Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-03-05
WILDE ANb The MARQUIS.
Two Well-KnOvn London Charactel
I'm q Police Court.

I'm q Police Court.
The Marquis Of Queensberry was ar
raigned before Magistrate Newton in the
Great Marlborough street police court, in
London, Saturday on a charge Of having
Hbeled Oscar Wilde. Mr. Wilde's lawyer,
In presenting the complaint, set forth that
Mr.. Wilde was husband who was living
upon the most affectionate terms with his
wife and two sons. Fori the last nine or
ten months, he Essaid,I the Marquis OF
Queensberry had prosecuted Mr.. Wilde
with the utmost cruelty! The last act CT
persecution occurred on February g. when
the marquis left for Mr. WILDE at a club
OF which both heaand Mr.. Wilde are men,
bers, an open card. upon the back of which
was written vile and disgraceful epithet
Implying that Mr. Wilde was addicted to
unnatural practices. The porter of the
club upon reading the words inclosed the
caro- IN an envelope. so that 1t might not
De seen by other persons than Mr.. Wilde.
Inc detective who arrested the marquis
the marquis and Informed him of the
complaint upon which he was arrested, his
iordship said: This has been going en- for
two years."
Sir George Lewis. the Marquis of Queens
Derrys solicitor, in his address to the
court said that when the facts should be-
come fully known it would be found that
sne marquis had been acting under the in
ABUNDANT provocation. The marquis was
released on 1880 bail, and the case was
ADJOURNED for week.
An Itching for Notoriety.
oscar Wilde. says the New York World
mas passion for netoriety beside which
the warnings in that direction of the
lamented P. T. Barnum and the la
mentable Thomas Dixon are as passing
whims. 1t would not surprise some of his
acquaintance If he had brought about the
condltlons under which he now seeks the
punishment of the Marquis of Queensberry
for the purpose of bringing himself into the
nrignt glare OF publicity, even to the ex-
tent OF suffering under the nauseous sus-
picion that the present circumstances en-
neve that Oscar Wilde wrote 1.-The Green
Carnation," even though he is held up to
rldlcule, and even to obloquy in its clever
pages; and. as 1T Is some weeks since ne
mas produced play or published an cpl
gram ne Is about due" Oscar Wilde and
the Marquis of Queensberry are, perhaps
as well known by reputation in America as
any two OF our British cousins. The aes-
thetic young gentleman with long hair and
knee breeches, who came over here a dozen
years ago and made an ass of himself and
US. at an expense of f2O.OO0 to us, with a
corresponding gain to himself, is not the
Oscar Wilde of London and today. He Is
no longer
A lean and lank young man,
haggard and pale young man,
greenery-yallery, Grosvenor gallery, foot
in-the-grave young man.
AS the Gilbertian satire described him.
On the contrary be is a robust six-footer
with 42-inch chest and 4-inch stomach,
who attracts no more attention in a Lon
don crowd than any other correctly dress
ed man in 1t. He also, as his counsel said
in court yesterday, Is "a husband living on
the most affectionate terms with his wife
and two sons" 1t may further be said that
1fnr, To 70 CHI lone h
don society, and that 1t is admitted uni
versally that the aesthetic movement or
CARRIED by him is. responsible for the vast
improvement in interior decorations in Eng
land as well as for the better taste Eng
lish women have developed in the matter
of dress during the last ten or fifteen years.
There can be no question Of Oscars self
ishness in the matter Of his getting out Of
a personal encounter with the nobleman
whose name is a household word in every
country and cline where man Is sufficiently
elevated above the savage to fight under
the rules of the Marquis of Queensberry
The encounter would have added largely to
the gayety Of nations. The marquis is ten
or eleven Inches shorter, ten years older
and fifty or one hundred pounds lighter
than Wilde He Is marvelously well pre-
served, however, and will easily pass for
man of from thirty-five to forty, although
Burke records the year of his birth as 1S44
Queensberry has kept in training all his
life. He is a familiar sight during the Lon
don season tramping through Hyde Park
early in the morning in knickerbockers
accompanied always by a favorite fox ter
rier, on ten-mile walk before breakfast.
In a personal combat with Wilde he might
literally go about that fat gentleman like
the familiar cooper, in sporting parlance,
round a barrel. and Oscar would be sorry
about the circulation as long as he remem-
bered 1t, which would be very long time,
indeed.
Queensberry is, in fact. most bump
tious little man-one of the kind of little
men who bully big fellows into a fight and
then thrash Them much to their surprise
and modification. He is always ready for
go at fisticuffs, either with a ruffian
at the ring-side or a gentleman who may
have jostled him in q crowd.
The anger of Queensberry arises from the
intimacy Of his third son, Lord Alfred
Douglas, youth of twenty-four, with
Wilde. The marquis claims that Wilde has
alienated Lord Alfred from his father. The
extent of the infatuation of the youth may
be gathered from the fact that he appeared
in court in Wildes company prepared to
testify against his father.
Lord Alfred is an extremely fragile,
effeminate young man. His father says he
has been trying to provoke Wilde into TAX
ing legal action against him for two years.
If Queensberry's charges against Wilde
prove true the discussion of the case in
court will not detract anything from the
unsavory reputation already possessed by
modern Babylon.