Green’s Dictionary of Slang

charley n.

In phrases

on the charley (also on the cholly) [? charley wag n.]

living as a tramp.

c.1910		‘Jimmie Jones’ in Lomax & Lomax Amer. Ballads and Folk Songs 38: Dead an’ gone, dead an’ gone, / Kase he’s been on de cholly* so long. [*‘On de cholly’ is equivalent to ‘out on the hog,’ or ‘on the bum’].
c.1910		‘The Wreck of the Six-Wheel Driver’ in Lomax & Lomax Amer. Ballads and Folk Songs 40: Please, Mr. Conductor, won’t you save us all? / For I’ve been on the Charley so long.