The Chicago Tribune - Sunday, April 7, 1895
This report was originally published in English. Machine translations may be available in other languages.
TEN YEARS OR LIFE?
OSCAR WILDE'S CONVICTION AND
SENTENCE SEEM CERTAIN.
People in London Are Up in
Arms Against
the Disgraced and Defeated Apostle
of Aestheticism - Minimum Sentence
for the Crime Charged Is Ten Years,
While the
Maximum Is Penal Servi-
tude for Life - Wilde Is Bound Over
Without Bail - Sensational Scenes.
[SPECIAL CABLE.]
London, April 6. - [Copyright, 1895, by the Press Publishing Company, New York World.] - Oscar Wilde's real or assumed indifference during the frightful revelations in court today was, if assumed, an excellent piece of acting. It seems absolutely certain he will be convicted and the minimum penalty is ten years’ imprisonment with a maximum penal servitude for life. Public opinion will certainly demand an exemplary sentence. Sympathy is felt for Mrs. Wilde, who is an estimable woman, and for his two beautiful children. A curious feature of English law is that even if the husband be convicted and sent into penal servitude Mrs. Wilde cannot get a divorce on either ground. It is a coincidence that Oscar Wilde, Mr. Carson and Mr. Gill, leading counsel against him, as well as Judge Collins, who tried the case, are all Irishmen and all graduates of Trinity College. Carson, who was Balfour's right-hand man throughout his coercive régime in Ireland, was contemporary with Wilde at the university.
BALLARD SMITH.
New York, April 6. - [Special.] - Mrs. Frank Leslie, once the wife of William Wilde, has known Oscar Wilde and his family fifteen years. When the libel suit began Mrs. Leslie predicted that Mr. Wilde would win his case.
Mrs. Frank Leslie, once the wife of William Wilde, has known Oscar Wilde and his family fifteen years. When the libel suit began Mrs. Leslie predicted that Mr. Wilde would win his case.
Mrs Frank Leslie, once the wife of Wm Wilde, has known Oscar Wilde and his family 15 years. When the libel suit began Mrs Leslie predicted that Mr Wilde would win his case.
"I suppose I am to be classed as a false prophet," Mrs. Leslie said today. "But I must judge Mr. Wilde only as I know him - that is, as a dignified, high-minded man, a perfect son, a kind, considerate husband, and a doting, affectionate parent. I cannot imagine why he gave up the battle when surrender meant a practical admission of guilt. His wife is one of the sweetest and purest as well as one of the most beautiful women I ever knew. She is devotedly attached to her husband and is in every way a woman to be admired. They have two fine, manly boys - Vivian and Clarence, 11 and 13 years old - and to the rearing of these boys and to devotion to her husband she has given her life. She has educated them herself; they have never been to school."