On the bum

I ask, how many of these hobos, who are on the bum, have the courage to ask for the drink?

Even now, though it was December, a few poor draggled old wrecks were settling down on the benches, tucking themselves up in sort of parcels of newspaper. Gordon looked at them callously. On the bum, they called it.

My typewriter's on the bum—and I'm just lost. One gets so used to one that you're very dependent.