“He’s a fat old hog, ain’t he?”

       Jim Hogg's newsworthiness extended beyond Texas, particularly in New York.

       In September 1903 the "Man in the Street" column of The New York Times ran the following anecdote about him:

      

       Ex-Gov. Hogg of Texas, who has a reputation for liking to play a practical joke every time he gets a chance, says he has been cured of the habit. The last time he was in New York the joke he tried to perpetrate was turned back at him in great style. It happened that he wanted a shoe shine. The bootblack, a small-size Italian, began to chatter at him after he had taken his seat in the high chair. Not being in a conversational frame of mind, the portly Governor thought it would be a good plan to feign that he was deaf and dumb. So he responded by signs to everything the bootblack said.

       This proceeding naturally caused the desired silence on the part of the Italian, and the Governor was wrapped in his own thoughts, when suddenly a little newsboy ran up and asked him if he wanted a paper. Before he could reply the bootblack turned to the boy and said:

       "You nota talka to him. He deaf."

       The newsboy looked him over, says the Governor, and then remarked in a loud voice:

       "Well, say, he's a fat old hog, ain't he?"

       The Governor, who weighs 300 pounds or more, relishes telling the story, but he adds feelingly that he kept up his bluff after hearing the brutal comment of the newsboy.

—“Man in the Street,” The New York Times, Sept. 6, 1903