Table Of Contenttitle: Tales of an American Hobo Singular Lives
author: Fox, Charles Elmer.
publisher: University of Iowa Press
isbn10 | asin: 0877452520
print isbn13: 9780877452522
ebook isbn13: 9781587290695
language: English
Fox, Charles Elmer, Tramps--United States-
subject
-Biography.
publication date: 1989
lcc: HV4505.F68 1989eb
ddc: 305.5/68
Fox, Charles Elmer, Tramps--United States-
subject:
-Biography.
Page i
Tales of an American Hobo
Page iii
SINGULAR LIVES
The Iowa Series in North American
Autobiography
Albert E. Stone, Series Editor
Page v
Tales of an American Hobo
By Charles Elmer Fox
Preface by Albert E. Stone
Introduction by Lynne M. Adrian
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA PRESS
IOWA CITY
Page vi
University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 52242 Copyright © 1989 by the
University of Iowa Press All rights reserved Printed in the United
States of America Wood engravings by Beth Krommes
http://www.uiowa.edu/~uipress No part of this book may be
reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying and recording, without
permission in writing from the publisher. Printed on acid-free paper
Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fox, Charles Elmer.
Tales of an American hobo/by Charles Elmer Fox;
preface by Albert E. Stone; introduction by Lynne M.
Adrian.
p. cm.(Singular lives)
ISBN 0-87745-251-2, ISBN 0-87745-252-0 (pbk.)
1. Fox, Charles Elmer. 2. TrampsUnited States
Biography. I. Title. II. Series.
HV4505.F68 1989
305.5'68dc20 89-5055
[B]
99 00 01 02 03 P 5 4 3 2
Page vii
In Memory of Them All
Boxcars rattling in the rain,
The age-old song of a speeding train.
It takes me back to the long ago,
To Mulligan Shorty and Bug-eyed Joe.
I've sat with them by many fires,
When the days came to an end,
And heard a steam train whistle moan
As she came around the bend.
Off on some distant mountain grade
In the wee hours of the night,
The cracking exhaust of a steamer at work
And her piercing yellow light.
As the embers of the fire glow faintly
And the long hours of night pass on,
I think of old friends and the steamers I loved,
For all are now dead and gone.
Charles Elmer Fox
Page ix
CONTENTS
Preface xi
Albert E. Stone
Introduction xv
Lynne M. Adrian
Tales of an American Hobo 1
Charles Elmer Fox
Page xi
PREFACE
"Reefer Charlie" Fox is the second autobiographer to appear in the
University of Iowa Press' Singular Lives series. Like his predecessor's
inaugural volume, Milt Felsen's The Anti-Warrior: A Memoir, Fox's
Tales of an American Hobo was written late in an active, ongoing life.
It also joins as a late contribution a sizable body of similarly inspired
stories written out of social experiences long past, forgotten by many
or even unknown to them. As Lynne Adrian points out in her
introduction, however, American readers for more than a century have
vicariously enjoyed the adventures and mishaps (more or less
authenticated) of the "knights of the road." The popularity of such
unconventional autobiographies has risen and fallen as concern for an
endemic social problem has given way to a more comfortable
nostalgia and historical curiosity and as the railroad has declined in
economic and cultural significance. But while today's detective novels
and films continue to exploit the excitement and glamor still attached
to railroad travelin first class, at least, the ideal setting for mystery and
romanceso, too, there persists a fascination with those who once rode
the rods beneath the dining cars and plush compartments where
Hitchcock's heroines and villains enact their timeless deceptions. "I'm
the last of a kind,'' Fox announces (prematurely, we hope) of his place
in our social annals. In fact, a prime aim of his richly anecdotal
account is to memorialize a past world and his dead pals who "have
caught that westbound freight." In the process, Reefer Charlie does
more than recall the characters and life-style of his peers and
predecessors. He leaves us an indelible sketch of his own personality
and onetime position in the hobo society once flourishing, often
unnoticed, along our highways and roadbeds.
Page xii
As social historian and self-portraitist, Fox both follows and enriches
the tradition marked earlier in the century by such best-sellers as Life
and Adventures of A No. One: America's Most Celebrated Tramp,
Written by Himself and its more unusual variant, Sister of the Road:
The Autobiography of Boxcar Bertha. Unlike many of his
predecessors, Fox is seldom the muckraker intent on using his life
story as a political tool to expose social ills and criminal riffraff. Tales
of an American Hobo is more an idealist's version of and apology for
hobohernia, one in which the upper crust of the vagabond battalions
are shown to be living by a "jungle law" as respectable and moral as
that of the settled citizenry and more admirable than the common
mores of the tramps and bums from whom Fox carefully distances
himself and his hobo brethren. "Hoboes will work, tramps won't, and
bums can't" is his wording of the usual distinction. The hoboes
Charlie has known and admired often got their start, he admits, as
tramps and bums. They all share itchy feet and a detestation of
regimentation. But many of his friends, like the aging vegetarian who
teaches Charlie the virtues of a fruit diet, steal only to eat or keep
warm. They are somewhat less racially prejudiced than others on the
road, where the lot of blacks and Mexicans was little better than in the
settlements. Moreover, Fox is discreet about the prevalence of
homosexuality in the jungles and boxcars of the past.
American social history, as documented by this amateur expert, is
enriched by fresh insights, facts, and value judgments coming "from
below." "The road is a constant source of knowledge to those who
have an open mind," Fox writes. Hoboes share what amounts to a
distinct subculture characterized by a shared vocabulary, work skills
and recreation habits, folklore and superstitions, and even an
institutional structure quite similar to sections of the dominant society.
Relationships with the larger society are, however, chiefly
antagonistic inasmuch as they are usually defined by unfriendly
