The moral: contemporary hobos carry more baggage than what’s found on their backs.

Renowned journalist Dale Maharidge leaves readers of his 1991 book, “The Last Great American Hobo,” with a few substantial themes of hoboism that contemporary America must come to understand: hobos are not only a byproduct of the economy and hobos differentiate from the “homeless.”

Maharidge’s journey into postmodern Hobohemia began with a combination of circumstance, insight and apathy. Feeling the omnipresent weight of banality infringing on his duties at a Sacramento publication, he and photojournalist co-worker Michael Williamson found themselves drawn to a hobo camp near the West Sacramento River.

This was the early ’90s during the rise of California’s “Homeless Sweep,” when police were cracking down on the homeless in an attempt to rid the business-savvy city of cultural stains such as beggars and vagabonds and especially their illegal camps.

Tales of the sweep provide a menacing background for the story. With a citation of public nuisance issued to the camp’s residents — “Montana” Blackie, Shorty, Woody and Luke, all of whom are train-riding hobos — it is only so much time until the camp is disbanded and the authors’ sub-cultural oasis is a relic of the past.

Still, to simply lie down and die is not the hobo way. What follows is a legal battle to keep the camp, along with a plethora of personal battles that does not exclude the authors’.

These battles are not necessarily lost, but learned from. The moral: contemporary hobos carry more baggage than what’s found on their backs.

Maharidge’s style is one that conveys exemplary organization. He is amazingly focused throughout this story, despite its brevity. The same can be said for Williamson’s photographical narrative that accompanies the story.

The authors place the reader in the moment, whether it’s a campfire gathering, an early morning hangover or a courtroom full of unsmiling peers.

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