, and he is like, right now,
to put it in perspective, if if Livingstone were live
(08:53):
in he would be doing ted talks. He would be
the guy with a clicker in a really nice suit
talking about my thirty years as a hobo and what
that teaches us about America. Yeah, an entrepreneurial stick tuitiveness.
What I'm saying is he became more of a cultural
(09:15):
figure that like more of a media representation of a
hobo than an actual hobo. That's absolutely true. Band and
we mentioned the top of the show he had like
a forty dollar suit and he carried around a weird
collection of autograph pictures. Isn't that right then, that he
would use to impress people or I guess just you know,
(09:36):
how do you even have access to these? Who was it, Oh,
Thomas Anderson, William Howard taft Uh, Theodore Roosevelt, who is,
as everybody knows, most famous for his several appearances here
on Ridiculous History and Uh. Yeah, he's creating his own story,
(09:59):
you know. And and it's it's a snowball effect, right,
it's an aggregate process. He begins to influence the world
around him, and he is increasingly attempting to, at this
point in his life, lead people away from a life
on the road or a life on the rails. In fact,
(10:20):
how exciting is this If you are a reader in
the early twentieth century, you open a book and you
see a disclaimer. First off, and this disclaimer says, wandering,
once it becomes a habit is almost incurable. So never
run away, but stay at home as a roving lad
(10:42):
usually ends in becoming a confirmed tramp, you know what
I mean. I don't know how you guys felt when
you were kids watching home movies and you would see
the FBI warning coming up. I always thought that made
something legit, you know what I mean. So that's how
people felt when they read these books. They saw the disclaimer.
It's a page turner. Uh. He said that it was
(11:03):
a pitiful existence that would end up leading people to
a popper's grave. It's illustrative of I don't know, like
ostensibly it's a warning, but I think it's more so
the barnum aspect I was talking about in episode one,
he is he's trying to entice in tantalize people. Yeah,
(11:24):
it reminds me of like that episode we did about
wanderlust and how it was like almost looked at it
as a as a disease, that kind of warning where
it's like stay put or else you're gonna become some
kind of pariah, some sort of the social you know,
like leper. Right. Yeah, I think that's I think that's
a good observation too. We have to remember that this
(11:45):
is happening during the during a massive expansionist phase right
in in the US or in North America, and so
people are, even if people aren't traveling widely there, fascinated
by the idea of doing so. I mean, it's a dream,
isn't it, to to travel without hindrance? Uh? And it's
(12:08):
a dream that Livingstone capitalizes on. He is making himself
a celebrity. To your earlier point, Noel, Uh. Not only
was he carrying around autographs from notable historical figures were
the Titans of the day, he also this is how
self aware he is. He's also seeking out local news
(12:32):
reporters in every city of note that he happens across.
So he's in St. Louis, you know, maybe he goes
back to Trucky, California. Who knows, he's in Poughkeepsie, He's
in Atlanta, wherever. I'm just we can make cities up.
At this point, one of the first things he does
is go to the local newspaper office and say, have
(12:55):
you heard of me may number one, the Hobo King,
And I'll do an interview with you. And it works.
People love these stories. They get published everywhere, and so
he becomes so well known that authors and artists start
picking up this idea. You know, he represents this concept.
(13:17):
Jack London, author of White Fang and The Call of
the Wild, and um, I think one of my favorite
stories from Jack London is a short story called to
Build a Fire. This guy, Jack London, he loves, he's
growing up and he loves a number one. He actually
he writes to Livingston and says, you know, tell me
(13:41):
about the hobo lifestyle in the late eighteen hundreds, and
they actually go on a trip together, I think, an
epic road trip, which, by the way, Livingstone also capitalizes
on in a later book called From Coast to Coast
with Jack London amazing zing title. It's Get This Little.
(14:02):
It comes out in v one year after Jack London
actually passes away. Oh yeah, that's a new ben. You
are spot on about Livingstone being like a proto ted
talk type. I mean, seriously, he really is kind of
cultivating this uh cult of personality. I guess for lack
(14:25):
of a better expression, not to be redundant with reusing
the cult sound twice, but it's true he's building like
a lifestyle um around this kind of hobo world um
and absolutely capitalizing on this uh, this sort of hobo
lifestyle um. And you know, considering you know, we we
we've talked about the romanticized version of it that he
(14:47):
certainly was the pioneer of. But this was not as
much of a choice at this point as we maybe
originally set it up to be. Uh. It really was
people that were in desperate need of income and would
do whatever it took and go whatever wherever they needed
to go in order to get it. And we're on
the heels of the Great Depression too, when this lifestyle
(15:08):
absolutely became critical for people to even survive and migrant
farm workers and we know how that went if you've
read Steinbeck's wonderful chronicle of of this time period, The
Grapes of Wrath, so a little problematic that he's sort
of capitalizing on this. He's almost sort of like a Phobo.
I just coined that. Sorry, it's okay, I like it, though, phobo. Uh,
(15:31):
you know, he really is sort of doing this for
his own big picture kind of publishing rights, kind of
residual return, kind of in the game. Right. Yeah, So
he predates the Great Depression, he anticipates it, and this
is still the romanticized version of the the vagabonds in
(15:57):
in US culture because a great Depression has not hit.
When it does, and when we get to the stuff
Steinbeck's writing about, you know, we're talking about thousands and
thousands of people who didn't want to travel for fun.
They wanted to stay at home, they wanted to keep
(16:17):
their house. Uh, this is not a spiritual journey for them.
Uh nowadays, And I do, like Phobo, No, I think that.
I think that's what written. But nowadays, Uh, the term
would be something like google with two os O O
g L E. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly,
(16:40):
but you can learn more about it. That's the thing.
Livingston did not have to do this. He liked doing this.
He was he was primarily an author, a depict or,
a describer of this life. In fact, he had actually,
like many itinerant travelers of the time, he had a
(17:03):
couple of let's call him home basis, let's call him
stop ins. You know how, I don't know, Casey. Have
you guys ever had an outside cat as a friend
and and like, you know, the cats got somewhere that
it sleeps, but it stops by houses. Yes, absolutely. In fact,
there is a there's a gas station around the corner
(17:24):
from my old house where the the employees there would
actually put out food, and so that place was just
like a hub of of itinerant cat friends. What about you, Casey, Yeah,
my dad at his office had that sort of cat,
called him Tiger, and he hung around for years and
years just you know, coming to the back door and
(17:45):
getting a little bit of food, a little bit of milk,
that kind of thing, and kind of going on his
way and very friendly but at the same time assertive
and independent. You know. Yeah, they're making a circuit, right,
that's kind of that's kind of what Livingston a peers
to be doing. One of his home bases is a
place called Mrs Cunningham's boarding House in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania.
