“HOBO NEWS” OUT; EDITOR DOES NOT LIKE WORD “HOBO.”
But “We Are Going to Make It Respectable,” is Announcement in First Issue.
James Eads How, moving spirit and “angel” of the Brotherhood Welfare Association, yesterday kept the first of the promises he made to his migratory brethren when recently he came into a fortune under his mother’s will. . He said he would publish a newspaper for the benefit of his, organization of the unemployed and Volume 1, Number 1 of the Hobo News was the fulfillment.
An editorial paragraph whimsically explains the choice of title. The writer admits that he doesn’t like the word “hobo,” but philosophically concludes: “We have got it and we are going to make it respectable.” He goes on to explain that the Christians were not considered respectable when they were first called by that name at Antioch and that the Methodist and Quakers had all kinds of trouble – before they “got into the kingdom.” He leaves the reader to draw his own analogies.
Definition of a Hobo.
As for definition of the word itself, the News declares the “fool dictionaries” are all wrong when they describe a hobo variously as a tramp, a vagrant, a vagabond, a vagrant workman, an idle, itinerant workman. The official definition. “discovered by Comrade Hallet of Chicago,” has a decidedly classical favor.
The word “hobo,” according to Comrade Hallet, is derived from the first two syllables of the Latin words, “nomo bonis,” meaning a good man, Comrade Hallet’s foot slipped a little on that word “bonis,” but what’s an “i” or a “u” between friends? The “bishop” over the editorial page lists the members of the Press Committee as Cora D. Harvey, Hinton, Ok.; James Eads How and Robert W. Irwin, St. Louis; John T. Goings, Kansas City, and John X. Kelly, Chicago. A late announcement declares: “This paper is published of the Hoboes, by the Hoboes avid for the Hoboes. All outsiders are supposed to cough up a jitney.” The last phrase is believed to be “hoboese” for pay a nickel.
The articles for the most part are serious in tone and well written. One of them takes to task a St. Louis daily newspaper for warning the news publishers that the summertime lure of the road is likely to scatter subscribers. The reply concludes with a rather sarcastic prediction that the fool will wake up in his folly one of these days, and special institutions will be built for spring poets and capitalistic editors.
Has “Miss Fluffy” Department.
The paper has a department in which “Miss Fluffy” answers questions of deportment. Lizzie, who confesses to a soft passion for a “gandry dancer,” who unfortunately doesn’t know the tango, is advised to consult a horseshoer and have his feet mated.
Among the society notes is the announcement that Mush Faker has joined the ranks of the Capitalists and is selling morning newspapers.
The more important articles, some of which are signed by the writers, deal with sociological and industrial questions. The headquarters of the News is given as 1111 Clark avenue.
The above article from the Post-Dispatch refers to April issue, No. 1. Copies are on sale at the National Office.