The Yorkshire Evening Post - Tuesday, May 28, 1895

YORKSHIRE ECHOES.

Among the unconscious prophets must be counted M. Zangwill, who, writing about Wilde in 1892, said, "The fact is, Oscar is too borné, too one-sided to be accepted as a 'king of men.' He takes such broad views that he has grown narrow. What he wants is a little knowledge of life, and twelve months' hard labour." He has gained both now; and is probably not contented.

The inevitable protest is being made against the severity of the sentence on this "Ego-maniacal decadent," as Wilde was called by Max Nordau. Two years' hard labour is a test of the breaking strain of a strong man. It is subtly contrived for a maximum of work with the minimum of food necessary for life. What the effect will be upon a body indolent and over-fed is problematical; one protester says it is "virtually a sentence of death or madness." It may be. Competent judges have declared they would rather undergo five years' penal servitude. There is no doubt that two years' hard labour is the limit of human endurance.