The Elbert County tribune. [volume] (Elbert, Elbert County, Colo.) 18??-1920, 1905-03-30

not wish her husband to see her.
1.-THE interview with the solicitor
took place in the consultation room,
and Wilde sat at a table with his
head on his hands, opposite the law
yer.
Outside, in the passage with me.
waited a sad figure in the deepest
mourning. Il was Mrs. Widen
tears.
while the consultation was pro-
ceeding in the solicitors room Mrs.
Wide turned to me and begged a
favor. Let me have one glimpse of
my husband she said, and could
not refuse her.
so silently 1 stepped to one side,
and Mrs. Wilde cast one long, linger-
ing glance inside and saw the convict
poet, who, in deep mental distress
himself, was totally unconscious that
any eyes save those of the stern law
yer and myself witnessed his degrada-
ton
"A second later Mrs. Wilde. appar-
emily laboring under deep emotion,
drew back and left the prison with
the solicitor.
Il fancy Wilde, when she saw him,
was putting the final signature to the
divorce papers, and l do not know If
she ever saw her unhappy husband
again. / do not think she ever did
"At exercise, when he tramped what
he called The Fools Paradise with
his companions of The Devils Own
Brigade he would pace along with
Bonded head. as though deep in
thought, and usually muttering snatch
es of prose or verse from his favorite
authors.
"He took a most sympathetic inter
est in the sorrows and troubles of 9TH
er prisoners. and commended fiercely
on what he called the brutality of the
prison system when a warder was sus-
pended and finally dismissed for put
ting biscuits in the cell of a Young
prisoner whom Wilde believed to
have been crying from hunger.
THE monotony of the life seemed
appalling to Wilde, and when he was
released he wrote, you remember:
1 know not whether laws be right
whether laws be wrong.
All that we know who be in gaoi
And that each day is like "a year,
year whose days are long.
81 have good reason TO know that
Oscar Wilde was satisfied with the
way two of the warders treated him.
after his release he sent us
through the governor copies of The
Ballad of Reading Gaol' My copy is
inscribed From his friend, the author,
Naples, February, 1888
You remember the mastery way
in which Wilde worked out the theme
of that wonderful poem which told
of the last days in prison of Trooper
c. T. Woodbridge of the Royal Horse
Guards. who was hanged for the muir
der of his wife at Clever, near Wind
sor.
Wilde. of course, never saw the
murderer after his condemnation, but
he heard the bell tolling for the execu-
ton. and it made a terrible impression
on his mind. He wrote:
The memory of Dreadful Things
Rushed like a dreadful wind.
And Terror crept behind.
The warders with their shoes of felt
crept by, each padlocked door.
And peeped and saw with eyes of awe
Grey figures on the floor,
And wondered why men knelt to pray
Who never prayed before.
wilde told me that those moments
when the bell rang out, and his imag-
ination conjured up the execution
scene. were the most awful of time
rich in horrors.
81 always found Wilde extremely
good-netured, and he wrote several
little things out for me. had recent
ly been married. and a certain week
ly paper offered a silver tea service
to the young couple who could give
the best reason why this service
should be given TO them.
81 told Wilde of this. and he wrote