Ogdensburg News, Wed., Feb. 24, 1904
Snowplows Over Northern Roads
Employees Must Refrain From Referring to R.W.& O. as the "Hojack"
Syracuse - Feb. 23 - While the railroad officials were feeling so warm yesterday at the New York Central station that they were obliged to open their office window, two snow plows were running at full steam northwards on the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg to a place called "Sour Apple Cut," near Richland to help out two trains which had become stalled there. A severe snowstorm prevailed all along the northern road yesterday and No. 8, the train which made the R., W.& O. famous, due here at 9:25 o'clock, did not come in until nearly midnight.
At "Sour Apple Cut" the snow was so dense and deep that the snowplows were still plugging away at 10 o'clock last night and would continue working today, it was said by railroad men last night.
It has been rumored in railroad circles for the past few days that an order has been issued to all New York Central Employees to refrain from using the name "Hojack" in speaking of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad. It is said that the only real reason for the objection to the word is that it conveys a sort of phonetic reflection of the road. It is an unusual combination of letters, but how it originated nobody connected with the road seems to be able to tell.
One railroad man said yesterday: "It sounds so like a word of Norway, where they have perpetual winter, and we have been up against it so hard this winter that it sounds like rubbing it in to call the road the "Hojack," so I hope they will cut it out. It is to be known hereafter as the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg branch of the New York Central railroad, and if that is good enough for Chauncey M. Depew it ought to be good enough for the public."