The San Francisco Examiner - Monday, April 8, 1895

LONDON, April 7. - A report that Oscar Wilde had committed suicide at the Bow-street Police Station caused a widespread sensation to-day. The report originated in the fact that when Wilde was about to be transferred from the police station in the prison van to the Holloway Jail he was in a state of semi-collapse, suffering from hysteria, and said to the prison attendants that he would commit suicide if he had a chance.

This put them on the alert. Wilde was immediately subjected to a thorough search, and the police even removed his pearl breastpin and handkerchief lest he might stab or strangle himself.

The prospect of conviction, with the consequent horrors of a convict's life, appalled Wilde. It is that aspect of the case which seems to concern him exclusively, not the shame and degradation into which he is plunged. He is a person to whom the luxuries of life were everything, whose sole thought was self-indulgence. To such a one the rigors and deprivations of a prison are the very worst kind of punishment.

Wilde’s legal advisers declare that they never had a client less able to bear up under trial, or whose anticipatory agonies were more intense. As Wilde is heavy and flabby, with a constitution sadly undermined by dissipation, it would not in the least surprise his doctor if his troubles came to a sudden end.

LONDON, April 7. - Oscar Wilde is suffering from insomnia. The prison surgeon on Saturday night gave him a sleeping drought. It had no effect on him, and he continued pacing his cell all night long. He eats almost nothing, although he is allowed to have food sent to him from the outside. Another prisoner cleans his cell. He is not allowed to smoke and is allowed to receive only a single visitor daily.

A Plea for Justice.

LONDON, April 7. - Sydney Grundy, the dramatist, has written the Daily Telegraph a letter regarding the removal of Oscar Wilde's name from the program of his plays. He asks: "By what principle of justice or charity is an author's name blotted from his work? If a man is not to be credited with what he has done well, by what right is he punished for what he has done ill."

The North American - Monday, April 8, 1895

London, April 7 — Crowds to persons besieged the vicinity of Bow street early yesterday morning, and the Police Court was filled with interested spectators as soon as the doors were opened. C. F. Gill, who was Edward M. Carson’s junior counsel in the defence of the Marquis of Queensberry, acted as prosecutor for the Treasury Department. Sir John Bridge, the presiding Magistrate, took his seat on the bench at eleven o’clock. The. Doors leading to the calls were then opened and Wilde was seen approaching, carrying a silk hat in his hand. When he reached the centre of the prisoner’s dock he deposited his hat on the seat, bowed to Sir John Bridge, folded his arms and leaned on the rail of the dock in the same insolent manner which he displayed while on the witness stand in the Old Bailey.

Mr. Gill said that the appeared to prosecutor the prisoner on a series of charges of inciting boys to crime. The prosecutor then related Wilde’s connection with Alfred Taylor at the Savoy Hotel, and how the latter had been instrumental in introducing several boys to the defendant. A young man named Parker was called to the stand, and was about to testify when the arrest of Taylor was announced. The latter was brought into court and placed in the dock with Wilde, who greeted him familiarly.

Parker then detailed his intimacy with Wilde in which he accused Taylor of being the go-between. Counsel for Wilde asked leave to postpone the cross-examination of Parker, as the evidence had taken them by surprise. Parker was then bound over to testify at the trial of Wilde, which is to take place in the Old Bailey.

Further testimony bearing on the charges against Wilde disclosed shocking intimacy between the defendant and other boys and young men, at the conclusion of which Sir John Bridge remanded Wilde without bail until Thursday.

Oscar Wilde is suffering from insomnia. The prison surgeon on Saturday night gave him a sleeping draught, but it had no effect on him, and he continued pacing his cell nearly all night long. He eats almost nothing, although he is allowed to have food sent to him from outside. Another prisoner clears his cell. He is not allowed to smoke, and is allowed to receive only a single visitor daily.

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