Gentleman lives here
A top hat, reported to mean that a rich man, or a gentleman, lived in the house.
Meaning
A top hat is one of the few hobo signs that looks like what it means. Dan Beard (1918) wrote that a rough drawing of a tall hat meant a rich man to hobos, and he passed it on to his Boy Scout readers as the sign for a gentleman. The National Cryptologic Museum’s sample sheet draws the hat for “Gentleman lives here”, and adds a triangle beside it for “Rich people live here”; its exhibit text says simply that a drawing of a top hat means a wealthy man lives here.
Origin and history
How such signs were learned is not recorded. The National Cryptologic Museum, which counts about 50 hobo signs, suggests that their meanings had to be passed on by word of mouth, perhaps by older hobos teaching younger ones in a boxcar or at a camp fire.
Read next
- Next in Hobo symbolsDog hereTwo letter W’s run together, reported to mean that a dog lived at the house; other marks warned of a dangerous dog.
- The same shape in Andean and Inca symbolsGateway of the Sun (the Staff God)A doorway cut from a single block of andesite at Tiwanaku, near Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, carved above the opening with a god holding a staff in each hand. Who the figure is remains open: Britannica lists a sun god, a thunder god and Viracocha among the readings.
See also
Camp here, Kind woman lives here, Food given here, Religious talk for a meal, Care if you are sick, Keep quiet.
Sources
- The American Boys’ Book of Signs, Signals and Symbols, Dan Beard, J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1918 (Cornell scan on the Internet Archive), Internet Archive, ch. IX, fig. 93
- Sample of Some Hobo Signs, National Cryptologic Museum, exhibit sheet (hobo-signs-definitions.pdf), National Security Agency, page 1
- Hobo Communications: A Brief History of Hobos and Their Signs, National Cryptologic Museum exhibit, 4 August 2021, National Security Agency
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from lines or squares and rectangles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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