THE HOBO

THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE HOMELESS MAN

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

THE BAKER AND TAYLOR COMPANY, NEW YORK

THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, LONDON

THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA, TOKYO

THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY, SHANGHAI

THE HOBO

THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE
HOMELESS MAN

By NELS ANDERSON

A STUDY PREPARED FOR THE CHICAGO
COUNCIL OF SOCIAL AGENCIES UNDER
THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE
ON HOMELESS MEN

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO · ILLINOIS

COPYRIGHT 1923 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PUBLISHED MAY 1923

COMPOSED AND PRINTED BY

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A.

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EDITOR’S PREFACE

The present volume is intended to be the first ofa series of studies of the urban community andof city life. The old familiar problems of our communaland social life—poverty, crime, and vice—assumenew and strange forms under the conditionsof modern urban existence. Inherited custom, tradition,all our ancient social and political heritages—humannature itself—have changed and are changingunder the influence of the modern urban environment.

The man whose restless disposition made him apioneer on the frontier tends to become a “homelessman”—a hobo and a vagrant—in the modern city.From the point of view of their biological predispositions,the pioneer and the hobo are perhaps thesame temperamental type; from the point of view oftheir socially acquired traits, they are somethingquite different.

The city, more than any other product of man’sgenius and labors, represents the effort of mankind toremake the world in accordance with its wishes, butthe city, once made, compels man to conform to thestructure and the purposes he himself has imposedupon it. If it is true that man made the city,it is quite as true that the city is now makingman. That is certainly a part of what we meanwhen we speak of the “urban” as contrasted withthe “rural” mind. In any case, it is true that withinthe circle of these two tendencies, man’s disposition,...