Evening Herald - Saturday, June 8, 1895

WILDE AND THE PALMIST

The "Pelican" tells a curious story of Oscar Wilde and palmistry. It is to the effect that a professional palmist read Wilde's hand and declared that he would die in prison. This is not quite correct. The palmist in question was Miss Edwardes (of 81 Warwick street, S W), the best-known, perhaps, of living palmists, and a clever and agreeable woman as well. Miss Edwardes, whom I saw the other day and asked about the truth of the story, tells me that she met Wilde at the house of a lady well known in Society by reason of her beauty, her wealth, and her charming menage. At one of this lady's parties Wilde was present and Miss Edwardes looked at his hand. Said Wilde; very earnestly: "Tell me, shall I die in the zenith of my fame, or shall I die an old man, forgotten?" Miss Edwardes said: "I see in your hand a sudden spoil of extraordinary notoriety, whether for good or for evil I can’t tell. Shortly after that you will die." In point of fact, I believe Miss Edwardes added something much more startling than this. Wilde was depressed and shocked by what the lady said, and it was he himself who told the story afterwards, trying perhaps to laugh it off, for he is the most superstitious of men. Miss Edwardes, very properly, is extremely reticent on the subject. However, this little she told me, and, in the light of recent events, I think it not uninteresting.