(18:09):
Mrs Cunningham's boarding House, by the way, it sounds like
something that Noel and Casey and I would make up
as a as a wholesome spot in our screenplay. Right. Oh,
let's go to Mrs Cunningham's boarding House. You know they
have a Sunday roast every oh Sunday. Look, we're still
working out the script. But that's where he wrote a
(18:32):
lot of books, is indeed, including The Ways of the Hobo,
where he actually claimed that the house became a mecca
to other hobo's. Of of of his ilk, which he
referred to as chronic hobo's seems a little insulting, um,
but whatever. And he referred to his friends Hobo Mike
(18:53):
and Denver Johnny. I love Hobo Mike, just just get
right to it. Uh and uh. And they would come by,
you know, just to kind of wrap and and get
some advice and um, you know, and just kind of
have someone to spend some time with a little companionship. Um.
When they when they when they passed through. Speaking of companionship,
(19:18):
ridiculous history. It's We've got a twist for you. This
story turns out to be a little bit of a
rom com because you see, Livingstone did not spend his
entire life on the road. He did not die on
the rails. In nineteen fourteen, he officially tied the knot
(19:41):
with a woman named Mary Troski. Uh And and he
tried to settle down in Erie, Pennsylvania, nol. What was
the what was the word that people were using as
the female equivalent of hobo? What what do you call it?
It was boat bo b b o E T t e. Uh. Yeah,
(20:05):
I don't know about that one, but it's interesting. Remember
remember in the wolf Whistle episode, how we were totally
taken for a ride for the idea of the female
equivalent of the wolf Whistle calls the slurp utter fallacy.
Uh loved it though that We took us all a
minute to kind of be like, wait a minute. Sometimes
it's again, there's a lot of a lot of similarities
(20:27):
in this story where, uh, sometimes you know, you can't
let the facts stand in the way of a good story,
as my mother would say. But yeah, he settled down
the Hobo king a number one himself settled down in Eerie, Pennsylvania. Uh,
and he spent time, you know, working various jobs, uh,
from electric companies to steal um all around the area.
(20:49):
And eventually, according to one source that we found, um,
he got into real estate. It's pretty lucrative, um compared
to all of these you know itinerant jobs that he'd
been doing over the years. And I don't know, I
we don't have a sense that he like made a
mint or anything off of his publishing. Ben what what
did you discover in that department, because he definitely was
(21:11):
sort of a minor celebrity at this point. You know,
he really did was kind of the most famous hobo
in America. Can't imagine they didn't get some some good
coin from all that stuff. Yeah, yeah, he was. He
was no uh man, some Musa or Jeff Bezos. Uh,
those are probably well mansa Musa is the richest person
(21:33):
in the history of civilization that we know of, and
Jeff Bezos is well on the way. But yeah, he
wasn't you know, he didn't buy an entire railroad for instance.
That's something that you would do if you liked railroads
and you were a billionaire. Multimillionaire. Uh, he probably was
(21:54):
traveling the lecture circuit for income. He probably needed to
do you that And and it was very common for
people of note too become orators later in life. And
interestingly enough, the majority of his lectures about this, uh,
(22:16):
this movable life, let's call it. Actually, I'm gonna write
that down. That's a great title for a story. I
love this, this movable life that he is into. Uh.
He he speaks against it in these lectures. You know, Mama,
don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys, except
switch out cowboys for hoboes. And at this point we
(22:36):
have arrived at the time in history when the Great
Depression does hit. Livingstone is alive. He is fighting against tramping. Unfortunately,
right now we know that he made these anti hobo,
anti vagabond lectures, but we don't have a copy of them,
(22:58):
so we don't know why he actually said. And once
again we find ourselves left with rumors. Right yeah, and
they ranged from the fantastic to the banal. Uh. My favorite,
which would just be like the poetic way uh for
him to end his life, is that he died in
a train wreck in Houston, Texas in nineteen forty four. UM,
(23:22):
but he apparently had impersonators because he had such a
you know, high profile, that he literally had hobo copycats
that were sort of biting his stick. And UM it's
possible if this was confused with a nineteen twelve train
wreck that killed one of these pretenders to the crown,
the hobo crown mainly Uh. The most reliable version of
(23:48):
his passing UM has him UM succumbing to heart failure
UH in his home on April five, at the right
old age of seventy one, with his wife standing by. UM.
So yeah, it's interesting, but makes a lot of sense.
I guess that, you know, somebody who was so invested
(24:09):
in mythologizing his his life and becoming this larger than
life kind of figure that there's still some mystery that
surrounds the way he left uh, this mortal coil UM.
And you know, he's not someone that I'd ever heard
of UM before, you know, gave hipped us to this topic.
(24:29):
But he was dramatized in a film. His relationship with
Jack London is probably the most enduring UM pop culture
kind of uh remnant of his story. UM. And Lee
Marvin actually played him in a film in nineteen seventy
three called The Emperor of the North, which was based
on Livingstone's time on the Road with Jack London and
(24:51):
London's book The Road. And then, of course we see
the thematic descendant there in Jack Caro Wax on The Road.
I I'm not gonna disparage one or the other. I'm
just gonna say Jack London wrote a book called The Road.
