The “hobo king” of North America arrived in Williamsport last evening on fast freight and decided to pay friends an overnight visit. He is on his way to Gary, Indiana, where he said he has a “date” with his girlfriend.

The recognized leader of the continent’s “knights of the road,” J. Leon Lazarowitz, is president of the Bona Fide Hobos Union of North America, having retained the title over the past seven years. He may be re-elected at the next convention of his followers at St. Louis, Missouri in April of 1937.

His hometown is Brooklyn, New York, and after almost 18 years of “riding the rails” he said, “if she should ask me to settle down, I would consider it seriously,” when asked if he planned to be married when he reached Gary.

Lazarowtiz told a “Gazette and Bulletin” reporter that he slept in 1,787 different towns during 6,398 nights. His mileage to date, he said was 399,000 miles. He has ridden most of them on freight trains but has also been an aerial and naval stowaway several times. His bill to the transportation companies has reached $8,523.90, he pointed out, adding that he “would rather owe it to them than cheating them out of it.”

During his travels he has walked only 5,489 miles but has been to all states of the Union, the Panama Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, eight provinces in Canada, the Cape Breton islands, five states in Mexico, Cuba and Panama.

The “hobo king” is going to cast his vote for Roosevelt in the upcoming election, he reported. He has been in Kansas and personally talked with both presidential candidates. While in Brooklyn, he made arrangements to have an absentee ballot mailed to him, which he plans to use in this election.