The Otago Daily Times - Saturday, July 27, 1895
This report was originally published in English. Machine translations may be available in other languages.
LONDON CHAT.
(From Our Own Correspondent.)
London, June 15.
There is much speculation as to the sort of work Oscar Wilde has to perform in the prison, and many believed that the old treadmill had ceased its mission. This is not so, and the high priest of æstheticism has to keep it going just like any Philistine, some hours a day. He had also to pick oakum. He is isolated from all companionship. It is understood hat he is at Coldbath Fields prison. His costume is a drab moleskin suit, including knickerbockers, marked with the broad arrow. He has blue stockings, not of the art shade, strong shoes, and a white linen cap. He will be kept three months at the wheel, and then employed in some mechanical work, trade, or at odd jobs about the yard. Lady Wilde is seriously ill, and at her advanced age it is unlikely that she will ever see her brilliant son again. Mrs Frank Leslie, who for a brief period called Mr Willie Wilde, Oscar's brother, husband, is here. She has been most kind to poor Lady Wilde, and for long allowed her a hundred a year. Oscar never allowed his mother any fixed income, and when he was in all the luxury of his vicious life she has sat in her house with the gas cut off, as she could not pay for its consumption. Mrs Oscar Wilde used to send the unfortunate lady dinner from her own table, between two plates.
There is much speculation as to the sort of work Oscar Wilde has to perform in prison, and many believed that the old treadmill had ceased its mission. This is not so, and the high priest of æstheticism has to keep it going just like any Philistine, some hours a day. He had also to pick oakum. He is isolated from all companionship. It is understood that he is at Coldbath Fields Prison. His costume is a drab moleskin suit, including knickerbockers, marked with the broad arrow. He has blue stockings, not of the art shade, strong shoes, and a white linen cap. He will be kept three months at the wheel, and then employed in some mechanical work, trade, or at odd jobs about the yard. Lady Wilde is seriously ill, and at her advanced age it is unlikely that she will ever see her brilliant son again. Mrs Frank Leslie, who for a brief period called Mr Willie Wilde, Oscar's brother, husband, is here. She has been most kind to poor Lady Wilde, and for long allowed her a hundred a year. Oscar never allowed his mother any fixed income, and when he was in all the luxury of his vicious life she has sat in her house with the gas cut off, as she could not pay for its consumption. Mrs Oscar Wilde used to send the unfortunate lady dinner from her own table, between two plates.
I was told today that Mrs Frank Leslie had made friends with Willie, and that they had mutually agreed to let the little episode of their marriage drop into oblivion.
I was told to-day that Mrs Frank Leslie had made friends with Willie, and that they had mutually agreed to let the little episode of their marriage drop into oblivion.