ocr: athin old little bum For Kerouac, hoboes, particulary rauroad bums like the old man sharing the gondola with Ray, were vanishing models off treedom, mobility, and individuality throwbacks to the America of Whitman's Song oft the Open Road." Kerouac admired the hoboesfor their self-sufficiency, stoicisM, preterence for solitude, and gnarly refusalt to participate in consumer culture. He. had a speciallove for their romantic nicknames "Montana Slim, - Mssissippl Gene, Zacatecan Jack,' and sO on. He lamented their departure fromthe american scene and that the countryin its postwar prosperity no l ...
