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Original paragraph in
The San Francisco Examiner - Sunday, April 7, 1895
The San Francisco Examiner - Sunday, April 7, 1895
Most similar paragraph from
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle - Sunday, April 7, 1895
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle - Sunday, April 7, 1895
Difference
LONDON, April 6. - Oscar Wilde has been remanded and bail refused. Crowds of people besieged the neighborhood of Bow street this
morning, and Bow-street Police Court was filled with interested spectators immediately after the doors were opened. Among those who succeeded in pressing
their way into court was one good-looking middle-aged woman. All were anxious to see Oscar Wilde, whose arrest yesterday, following close upon the
sensational termination of his suit for libel against the Marquis of Queensberry, is discussed on all sides. Wilde passed the night in a cell. Mr. C. F.
Gill, who was Mr. Edward M. Carson's junior counsel in defense of the Marquis of Queensberry, acted as prosecutor to-day for the Treasury Department.
Sir John Bridge, presiding magistrate, took his seat on the bench at 11 o'clock. The doors leading to the cells were then closed, and
Wilde was seen approaching with stately step and carrying a silk hat in his hand. When he reached the center of the prisoners' dock Wilde calmly 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 he appeared to prosecute the prisoner on a series of charges.
HIS RELATIONS WITH TAYLOR.
The prosecutor then related how, in 1893, when Wilde was staying at the Savoy Hotel, Alfred Taylor, who was arrested to-day, acted as
for Wilde, who repeatedly visited Taylor's house and introduced him to a young man named Parker.
Parker was here called to the stand, but the proceedings were interrupted by the official announcement that Taylor had been arrested.
Ten minutes later Taylor was brought into court and was placed in the dock beside Wilde, who nodded to him. While Parker was giving this testimony Wilde
moved restlessly in the dock and passed his hands across his face. Parker added that he was arrested with Taylor in 1894 in the house in Fitzroy square,
but he claimed he had since abandoned his evil life.
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. Parker was deadly pale when concluding his testimony and asked to
be allowed to take a seat, as he was not feeling well.
WILDE STAND UP.
The woman previously referred to as having entered the courtroom was the next witness. She gave her name as Mrs. Grant, and said she
let rooms to Taylor, who, she added, was visited by a number of young men.
Mrs. Grant was then asked if she could identify Wilde as a visitor to Taylor's rooms. She replied that she could not. Thereupon Sir
John Bridge said, brusquely:
"Wilde, stand up!"
Wilde arose but the witness was still unable to recognise him. Replying to further questions, Mrs. Grant said that Taylor's rooms
were well furnished and highly perfumed. Taylor, she added, dressed effeminately.
Before Taylor left Mrs. Grant's rooms a sergeant of police once went to his apartments and secretly watched Tayor's proceedings. Sir
John Bridge asked Taylor if he desired to ask the witness any questions, and the prisoner replied, "Not yet."
Willie Wilde, Oscar Wilde's brother, entered the court room at this stage of the proceedings and listened to the remainder of the
evidence from the back of the room. Continuing, Woods said that Wilde afterwards gave him a deal of money and a watch and chain. Witness also said that
soon afterwards, he told Taylor that he wanted to "get away from Wilde and these people."
Two young men gave damaging testimony and Wilde was remanded until Thursday next, bail being refused.
Rev. Archibald Douglas, brother of the Marquis of Queensberry, has written a letter saying that the statement credited to Lord
Douglas of Hawick, eldest son of the Marquis, published in an interview, to the effect that every member of the family of the Marquis of Queensberry
except the latter disbelieves absolutely and entirely the charges made against Oscar Wilde is unauthorized by his mother, his sister or himself. Rev. Mr.
Douglas adds: "We certainly believe the charges against Wilde."
London, April 6– The Rev. Archibald Douglas, brother of the Marquis of Queensberry, has written a letter saying that the statement
credited to Lord Douglas at Hawick, eldest son of the marquis, published in an interview in the Leader, to-day, to the effect that every member of the
family of the Marquis of Queensberry, except the latter, disbelieve absolutely and entirely all the charges made against Oscar Wilde, is unauthorized by
hs other, his sister or himself. The Rev. Archibald Douglas adds: "We certainly believe the charges made against Wilde."
The charge against Wilde is being prosecuted under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, which classifies his offense as a misdemeanor, the
minimum sentence for which is two years' imprisonment for each conviction.
Taylor, when arrested to-day, preserved his cheerful demeanour and asked the detective who took him into custody what his sentence
was likely to be.
