Hobos Riding The Rails In The 1930's

Hobos Riding the Rails

In the 1930’s many who rode the rails led an exciting but dangerous life while riding the rails led an exciting but dangerous life. While riding the fails the would live in the woods called “jungles”. The hoboes riding the rails was interesting to learn about. Some interesting topics were why they rode the rails, where they lived and cooked and how dangerous it was to ride the rails.

First, it is important why the hoboes had to ride the rails. During the Dust Bowl (1931-1935) many people lost their jobs because machines were replacing them (Hix). Another reason was that many had to leave the farms and heard there was work elsewhere. To be able to get to these jobs they hand to jump on the train to get there, but it was illegal …show more content…
After the war Many Soldiers went home to find that their was no work for them. They grabbed a shovel or a hoe and went to look for work. When soldiers looked for work they only worked enough to get the money needed to get to the next stop. The railroad was one of the hoboes biggest employers. Some of the wage the hoboes got from railroad was 10 cents per 100 miles or 20 cents for a ride overnight. Some of the jobs hoboes did was to build schools, courthouse and hospitals. When they did this kind of work they learned a trade called Masons. There is a difference between hoboes and bums. Hoboes look for short time work but go from town to town. Bums don’t want to work they just want people to give them stuff (Hix). There were many famous people who were hoboes. Among them was Novelist Louis L’Amour, TV host Art Linkletter, Supreme Court Justice