Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-08-01

audacity In defying her. There IL
| everywhere in the book, indeed, the
feeling of the patrieian, the defiant
attitude of one who would not yield
to contradiction, even though the
whole world his own nearest kin in
eluded, should be arrayed against
him.
How Lord Alfred's family felt, even
after the celebrated Ransome trial.
in which he was, as he says, evils
cerated in the witness box, his friends
remained true to him, for they knew
that, unwise as he had been, his con-
nection with Wilde had been inno-
cent Indeed, until his father, tho
Marquis of Queensberry, exposed the
yileness of his friend he had never
understood his depth of depravity.
Those who know anything of the
late RI. Hon. George Wyndham, dis
tinguished in the government of Mr..
Balfour, will attach due Importance
to his letters to his eounsin, Lord AL
fred Douglas. In one of these letters
he says:
My dear Bosie-Since writing YOU
a matter-of-fact letter this morning I
see, by the evening papers, that you
failed to get a verdict in your libel
action Don't take that to heart. 1t
alters nothing that matters. Your
family have known, for twenty years,
that you had the great misfortune.
as | think, of accepting, when you
were very young, the influence of Il
clever brain that took delight in per-
versity. Affectionately, your cousin,
GEORGE WYNDHAM
IA Belgraye Square, S. W.
| The libel action spoken of i'm the
letter was that of Lord Alfred against
Arthur Ransome, author of the
Critical Study" of Wilde
| In another letter to Lord Alfred.
Mr.. Wyndham says:
My dear Bosie--Your letter made
me rejoice, not that 7 need any thing
| to show that you have a kind heart,
! as well as a brave one. You have
/ been through a furnace of affiiction.
anG when that happens to a man it is
| good to see his true nature reassert-
| ing itself at once. You may rest as
sured that all your friends think the
hidden attack made on you a base
| thing. Several have spoken to me to
| that effect and none in any other way.
| Ever your affectionate cousin,
GEORGE WYNDHAM
Clouds, East knoyle, Salisbury"
| But, perhaps the most important
part of Lord Alfred's book is his
literary estimate of Wilde, who, when
he talked of the celebrated triumvirate
of his Gaylord Tennyson, Swim
turne. and Walter Pater. spoke OF
himself as greater than either or all
of them.
OF Wilde as poet Lord Alfred
thinks that by posterity he will be
| judged by the Ballad of Reading
Gaol." AS q dramatist, Wilde. Lord
Alfred declares, never succeeded in
rivalling Sir Arthur Pinero--his
model--or Henry Arthur Jones. and
has been far out-distanced by his
pupil. Mr.. George Bernard Shaw In
| this dictum most people who know
anything of literature will agree with
the author. s..
| The final chapters of Lord Alfred,s
book deal with the latter-day Wilde
cult which is making itself felt now
| to the dishonor of literature. Aud
Lord Alfred begins his warning
against the poisonous influence-noted
by more than one eminent writer
by discussing and condemning that
atrocious book, 1.-THE Picturef OF
Dorian Gray" But to our mind, he
might, perhaps, better have taken
"Salome,'' which, Of all the writings
of Oscar Wilde, shows most shock
ingly the faint of the authors heart
and mind.
OSCAR WILDE AND MYSELF" By
Lord Alfred Douglas, with portrait OF
the author and thirteen other portraits
aud illustrations. Also fac-simile letters
Duftield and Company, publishers, New
J York, 1914.