New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-12-28
some way could be found to enforce them'
decided i'm provemeDt might be expected
F1REWfLL tn OSCAR WILDE

Oscar Wilde took a sorrowful leave of America
YESTERDAY and get sail for England He confessed
before his departure that his mission 10 our DarDarc
shores had been substantially failure. He came
here to reform our taste and dress, but we had PAID
little heed to his admOnitions. He has gone back
with his knee-br,echcs, his long lank hair and his
sunllOwer, leaving us to our fate. 1t cannot he
truthfully said that shall miss him. The public
never took any interest III him n curiosity
and that was satisfied long ago For time
he was mild source of amusement
to n people who continually On the watch for
somebody something to get some fun out OF, but
all tho fun there was in him speedily ex-
haustcd 1t is amusing for a moment TO a man
make himself ridiculous, even when he goes about
it with deberaton and design, but the spectacle
soon becomes wearsome. There not variety
enough about Mr. Wildes exhibitions of himself 10
make the public interest in them at all enduring
One view of those bTeeches and that hair was
enough to satisfy the curiosity of most people, and
If by any chance q spectator cared for fur
Their and more prolonged Acquaintance, the dron-
ing mOnOlOgue on art, now universally known as
"Ruskin and water" completely satisfied him.
Our sources of information may be detective, but
we have never CHANGED to hear of anybody who
went to hear or see Mr.. Wilde a second time
This lack of staying quality In the public interest
in him saddened Mr.. Wilde, and he shook Oft the
dust from his feet against in sorrow If not in
anger when he went away. He complained that the
propensity of the American newspaper man
TO something funny in everything
caused him no little annoyance His
last hours among were embittered by cruel re-
port hat he like mere countryman, had fallen
victim to the "baneo steerer" and had paid
SO. 600 for the experience. Was this the final out
come of his labors for our aesthetic elevations Did
he in return for assurances of handsome pecuniary
remuneration. consent to come among us and in
struot us in the perceptibiy intense and consum-
mately UTTER" only to haveit intmated that per-
sonal garb and appearance he rcsembled the I'M
sophisticated countrymanl "Really," he remarked
with Sigh, "you Americans are
the most ingenious people in the world. Your
newspaper reporters invent the most remarkable
stories about mo-" And with this tribute to orr
grea tness he sailed away. We shall probably never
see him again. At any rate let up hope for the
best
If we benefited litlc by his visit, he has not
STAYED with us without gaining much valuable in
formation for the enlargement of his mind. He
knows good deal more about the world than he
did when he arrived here. He may return nome ana
write n book about us and eli 1t with unamiable
observations upon our manners and customs. He
may call IFS crude, ignorant and young. But he
cannot disguise the fact even from himself that we
were neither young enough nor ignorant enough to
take him seriously. The oldest people in the world
could not have estimated him more justly than the
Americans have. lie may speak sllghtingly OF the
Atlantic Ocean may sniff at Niagara Falls, may
speak cOntemptuously of Americas iondness for
cast-irOn stoves and may say that our architecture
is " too utterly dreary," but when he has done all
this he mus admit that with all our defects we
know a charlatan when we see one as quickly as
any other ma ion in the world We suspect 1t was
this conviction which made him so sad when he left