I remember seeing images of the runaway kid with a stick and a kerchief tied to the end holding his worldly treasures, and didn’t give much of a thought to it other than that it seems like an odd way to carry stuff. But just now, reading Robert Louis Stephenson’s Kidnapped, our hero attaches bundle to staff and marches on to his adventure. I googled and I see it’s mentioned in other literature as well, making it seem like it might actually have been a thing.
So, um, really? Why a staff and bundle? What’s the advantages to a staff, rather than just a cloth strap? I don’t get it. Seems to me it’d be hard on the shoulder pretty quickly, and the leverage works the wrong way, etc.
You can counterbalance the bundle with your hand, and slide the stick fore and aft as the load changes. Lacking a proper backpack to distribute weight over your hips and shoulders, it seems like a good arrangement. I have some ‘messenger bags’/‘map cases’/‘fist aid bags’ that are pouches on a strap – much like the idea of tying a cloth strap or a rope onto the bundle. If they’re full of books, they get heavy on the shoulder in short order. Not that a runaway would be carrying massive tomes. Nevertheless. It would be easier to shift a stick to the other shoulder.
A typical depiction has the bundle tied to the stick by its corners. Maybe a few feet of rope or cloth was less available hundreds of years ago.
Is a cloth strap available? Back in the day, everyone had a handkerchief, and you could find a stick easily enough. But if you could find other materials, it’s likely that you could have found a decent satchel or something like that.
The staff has some other advantages, though. If you’re standing still, you can put the staff on the ground so that you no longer have to hold the weight of your stuff. If you’re wading through water, you can keep your stuff up high and dry. The leverage issue you mention is easily adjustable just based on where you put your hand on the staff.
It’s usually called a bindle. As you can see from the photo on the wiki page, the leverage works fine if you rest the staff on your shoulder close to the bag, rather than trying to carry it with your hand close to your chest and a long lever out behind holding the bag (though that is the way it is often portrayed in cartoons and the like). One reason for the bag (or bindle) and staff is that the bag is just a simple blanket or scarf, without any straps, and can be used as bedding or covering when not in transport use. Also, a nice hardwood stick is a handy thing to have when traveling with only the bare minimum of items.
Maybe my shoulders are bonier than average, but I can’t imagine walking with a stick on it. I drilled with a 9.3 lb rifle, which wasn’t too bad, but that’s a considerably bigger diameter.
I do see the virtues of having a good stout stick, but frankly I’d rather it be unencumbered! The rest stop idea is good, though: you can put the end of the stick down, even in mud, without messing all your worldly possessions.
Lack of available materials might be a strong factor. But in the case of Kidnapped, our hero’s father had just died, so he had a whole (albeit small) household to find a strap in. Perhaps Stevenson didn’t think it that far through (or perhaps David Balfour didn’t).
The staff and bundle is a substitute for a proper backpack, bag, or haversack. Any available cloth could be used to hold miscellaneous, or odd-shaped items, together. The staff provides a convenient handle, and it can be used as a staff.
I’ve done this with a heavy/camera lens combination on a monopod. It’s reasonably comfortable; probably more so than having a heavy weight over one shoulder on a strap.
The bum with a bindle thing seemed to come up a lot in old cartoons, but about a year ago I saw, what appear to be, a homeless person walking with one.
I believe the tag/pamphlet mentioned that the foam was also to keep that spot from getting blazing hot from being in the sun (to protect your skin when you toss it over your shoulder).
