Hobos Elect New King and Queen

Aug. 12, 2005 — -- Todd "Adman" Waters recently took the last ride of his reign as the 2004 King of the Hobos. He caught trains from Minnesota to Montana to sprinkle the ashes of his friend and fellow hobo, Buzz Potter, along the banks of the Kootenia River.

"These last three weeks beat me up," Adman, 58, said. But he added, "It was my last ride as king, but not my last ride."

Adman will be passing along his crown this weekend during the 105th annual Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa, which runs from Aug. 11-14.

The festival began in 1900, when three men decided to welcome hobos to Britt to get some publicity for the town, and the tradition stuck. Now the tiny town of 2,000 swells to 20,000 or more when the hobos roll in.

The annual Hobo Convention is a time where these "working wanderers" gather to reconnect and trade stories from the past year.

It's also when they elect a new king and queen. Contenders give a two-minute speech to the crowd of hobos, tourists and townspeople and then a king and queen are chosen based on who gets the loudest, most raucous applause.

The duties of the king and queen are vague at best -- there's no oath of office or bylaws to follow, and royalty is crowned with a shredded Folger's coffee can.

But candidates do run for office and do make campaign promises. Sometimes they run based on their connection to hobo history -- such as Betty "Connecticut Shorty" Moylan and Maggie "New York Maggie" Malone, two former Hobo Queens whose father was a legendary hobo named Connecticut Slim. Others, like this year's queen, Dawn "Sunrise" Divento, win by entertaining the crowd with music or stories.

Adman says the most important duty for a king or queen is to keep hobo history and culture alive. In his stump speech, Adman pledged to identify a man found frozen to death in a train boxcar two years ago and give him a proper burial. He's distributed fliers across the country and raised enough money to build a gravestone for the unknown man in Britt's Hobo Cemetery.