The sun., 1902-03-10
The OIL King and the Hoggee.

There has been a serious misunder-
standing of the refusal of the Hon.
! JAMES STEPHEN HoGG of the oil regions
! TO appear in court dress at a levee Of
I King EDWARD VII. The refusal has
! been ascrbed to Long JIM's aversion to
Persian apparatus, his ingrained love
of republican simplicity. The envious
have even tried to cast doubts upon the
sincerity of that love. They have said
that he is afraid of public opinion in
his State. The rugged countrymen
whom he used to infame against corpora
tions would have had no more use for
him II he had dangled sword at court or
shrouded in smalls the longest pair Of legs
in the world, except the Hon. CYCLONE
DAvIs's. He would have been jeered at
as a monarchst, a sycophant Of royalty
Besides, inevitably he would have tripped
over his sword and lain with all his long
and broad acres of bulk, PROSTATE on
the palace carpet
Those who misjudge him have jaun-
diced eyes. His career as the longest
if not the greatest of dress reformers
should speak for itself and would speak
loudly enough if its voice had not been
drowned by so many impetuous squirting
oil wells. His work as dress reformer
has been even more important than
his work as statesman. For years il
was his custom and delight to take the
stump in Texas for dress reform. At
political meetings, social meetings,
primaries and picnics, at Granger and
Farmers Alliances, at schoolhouses and
barbecues, crossroads and Court Houses,
and whenever he could find an audience,
he has blazed away against the folly,
the discomfort and the ugliness of the
ordinary dress of men and women He
has dlated upon the economic perils of
it. He has shown how a man, his wife
and eleven daughters can be dressed
comfortably, becomingly and well on
SIS a year. He has invented an accom-
modating and useful garment. adapted 10
every age and every sex, not much more
expensive than daylight, warranted to
fit everybody as we'll as it fits anybody,
permanent, an heirloom, to be handed
down from sire to son, from mother 10
daughter. Away with your silks and
your broadcloth!" he has cried in a
fine frenzy: away with furbelows
and fallalsl will tell you how to dress
cheaply and get rich"
So he had a wonderful garment made,
the Hogg universal adjustable dress re-
form garment, the hoggee. We have had
the happiness of seeing drawings of il
and thousands of Texans have seen the
thing itself. II is of cotton. happy
mixture of the blouse and the blanket
the tunic and the toga, the frock and the
bag, Large, loose, long, wide-skirted,
easy, with a handsome yoke at the top.
Its pedigree may be described as by tho
duster out of the Mother Hubbard II
was curious, but il pleased. For n mo-
ment il seemed that the problem of
dress reform was solved and that the
Lone Star would shine upon one uni
form garb for men, women and children.
Even the Popuists forgot to look sour.
A great reform, sartorial and financial,
had leaped full-grown from the cortex
of Long JIM.
There was a worm in the bud. One Of
the greatest inventions of a great age
went lame on account of a brutal me-
chanical difficulty. The inventor was
prasing the offspring of his genius to a
rapt assembly of johnson county farm
ers. Up jumped farmer and asked.
Does il button in front or in the back? "
Then the house of dreams fell and the uni
versal adjustable hoggee shrivelled up.
Mr. HoGG had not considered the mat
ter of buttons, He had no idea how the
confounded thing ought 10 he buttoned
He boggled, hesitated, and was lost
Why, should say il ought to be but
toned both WAYS" was the best answer
he could fish up. That double buttoning
ruined dress reform. Neither women
nor men could abide garment that had
TO be buttoned before and behind. They
would lose more in time than they would
gain in money. So the universal adj
Unstable hoggee went tothe moths Yet
deep in his deep insdes Long JIM keeps
lovingly that child of his thought His
minds eve sees Texas, the United States,
the world, clothed in that gifted dress.
But where To put the buttons he knows
no better than he knew before. When
he does know, dress reform will begin.
, He scorns 10 stand before Kings until
he can appear in his hoggce