DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "A Tramp's Notebook" by Morley Roberts. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

The author was interested in the lives of what could be termed 'vagabonds' and so set out to study their motives and lifestyle. He secured a job as a police officer for the railroad that gave him a 2000-mile 'beat'. The book describes what he learned during this time.

This sociological classic shows how the railroad tramp’s status as a deviant changed from frontier itinerant to post settlement vagrant; from class conscious proletariat in the Depression to the damaged post WWII vet. The third edition (with new photos) discusses how today the freights have become the milieu of violent gangs who transport drugs, human traffickers, and serial killers. Beating the odds against increased post 9/11 surveillance are yuppie adventure seekers, young travelers, crust punks and oogles. In the background is the same freight train—unforgiving and lethal—and cultures policed at times by honorable tramps and at times by sadistic enforcers of violent gangs. Features of the new edition: Eight previously unpublished photos that reflect new directions in visual ethnography. (90 photos altogether) A fuller integration of photos made during the author’s participant research with tramps over thousands of miles on the freights and while living homeless in urban America. New, nuanced edit of a narrative describing author’s five week immersion with the quintessential tramp of the era, Carl.