Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a tramp’s young companion; ‘Prushun. – A boy enslaved by an older tramp or “jocker.” The boy is forced to beg and at times to steal for the jocker, and is often forced into unnatural practices. Those “prushuns” who stay with their “jockers” for any length of time find themselves absolutely at a loss when the older tramp dies, unable to think or act for themselves. On the other hand, if the “jocker” fears that the “prushun” may betray him to the law, or if the boy grows so large that he is a danger to the older man, the “jocker” has little compunction about “losing” [i.e. murdering] the luckless “prushun.”’ (Irwin, American Tramp and Und. Sl., 1931).

1893		J. Flynt in Century mag. (N.Y.) Nov. 106/1: I once knew a kid, or prushun, who averaged in Denver nearly three dollars a day.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 57: This is the one reward that tramps hold out to their ‘prushuns’ [Ibid.] 396: An ‘ex-prushun’ is one who has served his apprenticeship as a ‘kid’ and is ‘looking for revenge,’ i.e., for a lad that he can ‘snare’ and ‘jocker,’ as he himself was ‘snared’ and ‘jockered’.
1904		S.F. Chronicle 6 Mar. 3: For ‘Prussians,’ or beggar boys, Rudolph was known to have an aversion.
1907		J. London Road 173: A boy on The Road, on the other hand, no matter how green he is, is never a gay-cat; he is a road-kid or a ‘punk,’ and if he travels with a ‘profesh,’ he is known possessively as a ‘prushun.’.
1912		A. Berkman Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1926) 173: Who cares for a heifer when you can get a kid? Women are no good. I wouldn’t look at ’em when I can have my prushun.
1918		‘A-No. 1’ Mother of the Hoboes 44: The Rating Of The Tramps 45. Road Kid or Preshun. Boy held in bondage by jocker.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 12: He’s a valyable prushun, that kid. Yuh can’t buy him.
1923		N. Anderson Hobo 101: [From A No. 1, The Famous Tramp] 44. Jocker. Taught minors to beg and crook. 45. Road Kid or Preshun. Boy held in bondage by jocker.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 414: Prussian. Vagabond accompanied by a punk.
1925		J. Tully Beggars of Life 155: The kid’s a punk, a Prusshun. Why he’s slept in box cars with Frisco Slim.
1926		AS I:4 251: Jocker—A tramp who trains young boys to beg and steal; the boys are called prushons.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 34: By novices is meant road kids, punks, preshuns, lambs, or by whatever name the apprentices in hobo land may be known.
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 59: He’s a handy bugger at rustlin’ scoff, but the way he treats his prushun don’t set wi’ me.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 182: preshen A boy tramp, a catamite, who travels with an older tramp.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 164/2: Prussian. (Chiefly among hobos and traveling thieves) An active pederast, especially one who moves about in company with a passive partner.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 37: prushun (n.): A young pedicant. It has been said that before the First World War, – when spelled Prussian in criminal slang, it meant pedicator. (Rare.).
1972		(con. 1930s–40s) B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 108: Hobo slang (kwn ’30s & ’40s) [...] The adolescent who usually doubled as cook/lover to a homosexual hobo was called a [...] preschen and prushun.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 312: prushun. A boy who travels with a hobo, begs for him, and, usually, is his catamite.