Belfast News-Letter - Wednesday, November 13, 1895

OUR LONDON LETTER.
BY OUR PRIVATE WIRE.
BELFAST NEWS-LETTER OFFICE, 169, FLEET STREET, E.C., TUESDAY NIGHT.

Oscar Wilde was examined in the Bankruptcy Court to-day, two warders accompanying him from the prison at Wandsworth, where he is under detention. He is but the shadow of his former self, and looks quite an old man, although only just forty. His thick black hair has lost its glossiness, and it no longer curls over his high arched forehead. His whiskers have been allowed to grow as well as his moustache, and none of his old friends would now know him if they passed him in the street. Wandsworth Prison is evidently not a place in which to retain the rigour and complexion of youth. Altogether he was under examination for only about ten minutes, and his large black ulster overcoat concealed his tall, square figure, so that the crowd in court could not judge to what extent he has lost flesh. He spoke in a quiet, self-contained manner, showing no desire whatever to conceal anything about his affairs from the Court. He was solvent, he believed, up to the time of his action against the Marquis of Queensberry. His income had been about £2,000 a year, but he had been overrunning the constable to the extent of about £900 annually, apparently without knowing it, for he kept no accounts. When the receiver of his estate had concluded none of the creditors wished to put any questions, and the public examination was then concluded. There is every chance of the creditors being paid in full—later on. Oscar travelled back in a four-wheeled cab to Wandsworth in company with the wnrders.