The North American - Monday, May 27, 1895
This report was originally published in English. Machine translations may be available in other languages.
A PRETTY POOR LOT.
The North American has purposely refrained from any comment on the wretched scandal which has been recently agitating London. The final conviction and immediate sentence of Oscar Wilde will be universally regarded as a fair and proper punishment. It may be questioned, however, whether the Marquis of Queensberry has gained anything in popular appreciation. The spectacle of a fisticuff row—a common secret brawl—between the blatherskite Marquis and his miserable son, supplemented by the boast of a "scientific bout" for $50,000 will tend to increase public contempt and disgust for the whole fabric of "society" of which these despicable contestants represent the outer crust. They are a pretty poor lot, altogether — Wilde, Taylor, Queensberry, Lord Alfred and the rest — a deuced poor lot. The less said the better.
Oscar Wilde will now have a chance to put some aestheticism into prison labor.