Nanaimo Free Press - Wednesday, May 15, 1895

BELIEVE IN HIS INNOCENCE.
Oscar Wilde's Wife and Mother Stand Bravely by Him.

A London cablegram ears: It is generally understood here that Oscar Wilde will forfeit the bail bond given for his future appearance and leave the country.

In fact, it is boldly asserted that the amount of the bond was subscribed by prominent political and social leaders with the understanding that be would quit the country, and that his flight would be covered and protected by diplomatic influence.

The same authority goes so far as to assert in the general gossip of the clubs throughout the kingdom that most persons are deeply interested in hushing, the scandal and seeing Wilde and his nastiness well out of the public ken and nostrils.

This desire is both political and social.

There is a dread throughout the kingdom of a repetition of the hideous scandal disclosed formerly. These, it will be well remembered, affected the highest political and social men of the nation, and it is being urged now that a pressing of the Wilde prosecution will let in too much light on the social lite of the aristocracy, and breed material for agitation.

A cablegram to several American papers has been repeated back to London today,, and has precipitated a storm of indignation among the friends of Wilde.

The cablegram declares that Mrs. Wilde has applied for an absolute divorce, with the custody of their children, and that she wanted an immediate hearing of the camp. This is now stamped with the indignant disavowal of both Lady Wilde and Mrs. Wilde.

The latter is simply the ghost of her former seIf. The terrible testimony against her husband in the courts has almost prostrated her, but has not wiped out her belief and confidence in the morality and faithfulness of her husband. Mrs. Wilde has, however, closed their house at 16 Tite street and has gone to Torquay with her youngest son Cyril, to await the result of her husband's trial.

Torquay is the favorite resort of Oscar Wilde. Before his wife's departure for 'the famous watering place she assured the correspondent that she had not only no intention of applying for a divorce, but that she was convinced the terrible charges against him were false, and that, as soon at they were disproved by a verdict of a jury, she would return to London and occupy apartments with her husband and children which she had already rented.

Mrs. Wilde is the guest in Torquay of Lady Mount Temple, who is not only devoted to Mrs. Wilde, but is also in love with their beautiful boy Cyril.

The elder eon, Vivian, who is 12 years old, has been sent to the relatives of Lady Wilde in Ireland.

The gossips have it that this separation of the children is an indication of the separation of husband and wife, but this is vehemently denied by the latter. "I am not only convinced of my husband's innocence," protested Mrs. Wilde to-day, "but I am waiting with the utmost confidence to hear of the verdict in his favor, so that we can all be together again."

The dispatches to the United States have declared that Oscar's mother, Lady Wilde, has deserted him. This she denied to-day.

"This cruel story," she said, "should be disproved by the very fact that I visited him prison on the night of his arrest, and laid my fortune and faith at his feet.

"I know that my son is innocent and that he is simply a victim of a social and political plot to ruin him.

"The charges against him should fail from the very fact of their infamous nature. Ayy one knowing Oscar Wilde, or even those who have read his writings, must feel and know that he is incapable of the acts attributed to him."

That the mother's conviction of the innocence of her son is sincere is shown by the fact that she has been confined to her bed for weeks with a serious illness, but that when her boy was arrested she spurned the advice of her physician, got up and, went out to fight for her son. She worked among the wide circle of her political and social acquaintances, and her influence was potent.

She succeeded in bringing about a revision of feelings in favor of Oscar in social circles that is contrary to the evidence adduced at the trial.

But there is one phase of the case that is peculiar and has been distorted by cablegrams to America.

The latter have pictured Willie Wilde, the discarded husband of Mrs Frank Leslie, as the staunch friend and adherent of his brother Oscar, all through the latter’s troubles.

As a matter of fact, Oscar has not spoken to his brother for years, and has referred to him in terms if contempt and disgust.

One of Oscars epigrams, in speaking of his brother, has been:

"Thank God I am not addicted to intemperance and impecuniosity!"

And no matter what crimes and misdemeanours are alleged and proven against Oscar Wilde, it can be said in all fairness that he has escaped those two evils.