The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1905-03-31

accompanied the solicitor, but she di,
not wish her husband to see her
The interview with the solicitor
look place in the consultation room
O. ana Wilde sat at a table with his
# mead On his hands, opposite the law
i yer.
n outside, in the passage with me
t waited sad figure in the deenost
0 mourning. 1t was Mrs. Wilde-ip
J tears.
While the consultation was nro.
5 ceeolng in the solicitors room Mrs
WIDE turned to me and begged a
) favor. Let me have one glimpse of
my husband she said, and 7 could
not refuse her.
so silently I stepped to one side
ana MIS-. Wilde cast one long, linger.
Ing glance inside and saw the convict.
poet who, in deep mental distress
himself, was totally unconscious thot
any eyes save those Of the stern law.
yer and myself witnessed his degrade
ton '''' |'N o '''''-
"A second later Mrs. Wilde, appar. |
entity laboring under deep emotion |
Grew back and left the prison with
the solicitor. ''1'
4 fancy Wilde. when she saw hin,
was putting the final signature to tho
ul'orce papers, and I do not know If
she ever saw her unhappy husband
AGAIN. | DO not think she ever did
AT exercise. when he Trained u,bot
ne called The Fools Paradise, with
MS companions of The Devils Own
brigade, he would pace along with
Tended head, as though deem in
'h0usht' and usually muttering snatch.
eS OF prose or verse from his fayorite
authors.
He took a most sympathetic in+or. 7
est IN the sorrows and troubles of 9th. :
er prisoners, and commended ferce,v =
On What he called the brutality Of the h
prison system when a warder was Sis e
pended and finally dismissed for mt A
ing biscuits in the cell of a vouDg 9
prisoner whom Wilde believed to 81
lave been crying from hunger. q
Inc monotony of the life seemed
to Wilde, and when hp wac
eleaSed he wrote, you remember: - -,
know not whether laws be right n
whether laws be wrong: III
II that we know who be in gaol -
Is that the walls are strong, le
III .nat each day is like a year. an
"A year whose days are long o4
l nave good reason to know that tn
scar Wilde was satisfied with tho of
ay two of the warders treated him co
After his release he sent us DO
trough the governor copies of THE pa
allad OF Reading Gaol.' My copv is 90,
Scrl0ed From his friend, the author we
aples, February, 1885, ,
you remember the mastery vav M
which Wilde worked out the theme oo,
that wonderful poem which told 49,
the last days in prison of Trooper on[
L. Woolridge of the Royal Horse ba1
lards, who was hanged for the MIR. 10
OF his wife at Clever, near Wind. auo
r. gre
Wilde, Of course, never saw the p DH
lrderer after his condemnation hnt p p."
heard the bell tolling for the execu. 10 ,
n, and it made terrible impression hoa
his mind. He wrote: tss
e memory Of Dreadful Thinos by
4 Horro rrN sto q aTe s wind Fut
md Terror crept behind. iiiah' will
wa War p with their shoes of felt
1 peeped and saw with ewes of awa
rey figures on the floor. n
!, wondered why men knelt to nrav
'ho never prayed before eno'
Wilde told me that those moments OH
en- the bell rang out, and his mag. and
ZION conjured up the execution n,;o,
ne, were the most awful of a time who
| in horrors. , mno
always found Wilde extremely to +
d-natured, and he wrote several hive,
9 thlngs out for me. I had recent. have
'een married, and certain week. mich
paper offered silver tea service shor
he young couple who could give tbe
best reason why this service kan,
lid be given to them. he i
told Wilde of this and ba uro+o -,