Jack Carroll act later wrote a book called On the Road,
(25:13):
sort of like Ghostbusters and the Real Ghostbusters. If you
guys remember that animated series. I have a I have
a book here that would be interesting for people who
want another opinion. You see, while Livingstone is the self
appointed hobo King, many people in that community did not
(25:33):
consider him necessarily the be all end all. He was
just the most mainstreamed version of people who were largely
ignored by American society. There's a book I found called
The Last Great American Hobo Case. You know, you guys
can see that this face here on the zoom. This
(25:56):
was published in and a Tree is what the author
calls the life of the oldest active hobo left. This
is strange because we see again the history doesn't ever
stop you know what I mean, it doesn't exist in
the past tense. There's so much more stuff we could
(26:18):
talk about with hoboes, though, you know, hobo code importantly
does actually exist to some degree. And for any of
our fellow ridiculous historians who are saying, hey, maybe this
hobo king didn't actually travel very much at all, we
do have to point out that Susan Phillips, an anthropologist
(26:43):
at Pitzer College, did not just find hobo code. She
saw actual marks, actual marks from a number one, which
means Leon Ray Livingston did at least hit the rails
to some degree. So so there is some truth to
his story. He's not completely lying, you know what I mean, Yeah, no,
(27:06):
totally Again, it's the devil's in the details, right, But
he wasn't the only one she found um references and
and kind of tags. I guess you think of graffiti
culture now and it's all about you know, having that
name and having that style, or like you know with
Boscuiati had the little crown, or it's all about people
knowing exactly who you are and leaving your mark. That
is largely where this came from. Is this kind of
(27:26):
trained culture and this hobo culture and folks like Oakland
Red and the Tucson Kid and what do we say
earlier there was hobo Steve. Uh no, it wasn't Steve,
but it was some hobo Mike. Hobo Mike, good old
hobo Mike. I love that. And uh, you know, if
I had been around in those days, I think Squeaky
Chair would have would have made a dent. I think
(27:47):
that would have been remembered fondly. Do you think people
would have just started calling you squeaky Squeaky's Ah, that's
way better. That's a way better hobo name. Ben. That's
a really good point, do you you know? The From
what I understood, the rule was in those days that
someone it was like the same with any nickname, someone
else had to give you the name. That's right. There's
(28:09):
another fact that I was dying to mention throughout part
one of this episode. Uh, we'll mention it now, but
I'm not going to give the full story because we
are a family show. You guys, remember the song Big
Rock Candy Mountain Noll. This is familiar to you from
stuff they don't want you to know totally. Big Rock
(28:31):
Candy Mountain is a relatively innocuous song. The version that
exists in the modern day. How Whoever, the original version
has an extra verse which is sinister and disturbing and
gives light to the realities of living without a home,
(28:53):
because you know, we we've mainly been focusing on in
this one, especially you know, with living to himself, him
having made this choice, uh, you know, very consciously because
he had family. He his family what didn't even disown him.
We have that part a little ways back where they
write to him and are pleased to hear of his
exploits and he probably could have gone home and you know,
(29:13):
lived off of their largesse anytime he wanted to. They
they seemed to do just fine. But we haven't even
talked about the idea of like kids that are, you know,
living this life because they have no parents, either their
parents have died or maybe they were abused and they
ran away. And yeah, the the lyric and Big Rock
Cany Mountains all about kind of almost selling those kids
(29:35):
into a type of slavery um and that is absolutely
a thing if you think about, like in Pinocchio for example, Uh,
the idea of those kids that are sort of these
like living under sort of a much less benevolent hobo
king who would you know, put these kids to work
and and have them running grifts for for him, like
an Oliver for example. UM, So there is absolutely a
(29:58):
dark side to we have largely characterized as kind of
like a freewheeling you know, sunny go where you want
kind of mentality. UM, can't forget that. But it's very
interesting how um this guy is essentially stood the test
of time, largely I think because of his relationship with
(30:20):
Jack London as being sort of one of the most
famous hoboes in the history of of the the life,
I guess. And he actually wrote twelve books on hobo
life and you can still see his mark. Uh you know,
etch gender Stone and underpasses. Because these train lines have
been around for a long time, it's very difficult to
(30:41):
just uproot that kind of infrastructure. I think. A great
place to end this two part series, which I have
absolutely enjoyed, is with just a couple of excerpts quite
long from a disclaimer that Livingston put at the beginning
of all twelve of his books. UM, where he kind
(31:02):
of sets up with his backstory a little bit and
sort of the choice he made, you know, to live
this life. Um. But then he also does acknowledge that
dark side that we talked about just a second ago. Yeah,
there's interesting language here that indicates showmanship, uh, and also
indicates a little bit of what I would call style
in on it in the parlance of our own day.
(31:24):
First off, he reveals his age. Perhaps some may think
that a man who has attained only the age of
thirty eight years has hardly enough a crewed experience to
justify him in writing and autobiography. Good point, right, But
then he uses pretty um academic language when later he says,
(31:46):
we're other men of my age to write their life story.
It could ordinarily be summed up with cesarean brevity. Really
cesarean brevity. Is that even even in the early nineteen
hundreds are people saying that, I don't know about that one. Ben.
It's but he's definitely got a got a gift in
terms of his colorful language and the way he paints
a picture. Um. He wraps it up with this this uh,
(32:09):
this description here that I think is a really good
job of characterizing kind of the ups and the downs
and all of the different pitfalls that can be associated
with the hobo life. Uh. Quote there's a dark side
to a tramp's life. For every mile stolen on trains,
there is one escape from a horrible death. For each
mile of beautiful scenery and food in plenty, there are
many weary miles of hard walking with no food or
(32:32):
even water, through mountain gorges and over parched deserts. For
each warm summer night, there are ten bitter cold, long
winter nights. For every kindness, there are a score of
unfriendly acts. A tramp is constantly hounded by the minions
of the law, is shunned by all humanity, and never
knows the meaning of home and friends. You can read
(32:52):
the entire disclaimer courtesy of Harvard University Online. Now just out,
you know, just find your search engine of choice and
check out Born to Ramble, Harvard University Hobo King Livingston.
We've got the keywords for you. I do have to see.
(33:13):
This guy is a fantastic writer, and it speaks very
highly of his craft that he is still so uh
compelling and enjoyable today. In fact, Livingstone plays a huge
part in the modern uh sort of archetype of the hobo.
(33:38):
I believe a lot of our fellow ridiculous historians are
probably familiar with the box Car Children book series. I
don't know about you. I never read it, always more
as scary stories to tell him the dark kind of guy.
When Scholastic rolled through. Yeah, I never heard those either,
but they were definitely on the shelf in my like,
I want to say, fifth grade class seems about right.
