Briarlee’s Hobo Blend #1

[Briar Lee]

A couple of years ago my Amish renter came to me and wanted me to see a big concrete wall and structure at the entrance to Spout Spring Hollow.

I told him, that Alva Rains told me, that was a siding spur from the Leaky Roof railroad from 1885 to 1935 and also the site of a hobo jungle, just across the Cedar County line.

The railroad bulls had no jurisdiction in Cedar County. There the poor hobos could eat their hobo stew in peace.

He asked, what was hobo stew?

I replied it was any canned goods or other food the neighbors set out for them, or they gave to them when they wanted work, in addition to a fair day’s pay.

So I’ve named my first custom blend Hobo Blend #1, to remember those hoboes who used to eat and smoke whatever was available.

Two parts Buoy Gold and one part Smoker’s Pride Cherry Cavendish.

updating via yoast

www.tobaccoreviews.com

Smoker’s Pride is made by Lane and is basically a generic mild cherry cavendish with lots of PG. It’s an all day smoke in a pipe and makes clouds of cherry scented smoke.

Buoy Gold is my favorite ribbon cut all natural value tobacco, mostly Virginia.

If you blend them, you’ll get good cherry flavored cigarettes or good pipe tobacco.

And at a cost of about a dollar an ounce.

 

[Snook]

Great bit of history behind the name, and the blend itself sounds really good.

 

[Bassman65]

Love the Smoker’s Pride!Good value for dollar.

 

[Pooh-Bah]

Don't sound half bad.

As I hear it, the historical distinction between a hobo and a bum was that, given the chance to make an honest dollar, a hobo would take it and a bum wouldn't.
...an honest dollar which he might then spend on Hobo Blend #1.

 

[Jacob74]

Hoboes travel and will work, Tramps travel and avoid work, and Bums don't travel or work, (if they can help it). To that end, enjoy this photo of pipe smoker W.H. Davies, the original Super Tramp.

 

[Briar Lee]

All along each side of Base Line Road (now 360th) from the Plum Grove Christian Church to the first Turkey Creek crossing rose the mansions of the faithful and their darling wives, each on their own hilltop, as Alva Rains would tell me, his voice still having traces of the Scottish uplands.

And each mansion belonged to a proud old cavalryman of the 8th MSM or 12th regiment of Missouri Volunteers who rode for Abraham Lincoln.

James "Alva" Rains (1905-1990) - Find a...

www.findagrave.com

When he was ten his father approached my great grandmother, who took him in, and clothed and fed him, and let him have his pick of the horses, even the jumpers.

In my time Alva and my father and others kept fox hounds, but they hunted at night. Alva told of fox hunting in daylight, from the saddle, with the veterans of the Battle of Humansville, and Battle of Nashville, and who scattered Roman Nose in Montana, and their sons.

Hook Nose - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Alva explained a hobo was an honest man, often down on his luck, and a tramp might be a wanderer, and a bum was often too drunk to catch a freight.

But each was a perfect child of God, all the same, and he’d recite the story of Lazarus and the rich man.

Bible Gateway passage: Luke 16:19-31 - King James Version

There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came...

www.biblegateway.com

Even in my youth, no door or gate could be locked against the wayfaring stranger.

Today the Amish occupy all those hillsides, even where Alva’s mansion stood.

But as Alva would have said, their lassies are a bit less fancy than ours were.

I wish I’d recorded Alva, but so far every legend he ever drilled into me has more or less checked out.

This September 8 will mark 160 years since the 12th Missouri advanced headlong into one the largest concentrations of Indians ever on the plains, and lived to tell their grandsons of scattering Roman Nose.

Xxxx
On Friday, September 8, 1865, Colonel Cole's and Lieutenant Colonel Walker's column's were marching south up the Powder River in present-day Powder River County, Montana. Unbeknownst to them, a village of over 3,000 Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho, containing approximately 1000 lodges was camped less than ten miles away.

Powder River Battles (1865) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Xxxx

As my wife is getting better, I hope to be there at Broadus.

They smoked whatever tobacco the sutlers had, and sage brush when they ran out.

 

[NookersTheCat]

Great read/bit of history! Def gonna try the blend. Now I have an excuse to break into yet another unexplored brand (Smoker's Pride) lol.

If anyone knows of the show Mad Men there's a very good episode called "The Hobo Code" that delves into some hobo history... great show and episode. Definitely agree, the world would be a far better place with more hobos and less bums.

Also the song "Big Rock Candy Mountain" from Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? is another great little morsel of hobo culture... and another great piece of film. Looks like I now have a movie for tonight lol, cheers

 

[DeerparkDays]

And don't forget "Emperor of the North".....best movie e-v-e-r!

 

[DeerparkDays]

"Kid - ya got no class....." Epic!!!!

 

[Pooh-Bah]

I think this may call for a Hobo Blend #2 - For behold, an Oregon newspaper from 1900 which claims that California hobos would throw a cigar butt into the pot when making coffee (in the section on making mulligan, aka, hobo stew).

The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current, January 21, 1900, Image 13

The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current, January 21, 1900, Image 13, brought to you by University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR, and the National Digital Newspaper Program.

oregonnews.uoregon.edu