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Original paragraph in
The Weekly Times - Saturday, June 1, 1895
The Weekly Times - Saturday, June 1, 1895
Most similar paragraph from
The San Francisco Call - Thursday, May 23, 1895
The San Francisco Call - Thursday, May 23, 1895
Difference
The trial of Oscar Wilde, the well-known dramatic author, on five charges of abominable indecency, was continued at the Old Bailey
to-day, before Mr Justice Wills and a jury.
Public interest in the case was still maintained in a very high degree, and the court and its surroundings were crowded all day.
The accused, although still pale and haggard, giving exterior evidence of much mental suffering, was much firmer in his demeanor in the
dock than he was yesterday.
There was little fresh in the evidence adduced, the statements of the several witnesses for the prosecution being much the same as those
given at the previous trial, and not shaken in any essential particular by cross-examination.
The case for the Crown being closed, Sir Edward Clarke, Q.C., who appeared for the prisoner, asked his Honor to withdraw from the jury
the count alleging indecent conduct on the part of Wilde with the young valet out of work, Charles Parker, at the rooms occupied by the prisoner at the
Savoy Hotel. Counsel urged that Parker's evidence was not corroborated and that there was no issue to send to a jury.
Mr Justice Wills said that in the part of the case relating to what had occurred at the Savoy Hotel, the testimony was so evenly balanced
that the wiser course appeared to him to be to submit it to the jury. His duty prevented him from acceding to the request to withdraw the count from the
jury, therefore Sir Edward Clarke's application could not be granted.
Sir Edward Clarke drew his Honor's attention to the count in relation to the young man Edward Shelley, a former employe of a firm of
publishers, and urged that the Crown had in this instance failed to make out any case for the determination of a jury.
His Honor agreed with counsel for the defence and dismissed the count. In reviewing the relations between Wilde and young Shelley, the
judge said that there had been no corroboration of the single Crown witness in support of its allegations. Shelley, it was apparent, suffered from
delusions. He (the judge) could see nothing unnatural in the friendship which Wilde had formed for this young gentleman, who was imbued with strong
literary tastes, and had been attracted to Wilde by a literary instinct. The evidence did not show that the friendship between Wilde and Shelley was other
than a perfectly honorable one.
LONDON, May 24.
The trial of Oscar Wilde was continued to-day at the Old Bailey before Mr Justice Wills.
The great public interest displayed in the proceedings on the two previous days was fully maintained, and the Court and its precincts
were crowded.
The prisoner elected to go into the witness box himself, and denied on oath all the charges brought against him. He declared that he was
the victim of the machinations of blackmailers.
Wilde further stated that he had always understood Taylor to be a respectable man. The extraordinary friendship which he had contracted
with Taylor and his associates was, the prisoner explained, due to the fact that he (Wilde) personally liked praise. "Lionising and being lionised were
delightful," he said.
The accused was very weak and ill in appearance, and at the request of his counsel was accommodated with a seat in the witness-box.
Sir Edward Clarke, Q.C., then addressed the jury for the defence. He urged that the witnesses for the Crown were nothing more than
blackmailers, and as such quite disentitled to belief.
Sir F. Lockwood, the Solicitor-General, in his address, said that in the Queensberry trial the downfall of Oscar Wilde's reputation took
place. The prisoner had actually admitted as true what he had first complained of as a libel. And that amounted in substance to an admission of the truth
of the present charges.