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Original paragraph in
The Boston Post - Saturday, June 1, 1895
The Boston Post - Saturday, June 1, 1895
Most similar paragraph from
Nanaimo Free Press - Thursday, May 30, 1895
Nanaimo Free Press - Thursday, May 30, 1895
Difference
LONDON, May 31. - Oscar Wilde is awaiting in Pentonville prison the decision of the powers that be as to the sort of labor which he
will have to perform during his first month of imprisonment. He has been 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 a tread
wheel, six hours daily, making an ascent of 6000 feet; twenty minutes on continuously, then five minutes’ rest.
The necessity for a close medical examination is obvious before a man is subjected to this labor. Wilde will be subjected to
auscultation and percursion and thoroughly overhauled before a decision is made.
During the first month while 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 puddings another,
the last three repeated twice a week, potatoes with every dinner.
WILL NOT WRITE PLAYS.
After he has finished his spell on the wheel he will be put to some industrial employment - not play-writing, although it might be most
profitable for 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 the visiting cell, separated from them by blinds made of wire and in the presence of a warden. Letters and visits 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.
On his release, Wilde, if he worked well and behaved well, will have earned the munificent sum of 10s. ($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.
When Wilde was taken to Holloway Jail after his sentence 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 registry a minute account of his appearance, the color of his eyes, hair and complexion, and
any peculiarities, such as a broken finger, tattoo marks, moles, etc. 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 dirty drab canvas, plentifully adorned with broad arrows.
A London cable says Oscar Wilde after he was sentenced last Saturday, was taken to Hollaway jail, in the northern part of London. There
all his money and valuables were taken away by the warden. He was stripped to his shirt, and the officers 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 into a hot bath and 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 underlinen to loose shoes and a hideous Scotch cap. His clothes are of a dirty drab canvas, plentifully adorned with drab arrows.
Shortly afterward Wilde ate his first real prison meal, an allowance of thin porridge and a small brown loaf.