(33:59):
I was more to the more dark and depressing kind
of stuff and like the Bridges to Terribithia and uh,
you know, The Giver and all that stuff. But they
were definitely super popular, um and absolutely kind of dramatized,
made a little more palatable for a young adult audience
of this kind of hobo life. But I'm sure there
were some trials and tribulations in there. Again, having not
(34:21):
read the books, I can't really say for sure, but
I know they were very popular and absolutely influenced by
this gentleman's proliferation of this kind of culture. I think
the box I think maybe their parents passed away and
they had to live in a box car or yeah,
you know, I don't know if anybody is a fan
of box Car Shoulder and please please send us a
(34:43):
summation arguing arguing four or against us reading it. Casey,
I it looks like you're not You're not our big
box car kids champion here. No. I mean I remember
them from the Scholastic Books Fair, but I never picked
up a copy of that series. Scholastic Book Fair was
so awesome. I wish I wish we could have like
(35:05):
we don't have those as adults. We just have bookstores
and and Amazon. You know how cool would it be
if if one day we were all working in our
office and management just said, hey, everybody, stop everything, the
book fares coming. I would lose my mind. Yeah, that
sounds pretty perfect. Speaking of perfect, I gotta say this
(35:28):
is maybe my favorite two parter we've ever done. Um.
This one really had a lot of interesting twists and
turns to it. And uh I I gotta pat ourselves
on the back here, gentlemen. I'm really happy that we
we split this up the way we did and gave
Mr Livingston his do Yes, and we hope you enjoyed
this journey. We would love to hear from you. What
(35:49):
are your favorite tales of off the grid adventures? Have
you ever found yourself traveling in in a similar fashion.
If so, we want to hear your stories. You can
find us on the internet. We're all over it. We
are in Fact and Podcast. So we're on Facebook, We're
on Instagram, we're on Twitter. You can also find us
(36:10):
as individuals. Yeah, if you want to, you can hit
me up on Instagram. I am at how Now Noel
Brown and I am on Twitter as Ben Bolan hs W.
I am on Instagram as uh Casey pegram number one fan. No, sorry, Casey,
I don't I wasn't that creative. I'm just at them
bowling on Instagram And you can also find us on Facebook,
(36:33):
where we have a pretty cool group called Ridiculous Historians
where you can interact with your fellow listeners and get
into meme games and and lots of fun chat. Really
good folks. There are lots of fun, nice, light hearted
conversation on Ridiculous Histories on Facebook. You just have to
name one or both or all three of us, or
just say something that lets us know that you're a
(36:53):
human being that actually knows that the show is is
a thing and uh and you're in yes, send me, uh,
send me an image of your favorite hobo code. Uh,
here's a question too, if you could create hobo code
for the twenty century. Wait where the twenty one Century, Casey,
keep this part in. We'll just do it again. If
(37:13):
you could create hobo code for the twenty feet century,
what would it be. I imagine it would be like
WiFi availability maybe yeah, or like, you know, public restrooms.
That's a big thing, even if you're not a hobo.
I mean, god, New York City, a free public restroom
is like a unicorn. So yeah, Manhattan has a huge
problem with that. I think it's part of the reason
(37:34):
they could have so many Starbucks. They're functioning as the
public restrooms of that South. Oh my gosh, I'm sorry Starbucks.
But thanks as always to Christopher hassi Otis, to Casey Peckham,
to Alex Williams, who composed that slapping bob you here
at the beginning of every episode slapping Bop Bop and
(37:56):
slap love it Love Alex Williams, and please check out
his podcast Ephemera, available on the I Heart podcast network
as well. Um Hughes, thanks to Eve's Jeff coach, Christopher
Ostiotes here in spirit, Jonathan Strickland that devious question. We
hope to have him back very very soon. And as always, man,
thanks to you, Ben. This was a delightful romp back
(38:17):
at you KNOWL. I guess we'll see each other on
the road and we'll see you next time. For more
podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you
so much for tuning in. This is part two, an
hour two part series on the self proclaimed hobo king
of not just the United States, but also believes in
Central America. He goes by two or three names. He
was born Leon Ray Livingston in eighteen seventy two. He
(00:51):
is perhaps better known on the roads and rails of
North America as a Number one. If you haven't heard
part one today's episode, please please please pause this listen
to that part and then tune into this episode, because
I promise you it will it will make way more sense. Uh.
(01:12):
My my name is Ben. I will not reveal my
hobo name on air. Yeah. I still go by the
squeaky chair. Um. That's my hobo name. Noel is my
my Christian name. Uh the name my mother gave me.
Is it your middle name? Christian? Yes, it actually is.
That's that's I didn't even think about that. Uh, Noel Christian,
(01:33):
squeaky chair Brown. That's what they call me on the rails. Um.
A number one is what they called our boy Livingston
on the rails. Uh. And it was after his return
from that time spent in Central America that he decided
to give himself this nickname that would really cement his legacy,
a number one. He wrote first about this in his
(01:54):
book Um. He said the Moniker was given to him
by a traveling hanging by the name of Frenchie. Um.
He said, every tramp gives his kid a nickname, a
name that will distinguish him from all other members of
the craft. I love that, referring to this life as
the craft. Um, you have been a good lad while
you have been with me, In fact, been always a
(02:16):
number one and everything he had to do. And kid,
take my advice. If you have to be anything in life,
even if a tramp, try to be a number one
all the time and in everything you undertake Um. He
also recommended that that he that that livingstone leave his
mark literally everywhere that he went by carving a number
(02:37):
one into mile markers UM as he passed them on
on his train travels. Uh, so people would know that
he'd been there. Um. And this really gets into our
idea of hobo code and of a secret language of
symbols that were used by those in this kind of
(02:58):
freewheeling traveling lie to help communicate with one another non verbally.
And here's the thing been to your point in the
previous episode, Uh, today you can still find a number
one scribbles under bridges. In addition to this kind of
series of hieroglyphs that Livingston supposedly at the very least
(03:21):
helped to proliferate and preserve and possibly even created. Um
something that I know you've been fascinated with for a
long time, Ben hobo code. Yeah, what a first off
shout out someone who has written their mark in all
of our hearts. I would say one of my favorite
off the grid travelers, Le Bush, who is a close
(03:42):
associate of our super producer Casey Pegram. You're right, Noel,
hobo code is a fascinating thing to the point about
a one I know a lot of us listening today
or one dream about the etymology of the phrase. We
(04:04):
know that it traces at least back to eighteen thirty seven.
It was probably used in Lloyd's of London, the insurance
companies UH maritime system for rating of merchant vessels of
commercial watercraft, which actually jibes with Livingstone's story of you know,
(04:29):
hitting the ocean as well. As the rails, So perhaps
Frenchie himself had some sort of sailor stories in his background.
