The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-02-07
Oscar Bunk0ed.


Oscar Wilde, the apostle of the lily
and the dSdO, has been bunkoedi Tue
details of the affair are few but pain
full. He was picked up on Broadway bv
d -eudo Englishmen, who profeSsed them
selves admirers of the sunHow-r and
the stork, were apt in posing, and OF
course old but forgotten acquaintIrceS
in England. They ingrstiated them
selves into Oscars favor and so grew
upon him that soon their companiIn-
ship became a very symnhonv 'of de
light to him. At last they wheedled him
into q brilliant and festive hall of pleas
ure. He indulged in Ii tie game,
purely e-the ic at first, and eventually
so wildly enhancing that he went in
deeper and deeper until he had lost all
his available money and at last drew a
check upon his banker for 1880, par
of the proceeds of his recent lectures to
lorn, lank maidens with clinglng gowns.
He finally, in unesthetic language, tum
bled to the little game. shot out of the
gilded halls hatless, and with his long
hair streaming to the winds and his
long coat tails flying so horizontally that
two of his English friends declared they
could have played a game of seven up
on them, he made for his banker to stop
payment on the check.
Oscar Wilde is not the only distin-
guished perssn who has fallen into the
tolls of the willy bunko man. he has 3
companion in Charles Francis Adam,
but then G. F. A. has grown old and
childish and was out of sight of his
guardians when he was towed unwit-
tingly into the bunko steerer's den
There was good excuse In his case. But
what excuse car be made for D ca, who
has set him elf tp as an oracle uf in
struction for the American pc )pleP He
found everything wrong In this blarsted
country as soon as he arrived, and he
at once took us under his patronage,a and
in private and in public lost no opOor-
tunity in correcting our manifold faults.
He has shown the young women how to
dress, and walk, and talk, and in the
process has reduced some of them to a
| condition not far removed from luuacy.
He has shown maturer women how to
| decorate their rooms with symphonies
of color and soulful arabesques of de
sign, how to set forth their tables so that
guests may sup on the sight of lily,
and ill their stom Ichs with oontemOla.
| ton and other fodder as unsuostsntial
as the east wind. He has taught men
4 uOW W O0Aa nO4NCo1 6fA oeoAOSt SHN
churches. and halls, and how to paint
them. He has corrected all our artistic
/ notions and adapted our canons to the
bases of the lily and the sunfiower. He
has exposed the faults of the theater, oi
tue opera, aud of fashion. He has cor.
rected our poetry and our prose. He
has indie tied the weak spots in our form
of government. He has shown up III,
Atlantic Ocean as a fraud, Niagara "a :
mere plunge of waters with no soul il
them, and the Rocky Mountains a.
wanting in that harmony of outln
| which invests elevations with q raviSh
ingly esthetic ensemble.
1t is little pathetic that this apostle
of the beautiful, who has set him ELF VI
as the mentor of the American peope g
and has sought to shed the light of hi
theories and canons upon their igno
rance, shou' ID himself have been 81
ignorant as to allow himself tn be cap
tured bv the bunko steerer, and to b,
seduced from the paths where the lille
grow and ~undOwers blow, and only tn
ravishingly beautiful spreads itself Oh
in constantly-shifLing symphonies, int
the den of gilded allurements. of wha
use or value are all his theories of tn,
good, the true and the beautiful il they
can not preserve him from the tenn 'ta
tions of the bunko man, who is neIIne
good. true, nor beautiful? With all hi
knowled re, Oscar hereafter should onl,
trust himself among the lorn, lanl
maids with the cl'ngiug gowns, anC
content himself with their admiration
and worship. They will not deceiv'
him. Let him hug his mantlepiece an
pose in rapt attitudes, while the mediev'
maidens hover about him and con
template the symph mic sunfower
There is safety for him with them
While we sympathize with him in tn
loss of his money, we can not but rega I
the chuckIing satisfaction of rediy, tn
Kid, as he relates To his companion
how he TO k in ''the he thetic cove, vo
know" with something like n feelin'
of personal revenge, as we recall tn
manner in which the victim has he'll
Anne, ic ans up as ignoramuses.-ChicaQ
Tribune.