The Chicago Tribune - Sunday, May 26, 1895

THE jury in the Oscar Wilde case yesterday, after being out two hours, returned a verdict of guilty and a sentence of two years’ imprisonment at hard labor. Taylor, his associate in the beastly business, was also sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. No one will dispute the justice of this sentence. The immoral practices of which he was proved guilty and which he tempted to gloss over were two flagrant to be condoned by the prominent social position which he occupied or by the literary fustian which he had published and which has been the fad in certain fashionable circles which run after every new thing, whether it be erotic or not. The defendant will now have an opportunity, for two years at least, to occupy himself at hard labor and be of some useful service. Long before the two years are over the public will have forgotten him. It would not be a calamity if he never were heard of again. His beastial offences can only be condoned by utter oblivion. That he was punished at all, in spite of his position, shows that an English jury is above any sympathy with his rottenness.