Also not a bad steak sauce. Hobo code is a
is a tricky thing, right you'll you know, one of
the big revelations that you can learn about hoboeing in general,
(04:54):
the tramp lifestyle, the vagabond lifestyle, is that it still
exists here in the United tod States, uh, and in
other parts of the world. But how how often was
hobo code used, how ubiquitous was it or how rare
was it. We know that you can find books dating
(05:16):
back to the early twenty century that show at least
some of these pictograms. There are the things that we
each described in episode one. Uh, you know, like a
circle with an arrow saying go this way or nol
you mentioned the a frame tattoo that you're considering. Yeah,
(05:37):
it just means safe harbor, which is kind of broad.
I like that as a concept, just the idea of like,
you know, finding refuge somewhere. I think that's sort of
the idea. There would be ones that would indicate the
water is bad. They would be like you know, people
would draw it, maybe with a piece of chalk, on
a well, implying that the water was contaminated in some way.
There would be very specific ones like there's a kindly
(06:00):
old lady in this town that will give you free food,
you know, things like that. It really was interesting how
specific some of them would get when you look at
them pulled back like you can. You can google these.
They really do resemble hieroglyphics in a lot of ways.
Is the shape of them. Oh and by the way,
you can get a hobo code coffee mug from Society
(06:21):
six right now, um, which is pretty cool. There's one
that says, uh, yeah, kind lady lives here. Um. That
is actually a cute little kittie cat. Two lines next
to each other, parallel lines says the sky is the limit.
Not quite sure what that means. There's one that looks
like a fermata, which is a musical symbol that you
(06:43):
put over a note implying that you hold it indefinitely. Um.
So it's like an arc and a little dot in
the middle. And I do believe that one means that
the authorities in this town are hostile. And that would
be a lot of these, because you know, hoboes weren't
taken too kindly in some cities, in some towns, they
would be around a town on a rail where that
(07:04):
came from um and you know, so they these symbols
would be to kind of warren fellow travelers that maybe
your presence here would not be welcomed, that you'd be
met with hostility and even violence. Yeah, and it makes
sense that these sort of symbols would proliferate. They have
three very clever things about them. First, they function in
(07:29):
a camouflaged way. If you are not familiar with where
to look, if you are not familiar with what these
symbols mean, they could easily be taken as errant graffiti. Second,
they're very easy to make. There's nothing, you know, you
(07:50):
don't have to be a master artist to carve out
uh you know, straight lines, triangles and circles. But it's
still conveys the message. And Third, it functions as an
invisible language. It's it's a form of communication, right. That
(08:10):
is strictly for those in the know. It's not clear
yet whether Livingstone played a huge role in creating a
lot of hobo code, but he is credited with mainstreaming this.
I would say because for a lot of people in
the us, especially people who are well off enough to
(08:33):
buy books and to you know, have the leisure time
to read books. This is the moment they learn about
this secret language. They learn about it from the self
appointed hobo King Livingstone, and he is like, right now,
to put it in perspective, if if Livingstone were live
(08:53):
in he would be doing ted talks. He would be
the guy with a clicker in a really nice suit
talking about my thirty years as a hobo and what
that teaches us about America. Yeah, an entrepreneurial stick tuitiveness.
What I'm saying is he became more of a cultural
(09:15):
figure that like more of a media representation of a
hobo than an actual hobo. That's absolutely true. Band and
we mentioned the top of the show he had like
a forty dollar suit and he carried around a weird
collection of autograph pictures. Isn't that right then, that he
would use to impress people or I guess just you know,
(09:36):
how do you even have access to these? Who was it, Oh,
Thomas Anderson, William Howard taft Uh, Theodore Roosevelt, who is,
as everybody knows, most famous for his several appearances here
on Ridiculous History and Uh. Yeah, he's creating his own story,
(09:59):
you know. And and it's it's a snowball effect, right,
it's an aggregate process. He begins to influence the world
around him, and he is increasingly attempting to, at this
point in his life, lead people away from a life
on the road or a life on the rails. In fact,
(10:20):
how exciting is this If you are a reader in
the early twentieth century, you open a book and you
see a disclaimer. First off, and this disclaimer says, wandering,
once it becomes a habit is almost incurable. So never
run away, but stay at home as a roving lad
(10:42):
usually ends in becoming a confirmed tramp, you know what
I mean. I don't know how you guys felt when
you were kids watching home movies and you would see
the FBI warning coming up. I always thought that made
something legit, you know what I mean. So that's how
people felt when they read these books. They saw the disclaimer.
It's a page turner. Uh. He said that it was
(11:03):
a pitiful existence that would end up leading people to
a popper's grave. It's illustrative of I don't know, like
ostensibly it's a warning, but I think it's more so
the barnum aspect I was talking about in episode one,
he is he's trying to entice in tantalize people. Yeah,
(11:24):
it reminds me of like that episode we did about
wanderlust and how it was like almost looked at it
as a as a disease, that kind of warning where
it's like stay put or else you're gonna become some
kind of pariah, some sort of the social you know,
like leper. Right. Yeah, I think that's I think that's
a good observation too. We have to remember that this
(11:45):
is happening during the during a massive expansionist phase right
in in the US or in North America, and so
people are, even if people aren't traveling widely there, fascinated
by the idea of doing so. I mean, it's a dream,
isn't it, to to travel without hindrance? Uh? And it's
(12:08):
a dream that Livingstone capitalizes on. He is making himself
a celebrity. To your earlier point, Noel, Uh. Not only
was he carrying around autographs from notable historical figures were
the Titans of the day, he also this is how
self aware he is. He's also seeking out local news
(12:32):
reporters in every city of note that he happens across.
So he's in St. Louis, you know, maybe he goes
back to Trucky, California. Who knows, he's in Poughkeepsie, He's
in Atlanta, wherever. I'm just we can make cities up.
At this point, one of the first things he does
is go to the local newspaper office and say, have
(12:55):
you heard of me may number one, the Hobo King,
And I'll do an interview with you. And it works.
People love these stories. They get published everywhere, and so
he becomes so well known that authors and artists start
picking up this idea. You know, he represents this concept.
