164

ICONS, SPOTS AND DINGBATS: FROM STONE AGE TO SPACE AGE

Hobo Signs

These chalk-marked icons

were scribed on sidewalks

or fences to lead other

hoboes to safe places for

a handout or to direct

them away from

dangerous houses and

neighborhoods. A

complex lexicon

developed, and an

illiterate hobo was plumb

out of luck. A few of the

many signs are shown

on this page. Too bad

hoboes didn't have Adobe

Illustrator, because these

7-point round-cap stroke

icons that I researched

off the Internet were

really easy to draw.

-^ I

ШШ&Шп

Owner is in

Go this way

Bad dog

Good place
for a handout

Well-guarded
house

Kind lady
lives here

I beating Dangerous

awaits you here neighborhood

Ancient
Icons

In his 1926 treatise

The Book of Signs, Rudolf

Koch does not give

specifics as to the origin

of these ancient icons.

But we take him at his

word since he is Koch.

Originally cut in wood by

Koch's assistant Fritz

Kredel, these icons were

scanned and autotraced

by the author, then

carefully point edited for

accuracy. The flairing

strokes lend a

monumental quality that

could be used for styling

modern icons.

ТАЬА

Man Woman Man and woman Woman becomes

united for procreation Pregnant

h-MilTA

Woman bears The family; man with Friendship between men Men quarrel

child his wife and children and fight

The man dies

The widow and
her children

One child dies

Forlorn mother with
remaining child

Crop Signs

The speed with which crop signs
appear in fields overnight, the
miraculous manner in which the
stalks are bent and interwoven
yet not broken, the uncanny
precision of the forms and their
unique complexity, along with the
amazing interplay of positive and
negative space—carved out of
corn!—leaves no doubt in my
mind as to their otherworldly
origins. While interpreters of
these signs await their Rosetta
stone, researcher Wolfgang
Schindler, who created the
carefully measured drawings of
actual crop circles shown on this
page, jokingly suggests that they
represent messages meant for
him. Your intrepid author has, in
the meantime, divined the true
meaning of these outer space
icons and captioned each
accordingly.

Morgan's Hill, 1994