Mulligan Stew: Stories and Traditions of American Hobos

Ever since track was first laid for the great locomotives, hobos have listened to the call of the rails, lured by the possibility of free transportation to another place—if they could make their way unnoticed and unharmed. They rode the rails for various reasons—to escape economic hardship, satisfy an urge for adventure, or simply to feed their wanderlust. Along the way, they developed their own culture.

Mulligan Stew contains a variety of ingredients from the hobo culture: hobo life as it was lived at the turn of the twentieth century, women hobos, hobo heroes, hobo signs and symbols, contemporary hobos telling of their experiences, and hobo traditions from the National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa—an event that has opened a door into the hobo world every August for more than 100 years. The convention motto is "There's a Little Bit of Hobo in All of Us." Readers who are hobos at heart are invited to open this book and savor the stew.

Praise for Mulligan Stew
No book I know has captured the varieties of hobo experience as well as Barbara Hacha's Mulligan Stew, and in a form that perfectly fits the phenomenon…
—Luther the Jet, Hobo King 1995–96

About the Author
Barbara Hacha writes both fiction and nonfiction and is a freelance book editor. For her historical novel, Line by Line, Barbara researched the hobo culture as it was during the Great Depression. Her research eventually led her to Britt, Iowa, to attend the 111th National Hobo Convention, where she met and interviewed the hobos whose stories are in this book.

Barbara's novel, Line by Line, was a Finalist in the Best New Fiction category of USA Book News "Best Books of 2011" Awards. It also received a Bronze medal in Historical Fiction from the Independent Publisher (IPPY) Awards in 2012 and was awarded a BRAG Medallion on Goodreads.