(13:17):
Jack London, author of White Fang and The Call of
the Wild, and um, I think one of my favorite
stories from Jack London is a short story called to
Build a Fire. This guy, Jack London, he loves, he's
growing up and he loves a number one. He actually
he writes to Livingston and says, you know, tell me
(13:41):
about the hobo lifestyle in the late eighteen hundreds, and
they actually go on a trip together, I think, an
epic road trip, which, by the way, Livingstone also capitalizes
on in a later book called From Coast to Coast
with Jack London amazing zing title. It's Get This Little.
(14:02):
It comes out in v one year after Jack London
actually passes away. Oh yeah, that's a new ben. You
are spot on about Livingstone being like a proto ted
talk type. I mean, seriously, he really is kind of
cultivating this uh cult of personality. I guess for lack
(14:25):
of a better expression, not to be redundant with reusing
the cult sound twice, but it's true he's building like
a lifestyle um around this kind of hobo world um
and absolutely capitalizing on this uh, this sort of hobo
lifestyle um. And you know, considering you know, we we
we've talked about the romanticized version of it that he
(14:47):
certainly was the pioneer of. But this was not as
much of a choice at this point as we maybe
originally set it up to be. Uh. It really was
people that were in desperate need of income and would
do whatever it took and go whatever wherever they needed
to go in order to get it. And we're on
the heels of the Great Depression too, when this lifestyle
(15:08):
absolutely became critical for people to even survive and migrant
farm workers and we know how that went if you've
read Steinbeck's wonderful chronicle of of this time period, The
Grapes of Wrath, so a little problematic that he's sort
of capitalizing on this. He's almost sort of like a Phobo.
I just coined that. Sorry, it's okay, I like it, though, phobo. Uh,
(15:31):
you know, he really is sort of doing this for
his own big picture kind of publishing rights, kind of
residual return, kind of in the game. Right. Yeah, So
he predates the Great Depression, he anticipates it, and this
is still the romanticized version of the the vagabonds in
(15:57):
in US culture because a great Depression has not hit.
When it does, and when we get to the stuff
Steinbeck's writing about, you know, we're talking about thousands and
thousands of people who didn't want to travel for fun.
They wanted to stay at home, they wanted to keep
(16:17):
their house. Uh, this is not a spiritual journey for them.
Uh nowadays, And I do, like Phobo, No, I think that.
I think that's what written. But nowadays, Uh, the term
would be something like google with two os O O
g L E. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that correctly,
(16:40):
but you can learn more about it. That's the thing.
Livingston did not have to do this. He liked doing this.
He was he was primarily an author, a depict or,
a describer of this life. In fact, he had actually,
like many itinerant travelers of the time, he had a
(17:03):
couple of let's call him home basis, let's call him
stop ins. You know how, I don't know, Casey. Have
you guys ever had an outside cat as a friend
and and like, you know, the cats got somewhere that
it sleeps, but it stops by houses. Yes, absolutely. In fact,
there is a there's a gas station around the corner
(17:24):
from my old house where the the employees there would
actually put out food, and so that place was just
like a hub of of itinerant cat friends. What about you, Casey, Yeah,
my dad at his office had that sort of cat,
called him Tiger, and he hung around for years and
years just you know, coming to the back door and
(17:45):
getting a little bit of food, a little bit of milk,
that kind of thing, and kind of going on his
way and very friendly but at the same time assertive
and independent. You know. Yeah, they're making a circuit, right,
that's kind of that's kind of what Livingston a peers
to be doing. One of his home bases is a
place called Mrs Cunningham's boarding House in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania.
(18:09):
Mrs Cunningham's boarding House, by the way, it sounds like
something that Noel and Casey and I would make up
as a as a wholesome spot in our screenplay. Right. Oh,
let's go to Mrs Cunningham's boarding House. You know they
have a Sunday roast every oh Sunday. Look, we're still
working out the script. But that's where he wrote a
(18:32):
lot of books, is indeed, including The Ways of the Hobo,
where he actually claimed that the house became a mecca
to other hobo's. Of of of his ilk, which he
referred to as chronic hobo's seems a little insulting, um,
but whatever. And he referred to his friends Hobo Mike
(18:53):
and Denver Johnny. I love Hobo Mike, just just get
right to it. Uh and uh. And they would come by,
you know, just to kind of wrap and and get
some advice and um, you know, and just kind of
have someone to spend some time with a little companionship. Um.
When they when they when they passed through. Speaking of companionship,
(19:18):
ridiculous history. It's We've got a twist for you. This
story turns out to be a little bit of a
rom com because you see, Livingstone did not spend his
entire life on the road. He did not die on
the rails. In nineteen fourteen, he officially tied the knot
(19:41):
with a woman named Mary Troski. Uh And and he
tried to settle down in Erie, Pennsylvania, nol. What was
the what was the word that people were using as
the female equivalent of hobo? What what do you call it?
It was boat bo b b o E T t e. Uh. Yeah,
(20:05):
I don't know about that one, but it's interesting. Remember
remember in the wolf Whistle episode, how we were totally
taken for a ride for the idea of the female
equivalent of the wolf Whistle calls the slurp utter fallacy.
Uh loved it though that We took us all a
minute to kind of be like, wait a minute. Sometimes
it's again, there's a lot of a lot of similarities
(20:27):
in this story where, uh, sometimes you know, you can't
let the facts stand in the way of a good story,
as my mother would say. But yeah, he settled down
the Hobo king a number one himself settled down in Eerie, Pennsylvania. Uh,
and he spent time, you know, working various jobs, uh,
from electric companies to steal um all around the area.
(20:49):
And eventually, according to one source that we found, um,
he got into real estate. It's pretty lucrative, um compared
to all of these you know itinerant jobs that he'd
been doing over the years. And I don't know, I
we don't have a sense that he like made a
mint or anything off of his publishing. Ben what what
did you discover in that department, because he definitely was
(21:11):
sort of a minor celebrity at this point. You know,
he really did was kind of the most famous hobo
in America. Can't imagine they didn't get some some good
coin from all that stuff. Yeah, yeah, he was. He
was no uh man, some Musa or Jeff Bezos. Uh,
those are probably well mansa Musa is the richest person
(21:33):
in the history of civilization that we know of, and
Jeff Bezos is well on the way. But yeah, he
wasn't you know, he didn't buy an entire railroad for instance.
That's something that you would do if you liked railroads
and you were a billionaire. Multimillionaire. Uh, he probably was
(21:54):
traveling the lecture circuit for income. He probably needed to
do you that And and it was very common for
people of note too become orators later in life. And
interestingly enough, the majority of his lectures about this, uh,
(22:16):
this movable life, let's call it. Actually, I'm gonna write
that down. That's a great title for a story. I
love this, this movable life that he is into. Uh.
