I think he does live by the Hobo code, which is why he's so incredibly confused right now. No one else is living by it.

http://www.cockeyed.com/archive/hobo/modern_hobo.html
This is a link to a modern hobocode chart

well Zab this is the official written hobo code from 1894 1.-Decide your own life, don't let another person run or rule you.

2.-When in town, always respect the local law and officials, and try to be a gentleman at all times.

3.-Don't take advantage of someone who is in a vulnerable situation, locals or other hobos.

4.-Always try to find work, even if temporary, and always seek out jobs nobody wants. By doing so you not only help a business along, but insure employment should you return to that town again.

5.-When no employment is available, make your own work by using your added talents at crafts.

6.-Do not allow yourself to become a stupid drunk and set a bad example for locals treatment of other hobos.

7.-When jungling in town, respect handouts, do not wear them out, another hobo will be coming along who will need them as bad, if not worse than you.

8.-Always respect nature, do not leave garbage where you are jungling.

9.-If in a community jungle, always pitch in and help.

10.-Try to stay clean, and boil up wherever possible.

11.-When traveling, ride your train respectfully, take no personal chances, cause no problems with the operating crew or host railroad, act like an extra crew member.

12.-Do not cause problems in a train yard, Another hobo will be coming along who will need passage thru that yard.

13.-Do not allow other hobos to molest children, expose to authorities all molesters, they are the worst garbage to infest any society.

14.-Help all runaway children, and try to induce them to return home.

15.-Help your fellow hobos whenever and wherever needed, you may need their help someday.

16.-If present at a hobo court and you have testimony, give it, whether for or against the accused, your voice counts!

I am not sure Don follows all these rules. especially the littering one. my favorites are #10 and #14

…..Yes…..Despite his paltry and impoverished upbringing, Don/Dick was exposed, via his stepmother and via a visiting hobo, to a structured and respected code of honor and integrity.

When Don first met Roger, they appeared to be two peas in a pod, on the same path with the same goal and modus operandi.

It wasn’t long and didn’t take much before the actual contrast between them began to reveal itself, in terms of Don’s subjugated set of acutely-defined core values, and Roger’s seeming amorality and lack of empathy or conscience.

Don has grown to loathe Roger because he represents all things defective and deficient which Don loathes about himself.

The definition of self esteem is living below one’s own standards and set of core values. If a man as morally deficient as Archibald Whitman is mocking and castigating you in your delusions, you know you’re having a crisis of self esteem.

My theory is it’s one reason why the blows Don Draper has always otherwise sidestepped are starting to get him down in earnest.

Certain schools of therapy believe that one’s “Id” must be completely broken down before the new, healed individual can be reborn.

As Don has both shown us, and told us, he travels the same roads over and over, only to find he's already been there.

Don had a "come to Jesus" moment at the end of Season 2, as he baptized himself in the Pacific ocean.

Maybe we are headed there again.

the hobo code was on an episode of the simpsons i saw the other night.
but i definately think Don lives by these rules; that's why he took in Gene and promoted Peggy.

If Don is living by the Hobo Code, how would you explain his treatment of his half-brother Adam?

It's a process, and Adam's sudden and unexpected appearance in Don's life threw off his moral equilibrium, if you will. Had he had more time (or warning) to adjust to the idea that Adam always believed Dick to still be alive (because he recognized him on the train) and would come looking for him one day, he might not have had - really - a panic reaction. He could have introduced him as a long lost, even thought dead, relative (true enough.) I think if Dick/Don regrets anything in his life, it would be Adam's death, more than even switching identities with Don Draper. But he doesn't let himself go there very often, unless he's feeling safe, as with Anna.

Auburn Annie,
And yet, even when he visited Anna, Don did not mention Adam. I would like to know more about Anna and Don, their relationship, and their time together.

…..The key word there is subjugated. Dick Whitman had to throw much of his example code of ethics out the window to become someone else -to get out of the army, to pose as Don Draper, pausing the web-weaving only long enough to get caught red-handed by Don Draper’s own wife. (Which improbably turned out QUITE well for him, in the end.)

Dick left the “code” behind (albeit temporarily) in order to gain all that he has so far achieved. The car dealership, the furrier sales job, marriage to a beautiful, young Bryn Mawr graduate (who doesn’t insist on asking a lot of questions), a beautiful home, two beautiful children and a successful life as an advertising rock star and corporate executive.

In Dick’s mind, I’m guessing that it is his belief that he could have NEVER had ANY of that, in a million years, had he simply remained Dick Whitman.

It would be an understatement to say that Adam, a long-forgotten dream, struck a huge crack straight down the middle of Don Draper’s self-adorned fun house mirror, fully waking up a sleeping Dick Whitman for good.

Like it or not, all of that is tumbling back, via flashbacks and various conversational delusions of his torturous origins. Personally, I do not believe we’ve seen the last of Dick’s issues with what happened to Adam.

To me, at this point, it’s the big, giant pink elephant in the room.

And, it seems to me, for logical reasons, that Anna is the only person on earth he can turn to with this information, for comfort or counsel, if you will, should he go that far with it.

Anna is part of "The Lost Years," which we likely all hope to see more of, including her.

To address my former comment regarding the relationship between Don and Roger….. while saying all of that, it should also be acknowledged that Don is becoming more in touch with the rage and sense of injustice he has carried, and stuffed, most of his life.

With each new overwhelming blow received (esp. this season), Don/Dick’s deep-seated resentments toward the “silver spoons” in the office, and the world, are unwittingly bubbling to the surface, and getting harder and harder to hide.

It didn’t surprise me one bit that he lashed out at Peggy, Roger, and anyone else who is sliding by on gratuitous laurels or manipulations, without the appearance of suffering, sacrifice or injustice.

Like I said earlier, this season, we’ve mostly seen poor Don Draper trying hard, and the harder he tries, the more things unravel. The more he tries to invoke this estranged code of ethics, the more alienated he feels from the expected rewards of that “sacrifice.”

Things are getting to him, he is losing his former rock-solid composure, is becoming truly skewed emotionally, to a deep and comprehensive degree.

Don/Dick, like many (Pete) is becoming his own worst enemy. He is beginning to act out passive-aggressions, and acts of self-sabotage, even more than usual, with tragic consequences.

As many do! Bravo to the writers for capturing this so realistically.