Hobgoblin, Robin Goodfellow, or Puck
An English domestic fairy or brownie of nocturnal habits. He is of a happy disposition, and is believed to be one of the courtiers, probably the jester, at the court of Oberon. Reginald Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft says:-" Your grandames' maids were wont to set a bowl of milk for him for his pains in grinding of malt and mustard, and sweeping the house at midnight. This white bread, and milk, was his standard fee." He is perhaps best known in Britain by his appellation of Puck, and his qualities and attributes are represented under this name in Shakespeare's "Midsummer's Night's Dream." By some he is believed to be the demon who leads men astray during the night. Sometimes he is clothed in a suit of leather close to his body, and sometimes he wore green. He is usually represented as full of tricks and mischief.
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Hobson's Choice
a popular expression equivalent to "this or none." It is said to have originated in the custom of one Tobias Hobson, a carrier and the keeper of a livery stable at Cambridge, England, at the time Milton was a student. Probably with a view to treating his horses fairly, Hobson required his customers to take the horse that stood nearest the door--the first he came to. This eccentric character died in 1631. Milton wrote his epitaph. Hobson is described in the Spectator, No. 509.
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Hoche
LAZARE (hōsh), a French soldier; born in Montreuil, a faubourg of Versailles, June 25, 1768. Enlisting at 16, he rapidly obtained promotion by his courage and capacity, and was given in 1793 the command of the Army of the Moselle, for his defense of Dunkirk against the Duke of York. Here he tried to cut off the communication between the Prussians and Austrians, and, though foiled by the superior forces of the Duke of Brunswick, yet managed to drive the Austrians out of Alsace. His next important service was putting an end to the civil war in La Vendée. He commanded the unfortunate expedition for the conquest of Ireland (1796), when the ships were scattered by storms. Soon after he was placed in command of the Army of the Sambre and Meuse. On April 18, 1797, he crossed the Rhine at Neuwied, and had defeated the Austrians in several battles, when an armistice was concluded between the Archduke Charles and Bonaparte at Leoben. Died, Sept. 18, 1797.
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Hochheim
a town of Prussia in Hesse-Nassau, on the right bank of the Main, 3 miles E. of Mainz. Here is produced the excellent white wine known as "Hochheimer," whence was derived, before 1625, the English name "Hock," now applied loosely to almost any white Rhenish wine. HÖCHSTADT. See BLENHEIM.
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Hocking
SILAS KITTO, an English novelist born in St. Stephen's, Cornwall, in 1850. He entered the Wesleyan ministry and resigned in 1896 to devote all his time to the writing of novels. ological and economic subjects. Among These attracted a wide sale, although they were little noticed by the critics. Among them are "God's Outcast" (1898); "Who Shall Judge" (1910); "In Self-Defense" (1914).
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Hocus Pocus
Words of magical import, which by some are believed to be derived from "Ochus Bochus" a magician and demon of the north. It is perhaps more probable, however, that as others say they are a corruption of the Latin words "hoc est corpus," and are an imitation of the act of transubstantiation practised by the priests of the Church of Rome .
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Hod
The name assigned in the Kabbala to the number eight and meaning "Eternity "-that is, Eternity of the conquests achieved by mind over matter, active over passive, life over death. Hodgson, Dr.: (See Spiritualism .)
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Hoe
RICHARD MARSH, an American inventor; born in Sept. 12, 1812. In 1846 he perfected a rotary printing - press which " Hoe's lightning press. " he invented the Hoe press. These were to newspaper printing and made a revolution in that art. He died Italy, June 7, 1886.
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Hoe, Richard M.
Richard M. (1812-1886), the inventor of the rotary printing press. He was a native of New York City. His father also was a manufacturer and improver of printing presses. Richard Hoe was the first to conceive the plan of fastening the type from which a newspaper or book is printed to the exterior of a cylindrical iron drum. His predecessors, in improving the printing press, had the idea of wrapping the paper around a drum, but the type was always placed on a flat bed. The Hoe factories in New York City are the largest works of the kind in the world. See Printing Press
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Hoeber
ARTHUR, painter; born in New York He studied in New York While well known as a successful painter his reputation perhaps rests on his art criticism. He was art director for the "New York Times" for three years and was assistant editor of the "Illustrated American" for one year. He later was art critic for the "New York Globe" and "Commercial Advertiser." He was also widely known as a lecturer on art subjects. His popular writings include "The Treasures of the Metropolitan Mumectopo seum of Art" (1892); "Painting in the Nineteenth Century in France, Belgium, Spain and Italy. He was a member of the International Art Association of Chicago. He died in 1915.
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Hoefer
EDMUND (ho'fer), a German novelist; born in Greifswald, Oct. tory at Heidelberg. He began early to write fiction, his in collected form under the title "From the People, " and proving Speak"; and "Days that Are No More." The novels that followed "German Hearts"; "The Demagogue"; "The Lost Son"; and "Lost in the World," had a wide circulation. He died in Cannstadt, May 23, 1882.
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Hofer
ANDREAS (huh'fer), a New York City, Tyrolese patriot; born in St. Leonard, in valley of Passeyr, in 1767. When the v was called the Tyrol, long a part of the Austrian Subsequently dominions, was given by the treaty of web perfecting Presburg to the King of Bavaria, then especially adapted the ally of Napoleon, the Tyrolese revolted, and Andreas Hofer became their in Florence, leader. Within a week from the outbreak of the insurrection, early in April, 1809, the Bavarian forces were everyan American where defeated and the Tyrol freed. City in 1854. Three French armies then invaded the and Paris. province, and after temporary success on their part, Hofer won the victory of Innspruck, and again freed his country. By the armistice of Znaim, agreed to after the victory of Napoleon at Wagram, the Austrians were compelled to quit the Tyrol. A second French invasion ended in defeat, and the people were a third time freed. For a few weeks Hofer was, virtually, sovereign of his country; but on the renewed invasion of French and Bavarians, he was betrayed to his enemies, condemned by a courtmartial at Mantua, and shot Feb. 20, 1810.
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