He he speaks against it in these lectures. You know, Mama,
don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys, except
switch out cowboys for hoboes. And at this point we
(22:36):
have arrived at the time in history when the Great
Depression does hit. Livingstone is alive. He is fighting against tramping. Unfortunately,
right now we know that he made these anti hobo,
anti vagabond lectures, but we don't have a copy of them,
(22:58):
so we don't know why he actually said. And once
again we find ourselves left with rumors. Right yeah, and
they ranged from the fantastic to the banal. Uh. My favorite,
which would just be like the poetic way uh for
him to end his life, is that he died in
a train wreck in Houston, Texas in nineteen forty four. UM,
(23:22):
but he apparently had impersonators because he had such a
you know, high profile, that he literally had hobo copycats
that were sort of biting his stick. And UM it's
possible if this was confused with a nineteen twelve train
wreck that killed one of these pretenders to the crown,
the hobo crown mainly Uh. The most reliable version of
(23:48):
his passing UM has him UM succumbing to heart failure
UH in his home on April five, at the right
old age of seventy one, with his wife standing by. UM.
So yeah, it's interesting, but makes a lot of sense.
I guess that, you know, somebody who was so invested
(24:09):
in mythologizing his his life and becoming this larger than
life kind of figure that there's still some mystery that
surrounds the way he left uh, this mortal coil UM.
And you know, he's not someone that I'd ever heard
of UM before, you know, gave hipped us to this topic.
(24:29):
But he was dramatized in a film. His relationship with
Jack London is probably the most enduring UM pop culture
kind of uh remnant of his story. UM. And Lee
Marvin actually played him in a film in nineteen seventy
three called The Emperor of the North, which was based
on Livingstone's time on the Road with Jack London and
(24:51):
London's book The Road. And then, of course we see
the thematic descendant there in Jack Caro Wax on The Road.
I I'm not gonna disparage one or the other. I'm
just gonna say Jack London wrote a book called The Road.
Jack Carroll act later wrote a book called On the Road,
(25:13):
sort of like Ghostbusters and the Real Ghostbusters. If you
guys remember that animated series. I have a I have
a book here that would be interesting for people who
want another opinion. You see, while Livingstone is the self
appointed hobo King, many people in that community did not
(25:33):
consider him necessarily the be all end all. He was
just the most mainstreamed version of people who were largely
ignored by American society. There's a book I found called
The Last Great American Hobo Case. You know, you guys
can see that this face here on the zoom. This
(25:56):
was published in and a Tree is what the author
calls the life of the oldest active hobo left. This
is strange because we see again the history doesn't ever
stop you know what I mean, it doesn't exist in
the past tense. There's so much more stuff we could
(26:18):
talk about with hoboes, though, you know, hobo code importantly
does actually exist to some degree. And for any of
our fellow ridiculous historians who are saying, hey, maybe this
hobo king didn't actually travel very much at all, we
do have to point out that Susan Phillips, an anthropologist
(26:43):
at Pitzer College, did not just find hobo code. She
saw actual marks, actual marks from a number one, which
means Leon Ray Livingston did at least hit the rails
to some degree. So so there is some truth to
his story. He's not completely lying, you know what I mean, Yeah, no,
(27:06):
totally Again, it's the devil's in the details, right, But
he wasn't the only one she found um references and
and kind of tags. I guess you think of graffiti
culture now and it's all about you know, having that
name and having that style, or like you know with
Boscuiati had the little crown, or it's all about people
knowing exactly who you are and leaving your mark. That
is largely where this came from. Is this kind of
(27:26):
trained culture and this hobo culture and folks like Oakland
Red and the Tucson Kid and what do we say
earlier there was hobo Steve. Uh no, it wasn't Steve,
but it was some hobo Mike. Hobo Mike, good old
hobo Mike. I love that. And uh, you know, if
I had been around in those days, I think Squeaky
Chair would have would have made a dent. I think
(27:47):
that would have been remembered fondly. Do you think people
would have just started calling you squeaky Squeaky's Ah, that's
way better. That's a way better hobo name. Ben. That's
a really good point, do you you know? The From
what I understood, the rule was in those days that
someone it was like the same with any nickname, someone
else had to give you the name. That's right. There's
(28:09):
another fact that I was dying to mention throughout part
one of this episode. Uh, we'll mention it now, but
I'm not going to give the full story because we
are a family show. You guys, remember the song Big
Rock Candy Mountain Noll. This is familiar to you from
stuff they don't want you to know totally. Big Rock
(28:31):
Candy Mountain is a relatively innocuous song. The version that
exists in the modern day. How Whoever, the original version
has an extra verse which is sinister and disturbing and
gives light to the realities of living without a home,
(28:53):
because you know, we we've mainly been focusing on in
this one, especially you know, with living to himself, him
having made this choice, uh, you know, very consciously because
he had family. He his family what didn't even disown him.
We have that part a little ways back where they
write to him and are pleased to hear of his
exploits and he probably could have gone home and you know,
(29:13):
lived off of their largesse anytime he wanted to. They
they seemed to do just fine. But we haven't even
talked about the idea of like kids that are, you know,
living this life because they have no parents, either their
parents have died or maybe they were abused and they
ran away. And yeah, the the lyric and Big Rock
Cany Mountains all about kind of almost selling those kids
(29:35):
into a type of slavery um and that is absolutely
a thing if you think about, like in Pinocchio for example, Uh,
the idea of those kids that are sort of these
like living under sort of a much less benevolent hobo
king who would you know, put these kids to work
and and have them running grifts for for him, like
an Oliver for example. UM, So there is absolutely a
(29:58):
dark side to we have largely characterized as kind of
like a freewheeling you know, sunny go where you want
kind of mentality. UM, can't forget that. But it's very
interesting how um this guy is essentially stood the test
of time, largely I think because of his relationship with
(30:20):
Jack London as being sort of one of the most
famous hoboes in the history of of the the life,
I guess. And he actually wrote twelve books on hobo
life and you can still see his mark. Uh you know,
etch gender Stone and underpasses. Because these train lines have
been around for a long time, it's very difficult to
(30:41):
just uproot that kind of infrastructure. I think. A great
place to end this two part series, which I have
absolutely enjoyed, is with just a couple of excerpts quite
long from a disclaimer that Livingston put at the beginning
of all twelve of his books. UM, where he kind
(31:02):
of sets up with his backstory a little bit and
sort of the choice he made, you know, to live
this life. Um. But then he also does acknowledge that
dark side that we talked about just a second ago. Yeah,
there's interesting language here that indicates showmanship, uh, and also
indicates a little bit of what I would call style
in on it in the parlance of our own day.
