The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-10-22

OSCAR WILDE.
Joe' is worth the most careful study. and
on the whole is one of the most interesting
persons, if not the most charming, that he
ever met.
You are able to make fortune honest
ly," said Superintendent Byrnes to "Uun-
cry Joe" Just before he delivered this no
torious man to the courts for trial on
charge of bunkoing an unsuspecting rural
politician who paid n visit to New York.
For" continued the superintendent "any
man who has the ability to fool Oscar Wilde
and to bunko him has ability not only to
make living honestly but to make n for
tune, and when you get out of your present
strait l would advise you to turn your at
tention to something that is honest"
Mr.. Wilde says that the knowledge of
human nature the art of perfect approach
of men so as to inspire confidence, the
capacity to play upon the weaknesses
OF human nature so as to make them serve
dishonest purpose, which was displayed
by Hungry Joe" in that encounter which
Mr.. Wilde had with him, is capacity
which comparatively small number of
men possess, and now that Hungry Joe"
has been captured, has been placed behind
prison bars, Mr.. Wilde is anxious to see
him and have talk with him.
Oscar Wilde comes here early in the viii
ter with the purpose of lecturing and of
studying certain forms Of genteel vice, or
what he calls the higher art of crimnalty.
Whether he expects to make use of this rs
part of the material for new play or
whether he has in mind a novel cosmopoli-
tan in its studies, such as he said when he
was last here he hoped at some time to
write, is not known.
Wilde is a much Weather man than he
was when, after skillful advertising of him
self as an eccentric,he came to the United
States some 10 years ago. He brought with
him reputation of being an effcminate
and amusing fool, but he had not been in
New York a week before the set which he
met discovered that he was only playing a
part; that he was as much amused Mt the
impressions which his dress, affectation
and speech caused rs anybody else could be;
that he was very jolly man of the world,
whole soulcd, good natured, anxious to see
life, and when with congeniai companions,
who were then most lively fellows, was
quite able to hold his own with them in the
gentle pleasures in which they engaged
lt was only when he put on his velvet
knee brooches and black silk stockings,
stuck lily into the buttonholc of his coat
and walked with languid air upon the lee
ture platform to deliver his lecture. which
was called "a too too address" that it was
revealed that all of these things were only
little acting which had served to atlver-
tise him we'll and to fill his purse
1t was revealed here that lie was very
Keen business man, and no person ever
came from Europe, excepting perhaps
Dickens, to entertain Americans upon the
platform, who was Elcre shrewdly advcr-
tised or more ably handled. He took back
to Europe quite II sum of money, and hav-
ing played his part as an aesthetic long
nm NAH lnt,1 Il
to him by going to the other extreme and
becoming pronounced man of the world,
without Alterations, and with all the man
nerisms of keen and hard dealing bust
ness man.
1t was then understood that Oscar Wilde
had learned the art of self advertisement
which so we'll serves person who desires
to enter certain literary fields. In London,
where his family is well known and where
their social standing is excellent, because
they belong to the aristocracy, Oscar
Wildes brother, whom everybody calls
Willie, and who married Mrs. Frank Leslie
only to be divorced from her soon after,
was regarded as intellectually the more
brilliant of the two If this brother had
the same keen business sense, the same
perseverance and the Same steady purpose,
combined with the art of keeping himself
in the public eye which characterize Oscar
Wilde. he would probably have been the
more successful of the two.
Oscar Wilde's purpose was to gain fame
for himself and great fortune as well as
playwright, and having written himself
up to the top rank of those who make
plays he looked forward to the time when
in pecuniary independence he would be
able to write a series of novels modelled
somewhat upon the scheme of i3alZac,
which was to present the human comedy
as it appeared to him.
1t was II long struggle for Mr.. Wilde, but
ut last with two plays he conquered and is
now esteemed the most brilliant if not the
most profound and true to human nature
of the English dramatists. His characters
are superficial, but his stories are dramatic,
and his dialogue is witty, although it is n
labored and supercilious wit.
Upon his visit to this country Mr.. Wilde
will be received by one or two of the New
York clubs, one-the Lotus-having enter
tanned him when he was here before, and
he will also receive some distinguished So
cial courtesies, for he has met some Of
those who esteem themselves social leaders
of this country In the Lest drawing rooms
in London. e. j. EDWARDS.