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Reviews Ben Reitman: Champion of the Outcast
The Damndest Radical: The Life and World of Ben Reitman, Chicago's
Celebrated Social Reformer, Hobo
King, and Whorehouse Physician Ben Reitman (1879-1942) was a dervish, a man of perpetual motion. A bombastic social reformer and showman, he sought out causes and political fights both in his adopted hometown of Chicago and on the national stage. As a champion of the outcast, Reitman advocated for hoboes, prostitutes, anarchists, and proponents of free speech and birth control. He spent time in jail, rubbed elbows with Al Capone, tangled with Billy Sunday, was tarred and "sagebrushed" in San Diego, and wrote two books that were well received by sociologists. His personal life overflowed as well. An unrepentant womanizer, Reitman was Emma Goldman's companion and lover for nearly a decade. And after two failed marriages he finally settled down with a woman twenty-five years his junior. Indeed, the omnipresent Reitman is a radical predecessor of Forrest Gump—popping up in event after event in the early part of the twentieth century. Reitman's life and times come alive in the capable hands of Roger Bruns. The author of more than a dozen books (including Preacher: Billy Sunday and Big-Time American Evangelism and Knights of the Road: A Hobo History) Bruns is a master at turning the apt phrase and his enthusiasm for his subject matter readily comes across the pages of this book. Moreover, Bruns, who serves as the Deputy Executive Director of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives, has the ability to appeal to specialists and non-specialists alike. Reitman's early years were filled with hardship. Born in Minnesota in 1879 to Russian Jewish immigrants, his chance for a comfortable childhood disappeared when his father abandoned the family. After a few peripatetic years on the road, Reitman's family settled down to a life of poverty in Chicago. During this period he received little in the way of formal education but became immersed in the city's underworld and the lessons that it offered. At age twelve, he hopped an eastbound train and went from being a "street kid" to a "road kid." As the "Chi Kid," he learned how to ride the rails, panhandle, and make his way around hobo jungles and even several jails. After six years on the road Reitman returned from his travels, worked for a couple of years in a medical laboratory, and then entered medical school. He earned his M.D. and began to serve the down and out and to teach at local medical schools, but when those duties became tedious he returned to his true love: tramping. In St. Louis in 1907, Reitman's life changed dramatically when he met James Eads How, the "Millionaire Hobo" and founder of the International Brotherhood Welfare Association (IBWA), which tried to educate hoboes through "hobo colleges." With How's blessing Reitman returned to the Windy City to found his own branch of the hobo college. A master of the press release, Reitman built his own reputation, which grew as rapidly as the new institution. Hoboes and newspaper editors alike referred to him as the "King of the Hoboes" or the "Master Bum." Though Reitman loved his increasing notoriety, his experiences with the IBWA allowed him to discover that "hobo reform was his calling." But Reitman abandoned his calling a year later when he met "Red" Emma Goldman, the renowned anarchist. The two become lovers and embarked on a national crusade to promote the causes of anarchism, feminism, birth control, and free speech. But the affair between the "King of the Hoboes" and the "Queen of Anarchy" was always on the edge. While Reitman was a great front man for Goldman and helped bring her more publicity, Goldman never accepted his womanizing and her circle never accepted this "P.T. Barnum of the hobo world" or "intellectual ragamuffin." And Reitman, for his part, always felt more at home with reformers than revolutionaries. Consequently, he became much happier and more effective when he returned to Chicago to pick up his work as a venereal disease doctor and friend of the hoboes—work he'd abandoned nearly a decade before. On the whole, Bruns does a fine job of portraying the flamboyant Reitman—right down to the doctors flowing cape, Windsor tie, fedora, and walking cane. Nevertheless, the book has two shortcomings. First, some Chicago history devotees will be disappointed that Bruns gives Goldman and the national anarchist movement so much attention at the expense of Reitman's life and experiences on the social fringes of early 20th century Chicago. Second, the authors focus on various other historical figures occasionally prevents his protagonist from being the star of his own biography. Ultimately, The Damndest Radical is an enjoyable and informative book. By reissuing Bruns' book in paperback, University of Illinois Press has once again given voice to the indomitable spirit of Ben Reitman, champion of the outcast. Alan Bloom is Lecturer in History and the Humanities at Valparaiso University and is currently writing a book on the history of homelessness in mid-nineteenth-century Chicago.
20 ILLINOIS HERITAGE |
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