(31:24):
First off, he reveals his age. Perhaps some may think
that a man who has attained only the age of
thirty eight years has hardly enough a crewed experience to
justify him in writing and autobiography. Good point, right, But
then he uses pretty um academic language when later he says,
(31:46):
we're other men of my age to write their life story.
It could ordinarily be summed up with cesarean brevity. Really
cesarean brevity. Is that even even in the early nineteen
hundreds are people saying that, I don't know about that one. Ben.
It's but he's definitely got a got a gift in
terms of his colorful language and the way he paints
a picture. Um. He wraps it up with this this uh,
(32:09):
this description here that I think is a really good
job of characterizing kind of the ups and the downs
and all of the different pitfalls that can be associated
with the hobo life. Uh. Quote there's a dark side
to a tramp's life. For every mile stolen on trains,
there is one escape from a horrible death. For each
mile of beautiful scenery and food in plenty, there are
many weary miles of hard walking with no food or
(32:32):
even water, through mountain gorges and over parched deserts. For
each warm summer night, there are ten bitter cold, long
winter nights. For every kindness, there are a score of
unfriendly acts. A tramp is constantly hounded by the minions
of the law, is shunned by all humanity, and never
knows the meaning of home and friends. You can read
(32:52):
the entire disclaimer courtesy of Harvard University Online. Now just out,
you know, just find your search engine of choice and
check out Born to Ramble, Harvard University Hobo King Livingston.
We've got the keywords for you. I do have to see.
(33:13):
This guy is a fantastic writer, and it speaks very
highly of his craft that he is still so uh
compelling and enjoyable today. In fact, Livingstone plays a huge
part in the modern uh sort of archetype of the hobo.
(33:38):
I believe a lot of our fellow ridiculous historians are
probably familiar with the box Car Children book series. I
don't know about you. I never read it, always more
as scary stories to tell him the dark kind of guy.
When Scholastic rolled through. Yeah, I never heard those either,
but they were definitely on the shelf in my like,
I want to say, fifth grade class seems about right.
(33:59):
I was more to the more dark and depressing kind
of stuff and like the Bridges to Terribithia and uh,
you know, The Giver and all that stuff. But they
were definitely super popular, um and absolutely kind of dramatized,
made a little more palatable for a young adult audience
of this kind of hobo life. But I'm sure there
were some trials and tribulations in there. Again, having not
(34:21):
read the books, I can't really say for sure, but
I know they were very popular and absolutely influenced by
this gentleman's proliferation of this kind of culture. I think
the box I think maybe their parents passed away and
they had to live in a box car or yeah,
you know, I don't know if anybody is a fan
of box Car Shoulder and please please send us a
(34:43):
summation arguing arguing four or against us reading it. Casey,
I it looks like you're not You're not our big
box car kids champion here. No. I mean I remember
them from the Scholastic Books Fair, but I never picked
up a copy of that series. Scholastic Book Fair was
so awesome. I wish I wish we could have like
(35:05):
we don't have those as adults. We just have bookstores
and and Amazon. You know how cool would it be
if if one day we were all working in our
office and management just said, hey, everybody, stop everything, the
book fares coming. I would lose my mind. Yeah, that
sounds pretty perfect. Speaking of perfect, I gotta say this
(35:28):
is maybe my favorite two parter we've ever done. Um.
This one really had a lot of interesting twists and
turns to it. And uh I I gotta pat ourselves
on the back here, gentlemen. I'm really happy that we
we split this up the way we did and gave
Mr Livingston his do Yes, and we hope you enjoyed
this journey. We would love to hear from you. What
(35:49):
are your favorite tales of off the grid adventures? Have
you ever found yourself traveling in in a similar fashion.
If so, we want to hear your stories. You can
find us on the internet. We're all over it. We
are in Fact and Podcast. So we're on Facebook, We're
on Instagram, we're on Twitter. You can also find us
(36:10):
as individuals. Yeah, if you want to, you can hit
me up on Instagram. I am at how Now Noel
Brown and I am on Twitter as Ben Bolan hs W.
I am on Instagram as uh Casey pegram number one fan. No, sorry, Casey,
I don't I wasn't that creative. I'm just at them
bowling on Instagram And you can also find us on Facebook,
(36:33):
where we have a pretty cool group called Ridiculous Historians
where you can interact with your fellow listeners and get
into meme games and and lots of fun chat. Really
good folks. There are lots of fun, nice, light hearted
conversation on Ridiculous Histories on Facebook. You just have to
name one or both or all three of us, or
just say something that lets us know that you're a
(36:53):
human being that actually knows that the show is is
a thing and uh and you're in yes, send me, uh,
send me an image of your favorite hobo code. Uh,
here's a question too, if you could create hobo code
for the twenty century. Wait where the twenty one Century, Casey,
keep this part in. We'll just do it again. If
(37:13):
you could create hobo code for the twenty feet century,
what would it be. I imagine it would be like
WiFi availability maybe yeah, or like, you know, public restrooms.
That's a big thing, even if you're not a hobo.
I mean, god, New York City, a free public restroom
is like a unicorn. So yeah, Manhattan has a huge
problem with that. I think it's part of the reason
(37:34):
they could have so many Starbucks. They're functioning as the
public restrooms of that South. Oh my gosh, I'm sorry Starbucks.
But thanks as always to Christopher hassi Otis, to Casey Peckham,
to Alex Williams, who composed that slapping bob you here
at the beginning of every episode slapping Bop Bop and
(37:56):
slap love it Love Alex Williams, and please check out
his podcast Ephemera, available on the I Heart podcast network
as well. Um Hughes, thanks to Eve's Jeff coach, Christopher
Ostiotes here in spirit, Jonathan Strickland that devious question. We
hope to have him back very very soon. And as always, man,
thanks to you, Ben. This was a delightful romp back
(38:17):
at you KNOWL. I guess we'll see each other on
the road and we'll see you next time. For more
podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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