Word: bummed
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...good old anatomical word in England, "bum" in U. S. parlance means a down-&-outer. But not every social outcast answers willingly to the name. Many a hobo is no bum but a journeyman worker, traveling cheaply from one seasonal occupation to another. Some "jungle" inhabitants are college graduates, may even be sociologists in search of statistics. Such a bloodhound in bum's clothing was Author Thomas Minehan. Disguising himself with apparently complete success, he spent two years' vacations traveling in boxcars, weekending in jungles, standing in mission breadlines, indefatigably taking notes. The result was the first book...
...that the U. S. Government tried and convicted him in June 1923, for using the mails to defraud. Outside the court one Negro woman fell on her knees. Another walked up to her, slapped her hard. "Get yourself up from there, you crazy lunatic. That big fat bum ain't wuth praying for. He done beat me out of my life's savings." When Garvey got out of jail, he was shipped back to his native Jamaica as an undesirable alien. Every time he got himself elected to something in Jamaica, he somehow got himself jailed for something...
Frank is a young bum who has done time for vagrancy and assault but works when he has to, gambles when he can, is still more of a smart hobo than a dumb crook. At a California lunchstand and filling station he panhandles the Greek proprietor for a meal, changes his mind about moving on when he sees the Greek's wife, Cora. The Greek offers him a job. He takes it and in 24 hours Cora too. She hates her husband but has too much sense to run away with Frank. Instead, she suggests they murder the Greek...
...Bowery bum died of malaria in Manhattan. He must have just come from the tropics, reasoned Chief Medical Examiner Charles Norris, and casually noted that the derelict had been a narcotic addict. Another Bowery bum died of malaria, and another, and another. Dr. Norris called his assistants together, ordered: "There's a carrier loose down around Park Row. Watch...
...dope," added Dr. Milton Helpern, one of Dr. Norris' assistants. Perspicacious Dr. Helpern had noticed that every dead malarial bum had been a drug addict. He visualized a huddle of men in Park Row which, once famed for its newspaper establishments, is actually a murky, musty street of pawnshops, stationery stores, clothing shops, and sodden lodging houses where for 25? a night a man can rent a bunk. In one of those hotels had lived three of the dead bums...