1899 Stiff Bindling

I was doing a crossword puzzle the other day to try to stave off the increasing brittleness of my brain cells and came upon a couple of words we hardly use anymore: Bindlestiff and Hodgepodge.
Bindlestiff, while sounding like some item on the side effects warning list on a Viagra bottle, is actually a word used to describe Hobos. Tramps. Panhandlers. Kings of the Road. Voluntary wanderers from the easy confines of nine-to-five jobs and five-to-nine barcolounger-assisted leisure. Early Urban Campers.
Not to be confused with the genuinely homeless folks thrust among them by economic circumstance.
A bindlestiff was called such because of the bedroll they carried. Which, as you might have assumed already, went by the name bindle. Think bundle, and associated old German roots therefrom. Remember the Waltzing Matilda song too. Where the word bindlestiff would easily be translated into swagman. The swag and the bindle would be synonymous. (As would the term Matilda itself, which is another word for the swag or bindle.)
"Stiff" apparently just refers to the fact that they drinks a few. Alcohol then as now being the traditional lubricant for a range of anti-social behavior.
Then there's the word hodgepodge. I remember using "Modpodge," which was a light glue-like stuff used in decoupage. But I wondered about hodgepodge. It's currently used to describe any sort of jumble or mishmash.
Originally, though, the etymology dictionary says it meant stew. The podge an early word for pot, and the hodge derived from a word for shake. Shake whatever in the pot.
So, huh, it's actually another word for mulligan, or hobo stew. To which, legend has it, if you add a little wild turkey, it is a good way to loosen up a bindlestiff.
America, ya gotta love it.