The Sun of this city says another sensational arrest is probable before Thursday next, the day when Willie will be brought up at
Bow-street police court.
The Daily Telegraph says in a leader on Wilde’s case: "It was a just verdict, and must be held to include with Wilde the tendence of
his peculiar school and the meaning and influence of his teachings, and all the shallow and specious arts by which he attempted to establish a cult and
even set up new schools of literature and social thought."
The Westminster Gazette, commenting on the result of Wilde's prosecution of the Marquis of Queensberry, says: "The case proves that
it is untrue to say art has nothing to do with morality. Wilde’s art rests on a basis of rottenness and corruption."
THE FAMILY OF DOUGLAS.
Did Lord Drumlanrig Know the Story of
Oscar Wilde?
[Copyright, 1895, by the New York World.]
LONDON, April 6. - If Oscar Wilde's indifference during the revelations in court today were assumed it was an excellent piece of
acting. It seems certain he will be convicted. The minimum penalty for the offense with which he is charged is ten years’ imprisonment; the maximum
penalty is penal servitude for life. There will be a demand for an exemplary sentence, as public sentiment is aroused against the group to which he
belongs. Other prosecutions may follow.
Much sympathy is felt for Mrs. Wilde, who is a very estimable woman, and for his two beautiful children. A singular feature of
English law is that even if her husband is convicted and sentenced to penal servitude Mrs. Wilde cannot get a divorce on either ground.
Lord Archibald Douglas, speaking, it is understood, for his sister-in-law, the divorced wife of the Marquis of Queensberry and the
mother of Lord Douglas of Hawick and of Lord Alfred Douglas, and also for his sister, lady Florence Dixie, vigorously denies to-day the statement of Lord
Douglas of Hawick that all the family repudiate the action of the Marquis. Lord Archibald is a Catholic priest. The Marchioness of Queensberry is, happily
perhaps, in Florence just now.
There are queer stories afloat explaining the action of Lord Douglas in supporting his younger brother. The disclosures of this week
also revived certain conjectures whispered at the time of the death of Lord Drumlanrig, of which a full account was cabled last October. The circumstances
pointing to suicide are recalled and it is noticed that the testimony in the libel suit shows that his death corresponds with the period when his father
first entered upon the pursuit of Oscar Wilde and when it must have been known to Lord Drumlanrig that the family scandal would shortly be exposed. He was
about to be married, and occupied an enviable position in political life. It is a coincidence that Oscar Wilde and Mr. Carson and Mr. Gill, the leading
counsel against him, as well as the Judge who tried the case, are all Irishmen, and all graduates of Trinity College, Dublin. Mr. Carson, who was Mr.
Balfour's right-hand man throughout his coercive regime in Ireland, was a classmate of Wilde at the University, but whereas Oscar had a most distinguished
course, Carson did not gain a single prize.
On October 21st the World contained the following:
The young Viscount Drumlanrig, who was found dead in a friend’s shooting court this week, had promise of a most brilliant public
career. He had been Lord Rosebery's political secretary, had shown himself a capable worker and an effective speaker, and had social qualities of the
highest order. Mr. Gladstone, at Lord Rosebery's request, gave him an English peerage last year as Baron Kelhead, although he would succeed his father,
the Marquis of Queensberry, in the peerage of Scotland. He gave his first vote in the House of Lords for the Home Rule bill. The son's appointment was
fiercely resented upon Lord Rosebery by his father, the eccentric Marquis, who actually, the then Foreign Secretary to Hamburg, and was only prevented by
the police from bodily assaulting him. The Marquis was formerly one of the representative Scotch Peers entitled to a seat in the gilded chamber, but when
he announced himself as an atheist he was defeated for re-election.
While it seems measurably certain that the Viscount shot himself accidentally, it is recalled that his uncle, Lord James Douglas,
committed suicide less than a year ago, that his grandfather was also found dead in the court from a presumably similar accident, and that another uncle
fell over an Alpine precipice. The eccentricities of his aunt, Lady Florence Dixie, and of another uncle, Lord Archibald Douglas, are constantly before
the public. The newspapers received the same evening the news of his death, and the formal notice, posted just before, of his engagement to the daughter
of General Ellis, Equery in Waiting to the Prince of Wales.
This morning the newspapers announce that his young stepmother, whom the Marquis married and who was until then unknown to English
aristocratic society, has brought suit for the nullification of her marriage. I am told that the Marquis left her at the church door. Lord Sholto Douglas,
the second son, who now succeeds to the viscountage, has been making a big fortune for himself in the new Australian gold fields, where he went as a
prospector only a couple years ago.
