The Daily Northwestern - Thursday, April 4, 1895
This report was originally published in English. Machine translations may be available in other languages.
OSCAR ON THE RACK.
WILDE'S FILTHY CASE GONE
The Great English Aesthete and
Squirms Under His Trying
Cross
Examination--Makes Several
Contradictions.
London, April 4. -- The filthy libel case of Oscar Wilde against the Marquis of Queensbury in all its vileness was resumed at Old Bailey this morning. Mr. Wilde was still on the stand under cross examination by the opposing counsel. The questions put to him were most pitiless and in the main unprintable. Wilde's self-possession finally deserted him and he exhibited great confusion and contradicted himself frequently until at last he lost his temper. He admitted he had visited the rooms of a man named Taylor, which were luxuriously furnished and had perfumes burning, but denied he had seen Taylor in woman's costume. He admitted Taylor had introduced five youths to his home to whom he gave money and took them to a restaurant. Wilde's counsel then put in evidence the letters of the Marquis of Queensbury in which he called on his son, Lord Alfred Douglass, to cease his infamous intimacy with Wilde, saying his "blood turned cold at sight of their infamous faces." He also added: "I hear Wilde's wife will petition for a divorce on the ground of unnatural crimes. If you do not cease to let him disgrace us I shall feel justified in shooting him on sight." To this letter Lord Alfred Douglass replied by telegram to his father, saying: "What a funny little man you are." At the close of the testimony Dr. Carson began his speech for the defense. Lt was a terrible denunciation of Wilde's actions.