*The hobo code, a system of symbols devised by hobos to communicate with each other, was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to pass along directions, information, and warnings. Unlike “tramps”, who avoided work whenever possible, or “bums” who refused to work at all, hobos were migrant workers, making their way across the frontier via freight trains after the end of the Civil War and, later, during the Great Depression of the 1930’s.