Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-09-07
OSCAR WILDE.
And His opinion of America.
tFrom his London Lecture

Stating that he had very little useful
information to give, he described his first
experience of the interviewer, "the lite
rary pirate of the States, who sprang on
board in the midst of n storm off New
York, and asked his opinion of America.
Not having seen it, he found it easy to
give an unbiased opinion, which was very
favorable as lar as it went Now it was
more difficult The first thing that struck
him on landing was the prosperity of the
people and the absence Of rags. He saw
millions of chimney-pot hats in all their
dreadful proportions, but no rags. The
second thing was that every one seemed
to be III hurry, and this made him think
1t could not be II country of great ro-
nance, for romance was difficult where it
was vital necessity to catch train. The
beautiful he found where the Americans
mad least striven for it, i'll their great
bridges and their perfectly beautiful use
OF the electric light. The travelling, when
one got into n Pullman car, was the per-
lection OF luxury, but had no more pri,a-
cy than II one sat Ill an armchair at the
Hamilton street corner of Piccadiliy
Boys run up and down selling literature,
good and bad and everything one could
eat or not eat, but what narrowed his feel
ings most acutely was to see n prated
copy OF his own poems selling for 10
cents. He explained to the boy that he
got no profit out of this edition of his
work, but the boy said he got some, and
seemed to think that settled the question.
He had never been called STRANGER" but
he had received the title of Captain"
and Colonel" " the latter in Texas, but he
had been very much distressed Ly being
called professor. Niagara, like tine
Atlantic Ocean, was extremely disappoint-
ing, principally, he believed, because it
was ordinarily seen under conditions ex-
tremely unfair. In order to appreciate
its splcrdor and strength it was necessary
to go under the fall itself in n suit of vel
low sealskin, so ugly that he should never
have consented to wear it, but that he
was informed that similar dress had
been worn by that great artist Madame
Sarah Bernhardt- OF Ameri-
ca itself the most beautiful part was the
West, and California most of all 4; and the
most depressing the alkali plains through
which the trains travelled for davs, stop
ping occasionally at small station, where
what by some curious process of reason-
ing was called n meal was served. Here
he met tine Indians, who were very pic
turesque and charming as long us they
wore their own clothes, and very ugly
when they put on European dress. Their
language struck him as resembling Ger
man metaphysics-very fine as long as it
was not understood-(a (aughter). When it
was interpreted he generally found it to
convey request for half dollar or some
tobacco. One OF the great features of
America was the advertiser, who defaced
the most beautiful parts of the Rocky
Mountains with his advertisements
orally of some horrible medicine. The
names of American towns, where they
were French or Spanish, were often beau
tiful, but the English names were very
often ugly. He was asked to lecture on
art ut Grlggsville, but he refused unless
they consented to change the name of the
town, which they declined to do. How
dreadful it would have been if he had
founded n Griggsville school of art
American children did not seem to be
numerous, and were not as healthy or as
joyous as in England, but very preco-
clons. They grow up, some of them, into
girls who were the prettiest despots in
the world. Each American girl seemed
to be an oasis of picturesque unreasona-
bleness i'll desert of common sense, able
to talk ON every subject, whether she
knew anything of it or not, with lovely
hands and feet, and the prettiest boots in
the world. There were no idle men.
Every man had something to do, and very
few took any interest in politics. One
career they went into extensively was
journalism, for the first thing n baby did
IN America when he was able to read and
write was to start newspaper. 1t SEEM
ed strange to English people their intru-
sion into private life. He was asked by
an interviewer at Chicago for some details
of his private life, but he told him he had
not got one-it was stopped at the Gus
tom-house in New York. Their humor
was, he thought, a sort of philosophy,
and one thing he admired about the
American journalist was that he could
write about the price of wool without re-
ferring to Jason and the Golden Fleece.
The lecturer also referred to the distin-
gushed actors of America, and concluded
with some remarks on American art.