The short story of Harry Peyton Steger: chapter 46 - printed from North Texas e-News

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The short story of Harry Peyton Steger: chapter 46
By Allen Rich, with excerpts from The Letters of Harry Peyton Steger 1899-1912
May 4, 2009

As winter of 1912 set in, Harry Peyton Steger scurried about the country in an effort to advance the work of a stable of writers under contract to Doubleday, Page & Company. He was also having a difficult time convincing his step-son, Teddy, that the post cards arriving regularly actually were from the young boy's mother in France. Teddy insisted that Harry was sending them.

Meanwhile, in Paris, Dorothy was homesick and still complaining of a reoccurring pain in her side.

"Here I am growing icicles at Freeport and not knowing just exactly whether Dorothy is stepping aboard a homecoming ship or is dancing with glee along the banks of the Seine," Harry wrote to Montague Glass.

The Executive Council of the Alumni Association of the University of Texas sent Harry, he suspected because of his capacity as vice-president, a leather-bound alumni catalogue with his name stamped aureately.

"Last night I read page after page of it," Harry penned John Lomax, "and my reading filled me with a sadness that lasted well in to the wakeful night. I hadn't been closer to the University of Texas since, as a long-haired freshman, I first heard Alex Camp and George Robertson talking in their Titans' vocabulary in the big endless corridors outside your window."

Lomax mentioned he was considering publishing a magazine and Steger offered to submit sketches for a cover design, with the winning submission to collect $50.

"If your expense will allow you, you ought to have some color on the magazine," Harry advised his longtime friend. "And make it look as little like a cross between a Congressional Record and Burpee's seed catalogue as you possibly can."

And, as O. Henry's literary executor, Steger continued to diligently promote projects of the late author. Harry altered his schedule so he could remain in New York City to watch the Lamb's Club perform an O. Henry sketch. And then there was a hastily arranged trip to Grand Rapids to see the first performance of O. Henry's play. In a letter to Will Hogg, Steger mentions that he has finally managed to bring the play to a stage.

Steger and Lomax had been discussing ways to bring more positive media to UT (it had just passed 2,000 in enrollment) and to aid Will Hogg's altruistic endeavors.

Will was a philanthropist and the oldest son of Texas' first native governor, James Stephen Hogg, a man of national renown. James Hogg ran the Longview News and founded the Quitman News. As governor from 1891-1895, Hogg was a determined supporter of the Panama Canal and he prodded the state legislature to propose a constitutional amendment in order to create a Railroad Commission of Texas to protect landowners from powerful railroad entities and protect stockholders from deceptive practices by railroads that manipulated stock prices.

The populist governor went after large corporations for price fixing and he even filed a lawsuit against Standard Oil Company and asked that its chief executive, John D. Rockefeller, be extradited back to Texas.

In Governor Hogg's most unforgettable speech, he stated famously: "Let us have Texas, the Empire State, (be) governed by the people, not Texas, the truckpatch, ruled by corporate lobbyists."

For standing up to powerful corporations on behalf of the common taxpayer, Jim Hogg County was named in his honor. Yet, despite all those remarkable achievements, Governor Hogg is probably best remembered today for naming his lovely daughter Ima Hogg.

Ima Hogg

It is commonly believed that Gov. Hogg named another daughter Ura Hogg, but that appears to be a forerunner of today's urban legends.

Will Hogg and his sister, Ima, were great supporters of the arts, civic groups, non-profits and the University of Texas. Miss Hogg was also a noted historian. According to The Handbook of Texas, in 1962 when Jacqueline Kennedy decided to furnish the White House with the finest historic furniture, she asked for Ima Hogg's assistance.

In his heyday, Governor Hogg was even popular and well known as far away as New York. The New York Times featured the then former governor in a hilarious "Man in the Street" column in their September 6, 1903 edition.

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-sized 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.