Richard L. Wormser

Hazel Rochman (Booklist, June 1994 (Vol. 90, No. 19 & 20))
The hobo wanders and works. The tramp wanders but does not work, and the bum neither wanders nor works." Quotes by hoboes about their world--its rules, literature, songs, customs, and language--and many stirring black-and-white documentary photographs enliven this account of those who rode the trains in search of a job from the end of the Civil War to the start of World War II. Wormser evokes the adventure of the hobo journey, the romance of the rugged individual, the pride and the exhilaration of "flipping freights" (hoboes rode on, in, and under every section of the train; some photos even show them riding on the rods underneath the train). At the same time, he's frank about the brutal reality of living on the edge in hard times--the hunger, the viciousness, the "jungle" warfare. This is also an essential part of labor history, and there's a fascinating chapter on the Wobblies, who tried to organize the wandering workers and improve conditions. From the beginning, readers will be struck by the differences and similarities between those hoboes and today's homeless people and migrant workers; but, unfortunately, Wormser doesn't connect past and present except in a brief epilogue. He includes bibliographic references for each chapter; and the final hobo dictionary captures the community of the bindle stiff in all its wildness and melancholy. Category: Older Readers. 1994, Walker, $17.95. Gr. 6-12.… (más)