ROLLING NOWHERE Rding the Rails with America's Hoboes

The tramp travels, and he works, Conover was told while riding the rails. "The hobo, he travels, but he don't work. Just likes drifting. The bum ain't gonna do nothing, work or travel." An anthropology major, Conover spent five dollars on thrift-shop clothes and jumped a freight. Before he was done, he'd jumped 65 of them, slept in hobo jungles, and been jailed for asking to see a policeman's badge number. He even worked in the fields and gave blood for money. That was more than twenty years ago, but there's a new preface, and Conover still sounds like himself, a keen observer with in-fectious innocence and a yen for social justice. B.H.C. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 02]