Food given here
A circle with a cross inside, reported in 1907 to mean that food was given at the house.
Meaning
A syndicated article dated from Boston in December and printed in American papers early in 1908 told householders that a circle with a cross inside meant someone there had once fed a tramp, and that he was passing the word along that “food is given here”. It said the signs were vouched for by Inspector George Patterson of the Boston police, who had made a study of them. The National Cryptologic Museum’s sample sheet draws a circle with an X for “OK for a handout”, and a report from France in 1928 gave the same mark as “a good welcome, plenty of bread, wine and a bed”.
Origin and history
The Boston article was written for the householder, not the tramp: its advice was to rub the mark out as soon as it was found, because it was an invitation no tramp would overlook. The cross inside the circle is the difference from a plain circle, which the same article read as “nothing doing”.
Did anyone photograph one?
The Historic Graffiti Society, which records hobo marks, says that to its knowledge no photograph of a hobo sign exists that was not staged for a newspaper. The signs were chalked, and chalk does not last, so the absence proves little either way; the hub page sets out the debate.
Read next
See also
Kind woman lives here, Nothing doing, Care if you are sick, Gentleman lives here, Dog here, Keep quiet.
Sources
- Signs of Tramp World: How They Chalk Upon Fences Advice to Their Fellow-Hobos, syndicated from Boston; Dakota Farmers’ Leader (Canton, S.D.), 13 March 1908, page 6, Library of Congress, Chronicling America
- Sample of Some Hobo Signs, National Cryptologic Museum, exhibit sheet (hobo-signs-definitions.pdf), National Security Agency, page 1
- French hobo signs (syndicated report), The Weekly Gazette (East Hartford, Conn.), 8 February 1929, page 8, Library of Congress, Chronicling America
- Hobo Signs: Code of the Road?, 2 February 2020, updated 12 February 2022, The Historic Graffiti Society, Our Thoughts & Conclusions
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles or crosses.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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