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While Oscar Wilde's case has absorbed public attention for weeks, the records of the London Police Court show that persons accused of the offence of which he is convicted come frequently before the magistrate. On the very day he was convicted John Goodchild, 28 years old, and said to have a fine education, was sentenced to two years' hard labour for the crime. The Judge remarked that no country can remain great while such persons are allowed to live free in it. He believed, indeed, that they should not be allowed to live at all.

The Marquis of Queensbery wants the Treasury to reimburse him the L2000 that he expended in defence of the libel suit which led to the prosecution of Wilde.

LONDON, May 27. - Oscar Wilde, after he was sentenced on Saturday, was taken to Holoway Jail, in the northern part of London, where all his money and valuables were taken away from him by the Warden. He was stripped to the shirt and an officer wrote down in the prison register a minute account of his appearance, the color of his eyes, hair and complexion and any peculiarities, such as a broken finger, tattoo marks and moles.

Then Wilde was put in a hot bath and his shirt, the last vestige of his days of freedom, was removed. Emerging from the water he found a full suit of prison clothes ready for him, from under linen to loose shoes and a hideous Scotch cap. His clothes are of a dirty drab canvas, plentifully adorned with broad arrows. Shortly afterward Wilde ate his first real prison meal - an allowance of thin porridge and a small brown loaf.

He was taken to-day to Pentonville, a prison for convicted criminals.

TO BE PUT IN THE TREADMILL.

He was examined physically with great care, since upon the medical officer's report will depend what labor he is to be set to. If he is passed as sound and fit for first-class hard labor he will take his first month's exercise on the tread wheel - six hours daily, making an ascent of 6,000 feet - twenty minutes continuously, then five minutes' rest. The necessity for a close medical examination is obvious before a man is subjected to this labor. Wilde will receive close scrutiny and thoroughly overhauled before a decision is made.

During the first month on the wheel, if put there, Wilde will sleep on a plank bed, a bare board raised a few inches above the floor and supplied with sheets. Clean sheets are given to each prisoner, two rugs and a coverlet, but no mattress.

This will be his diet:

Breakfast at 7:30 A.M. - Cocoa and bread.

Dinner at noon - Bacon and beans one day; soup another; cold Australian meat another, and brown flour suet pudding another, the last three being repeated twice a week, and potatoes with every dinner.

ROUTINE OF HIS LIFE.

After he has finished his spell on the wheel he will be put to some industrial employment — not play-writing, although it might be the most profitable to the prison department, but probably post-bag making, tailoring, or merely picking oakum.

He will exercise in the open air daily for an hour, walking with the rest of his ward in Indian file, no talking permitted.

He will be allowed no communication with the outside, except by special permission, until he has completed three months of his sentence. Then he may write and receive one letter and be visited for twenty minutes by three friends, but in a visiting cell, separated from them by wire blinds and in the presence of a warden. The letter and visit may be repeated at intervals of three months, but all these concessions depend first upon his industry, and next, upon his conduct.

There is no escape from the plank bed until a certain number of marks are awarded for work done, and in the same way letters and visits are accorded.

Wilde will attend chapel every morning and twice on Sundays. He will be visited, if he wishes it, by the chaplain as often as he likes, also daily by the Governor or Deputy Governor. A Government inspector will visit him once a month and hear any representation or complaint, and the visiting committee of London magistrates will call frequently at the prison for the same laudable purpose.

HIS EARNINGS IN JAIL.

On his release Wilde, if he has worked well and behaved well, will have earned the magnificent sum of 10 shillings ($2.50), which he can have all at once, or it will be doled out to him by an agent of the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society if he (Wilde) elects to apply to that excellent institution when once more free.

While Oscar Wilde's case has absorbed public attention for weeks, the records of the London Police Courts show that persons accused of the offense of which he is convicted come frequently before the magistrates. On the very day he was convicted John Goodchild, twenty-eight years old, and said to have a good education, was sentenced to two years' hard labor for the identical crime. The Judge remarked that no country can remain great while such persons are allowed to live free in it. He believed, indeed, that they should not be allowed to live at all.

The Marquis of Queensberry declares that if the Treasury does not reimburse him for the £2,000 ($10,000) that he expended in defense of the libel suit which led to the prosecution of Wilde, he will ask some member to bring the question before Parliament.

BALLARD SMITH.