The New York Herald (European Edition) - Wednesday, May 8, 1895

LONDON, May 8.––Mr. Vaughan accepted Oscar Wilde’s bail at Bow Street yesterday morning, and early in the afternoon he was released. The bail was fixed at £2,500 in Wilde’s own recognizances, with two sureties of £1,250 each. The two sureties were Lord Douglas of Hawick and the Rev. Stewart Headlam. The sureties afterwards proceeded to Holloway Jail and accompanied Wilde back to Bow Street to be formally set at liberty.

Wilde looked brighter and not much worse for his incarceration. The Rev. Stewart Headlam, in an interview as to his action, says: "I have undertaken this responsibility on public grounds. I felt that the public mind has been prejudiced before the case began, and I anxious to give Mr. Wilde any help I could to enable him to stand his trial in good health and spirits."

The Evening News - Wednesday, May 8, 1895

Yesterday morning Mr. Travers Humphreys attended at Bow-street Police-court, before Mr. Vaughan, prepared with the necessary bail for the release of Oscar Wilde. He briefly stated the circumstances under which Wilde was committed, and produced the order of Baron Pollock to the effect that he should be released on entering into his own recognisances of £2,500 and two sureties of £1,250 each.

Mr. Vaughan: Who are the proposed sureties?

Mr. Humphreys: Lord Douglas of Hawick and the Rev. Stewart Headlam.

Mr. Vaughan: Is there any objection to this bail on the part of the Treasury?

Mr. Angus Lewis: No, sir, there is no objection.

The Rev. Stewart Headlam, of 31, Upper Bedford-place, W.C., was then sworn, and in answer to Mr. Humphreys said when all his just debts were paid he was worth £1,250, and he was willing to become bail for the appearance of Oscar Wilde at the next sessions of the Central Criminal Court.

Percy Sholto Douglas, commonly called Lord Douglas of Hawick, went through a similar examination, and the two sureties were formally bound over.

Mr. Vaughan then ordered that the prisoner Oscar Wilde should be sent for from Holloway Prison, in order that his own recognisances might be taken.

MR. HEADLAM INTERVIEWED.

The Rev. Stewart Headlam, interviewed at the close of the proceedings as to the reasons which induced him to become surety for Wilde, made the following statement: "I have undertaken this responsibility on public grounds. I felt that the public mind had been prejudiced before the case began, and I was anxious to give Mr. Wilde any help I could to enable him to stand his trial in good health and spirits."

At the close of the case Lord Douglas of Hawick and the Rev. Stewart Headlam, accompanied by one of Messrs. Humphreys’s clerks, entered a cab and drove to Holloway Gaol.

Oscar Wilde was released from Holloway Gaol at 1.55 in the afternoon.

A FREE MAN.

Wilde arrived at Bow-street at 2.25 in the custody of Sergeant White, chief gaoler at Bow-street, and Sergeant Brockwell. Immediately on his arrival he was escorted from the cab into the court, and at once joined his friends in the clerk’s office, where the formal document was signed, after which the three left the court in company.

WILDE’S MOVEMENTS.

On leaving Bow-street a free man Oscar Wilde, with Lord Douglas of Hawick and the Rev. Stewart Headlam, entered a cab, which was driven at a rapid pace to the Midland Hotel at St. Paneras, which was reached about three o’clock. Here rooms were engaged by his lordship. Apparently a consultation was held between Wilde and his sureties, for it was not until four o’clock that the Rev. Stewart Headlam left the hotel by the main entrance. Later on in the afternoon Wilde was visited by an old personal friend, and he was also busily engaged for a considerable time with two of Messrs. Humphreys and Sons’ clerks over his private affairs, and the pending new trial. He was stated to be suffering from extreme prostration and weakness, and quite unable to undergo the fatigue of an interview. It is expected that he will leave London in the course of to-day though up to the time of writing he himself had not arrived at any decision as to his destination. Wilde’s solicitors, at their client’s own request, have intimated to the authorities that they are perfectly prepared to keep them fully informed as to his movements and precise whereabouts between now and the 20th inst., when Wilde will in due course give himself up to the police.

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