Did Jim Hogg really blow up an ostrich?

       Newspapers could not leave ex-governor Jim Hogg alone. In 1900 a Kansas newspaper carried the following story:

       

       Ex-Gov. James Stephen Hogg went from Austin to San Antonio, Tex., with the Texas university students to see the fair. The big ex-governor said he went over to have some fun at the expense of the pickpockets who, as he had heard, were infesting the fair.

       He had a mild infernal machine arranged inside of a watch case, and with what seemed to be a $400 chronometer in his vest pocket he strolled about the grounds in the thickest crowds, and with feelings akin to those of a man who carries a chip on his shoulder.

       While he was looking at a menagerie of animals, an ostrich spied the bulging pocket, and deftly lifted the timepiece. A ten-foot string attached to the watch, on pulling taut, was to set off the machine.

       “By Gatlings, light out, boys!” roared the big ex-governor, as the ostrich gulped down the timepiece. There was an explosion and a stampede on the midway. The manager of the show put on his armor and buckler and hunted the fair grounds many times over for the man who he thought has fed a dynamite cap to his star bird. But ex-Gov Hogg of Texas was then well on his way to the city to keep a pressing engagement with his friend and colleague, Senator Horace Chilton.

--The Chanute [Kansas] Times, January 26, 1900.

       Poor ostrich! The irony was that Jim Hogg had a pair of ostriches named Jack and Jill as pets at home in Austin. As Ima recalled, “Father always fed these ostriches with his own hands. They were always rather wild but came to him whenever he called.” 

       

       Not this one.