WILDE'S FAMILY SCANDAL. A Story in Which His Father Figures Most Discreditably.
NEW YORK, April 6. - The Oscar Wilde case will revive the memory of the scandal in the Wilde family in Dublin some forty years ago,
or about the time Oscar unfortunately came upon this sphere. Sir William Wilde, who was knighted by Queen Victoria for discoveries in oculism, was Oscar's
father, and resided in that old and then aristocratic section of Dublin, Merion square. His reputation as an oculist was so great that he could afford to
refuse to go to the most wealthy and distinguished patients. They had to go to him. Among others who did so was Miss Wilson, a highly cultivated young
woman belonging to one of Dublin's aristocratic, but not over wealthy families.
Sir William, after an examination, told her he would have to perform an operation which would necessitate her going under the
influence of an anesthetic. Chloroform was the only thing of that kind then known, and this he administered. Miss Wilson claimed afterward that Sir
William had taken advantage of her helpless condition. He denied this, and she brought a criminal action against him. Most of the Dublin people believed
Miss Wilson’s story, but at the trial she was not able to bring any evidence except her own, and she had to admit that she was unconscious at the time of
the alleged crime. The charge was dismissed for want of evidence, but a peculiar part of the case was that Sir William adopted her child, bringing it up
and educating it in his own profession, that of an oculist.
Lady Wilde, whether she believed in her husband's innocence or not, was exceedingly kind to the boy, and subsequently he richly
repaid her for this. Dr. Wilson became an even greater oculist than his master and reputed father, Sir William Wilde, and at the time of his death was in
charge of St. Mark’s Ophthaimic Hospital, on Westland row, Dublin. Professor Wilson's death occured about ten years ago at the early age of
thirty-two.
When Sir William Wilde died, at a much earlier date, he left very little estate and Lady Wilde found it difficult to get along. Her
sons, Oscar and "Willie," both of whom have become so notorious from different causes, although both grown to man’s estate, could do little for her.
Willie, the elder, was lazy, and Oscar spent his time dreaming and posing. Professor Wilson generously replenished the family treasury when it was empty,
and Oscar, as well as the lazy Willie, freely allowed him to do so. It was, in reality, Professor Wilson who was so kind and generous to Lady Wilde in her
difficulties. Oscar has been industrious of late years in spreading the report that he was very generous to his mother, and he made pretentious show of
such filial conduct by ostentatiously sending flowers, fruit and cases of wine to his mother’s house. Even his "generosity" to his mother was a pose.
Willie usually loafed around and ate the fruit and drank the wine, so after all the old lady did not get much. Lady Wilde is herself
a charming old lady and has many friends, who keep her supplied with all kinds of delicacies. To the kindness of these friends she owes more than to her
sons, who would seem to have inherited a preponderance of the paternal blood, disposition and morals.
Many stories were told yesterday of Oscar Wilde when he was in this country. At that time he became well acquainted with an artist
who lives in New York. "Wilde," remarked this gentleman, "often said that the ambition of his life was to write an obscene novel on artistic lines. This
was long before he ever attempted to write a story. So it is quite evident that the novel ‘Dorian Gray’ was the product of a long cherished purpose, and
secretly it must have gratified Oscar immensely to have put forth that production. When I read in the newspapers the other day that he followed with
apparently great delight and satisfaction the reading of parts of that work by the Marquis of Queensberry's counsel, his often repeated ambition to
produce such a work came back very forcibly to me. I believe that he still glories in it, and is proud of his unspeakable ‘cult.' It is wounded vanity,
owing to defeat, that would alone crush him, and not any sense of shame, for he has absolutely none. I remember one night at Richfield Springs, during the
summer that Oscar spent there. It was a moonlight night, and Oscar got a large, green umbrella, which he opened and held over his head to keep off the
rays of the moon as he sat spread out in a large armchair on the porch of the Arlington Hotel. The ladies stopping at the hotel gathered around him, but
he waved them off with the grand air of a langorous potenate or veiled prophet."
As for Wilde’s plays the general feeling is that it would be an unpardonable insult to the moral sense of New York to place or keep
one of them on the stage.
Daniel Frohman has reconsidered his decision concerning Oscar Wilde's play, "An Ideal Husband," at the Lyceum Theatre. The play will
be withdrawn after next week.