Compare Documents

In consequence of the disclosures made during the hearing of the charge of criminal libel brought by Oscar Wilde against the Marquis of Queensberry, a warrant was to-day issued, at the instance of the Imperial Treasury, for the arrest of Wilde on charges of criminally immoral conduct.

In consequence of the disclosures in question the name of Oscar Wilde has been withdrawn from the playbills of all the theatres at which his plays are now being presented in London, but the plays themselves still keep the boards.

Mr. Wilde has addressed a letter to the leading London newspapers, in which he states that he is " willing to bear the ignominy which has fallen upon him" through his suit against the Marquis of Queensberry rather than compel Lord Alfred Douglas to give evidence in court against his father, though Lord Alfred Douglas was "eagerly willing" to be a witness on his (Wilde's) behalf.

LONDON, Friday, 7.40 p.m.— At the instance of the Treasury a warrant has been issued for the arrest of Oscar Wilde.

The theatres at which pieces by Wilde are being performed have removed his name as the author from the playbills and programmes, but will continue playing the pieces for the present.

Wilde has written a letter to the newspapers, in which he states that he is willing to bear the ignominy of the charges made against him so as to avoid compelling Lord Alfred Douglas to give evidence against his father. He adds that Lord Alfred was eagerly willing to appear and give this evidence.

LONDON, Friday, 8 p.m.— Oscar Wilde has been arrested.

LONDON, Friday, 9.30 p.m.— Oscar Wilde will appear at the Bow-street Police Court to-morrow.

It has transpired that he has been watched by detectives for two days. When arrested and the warrant read to him he made no reply.

Lord Alfred Douglas has had an interview with Wilde in the cell at the police station.

LONDON, Sunday.— Oscar Wilde was brought up at the Bow-street Police Court yesterday and remanded, bail being refused. The evidence given at the trial of the Marquis of Queensberry was repeated. It was very convicting against Wilde, and was unshaken.

Taylor, one of Wilde's chief accomplices, has also been arrested. When the two were confronted, the color left Wilde's face, and he trembled.

So far as we may speculate on futurity, it seems that Oscar Wilde has closed a career of bizarre brilliance. He has been a champion of culture and an apostle of beauty, leader of the aesthetic cult, a critic of art, a poet, a playwright, and about the best lampooned man of his time. When in 1892 "Lady Windermere's Fan" was being written the wits made merry over an approaching slaughter; but when the comedy was played it enforced their admiration for its remarkable wealth of epigram and paradox, its elegance of diction, and the workmanlike skill with which (with one exception, afterward remedied) the piece was built. "A Woman of No Importance," which followed in 1893, is said to be equally brilliant but repellant in theme; and his two latest plays "An Ideal Husband" and "The Importance of Being Earnest," were, with "Lady Windermere's Fan," all running in London when the last mail left. Wilde has written other plays—"Vera," produced in New York in 1882; and "Salome," a too realistic drama which the Lord Chamberlain interdicted, whereupon the author threatened to leave England and live in France. He is a native of Dublin, where he was born in 1856, his father and mother being both given to letters. At Oxford he obtained first Demyship at Magdalen College, a first-class in Moderations, a first-class in Greats, and the Newdigate prize for English poetry. He has published poems, fairy tales, a novel ("Dorian Gray"), travelled a great deal in Greece and Italy, delivered over 200 lectures on art in America, and written copiously for the magazines. At one time he was arranging with Mr. R. S. Smythe to tour Australia as one of that gentleman's gallery of "celebrities," one of his proposed lectures being on "Beauty in the House." In 1881 Mr. Wilde married the daughter of Mr. Horace Lloyd, Q.C., and has several children.