Gregory R. Woirol

This book is intended for academic study--my used copy even came with marginalia--but I still found it to be an intriguing read. Woirol excerpts from the journal of one F.C. Mills, who in 1914 spent his summer living as a hobo in Central California. This wasn't done to spy on people (indeed, he was recognized despite his ratty disguise) but to gather information on the lifestyle for the California Commission on Immigration and Housing. He undertook this job soon after riots broke out in Wheatland, so itinerant laborers were a subject of great interest and scrutiny.

Mills worked as an orange packer in Lindsay and with lumber up in the mountains at Hume, and did other odd jobs in between. He lived as a hobo, starting out as an ignorant "gay-cat" and maturing to the point where he learns to hop on and off trains to travel the length of the Central Valley. There is a lot of good information here on hobo lingo and culture. Since I knew many of the places mentioned--Tulare, Visalia, Sanger, Fresno, Dinuba--I couldn't help but be fascinated.

The book is very short, about 150 pages of content. The most tedious chapter was on his research into the I.W.W., the union that gained momentum in California in that period. But even that slow chapter had some interesting bits, including some blasphemous parody hymns. I wish that Woirol had kept everything in chronological order rather than by theme, but overall I liked how he supplemented the Mills' text with additional information.… (mais)