OSCAR WILDE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 19 April 1913, Page 5

OSCAR WILDE.

HIS PUBLIC DISGRACE. LIBEL ACTION BY LORD ALFRED DOUGLAS. ASTOUNDING REVELATIONS. (Received April 18, 11 a.m.) LONDON, April 17. Lord Alfred Douglas lias brought an action for libel against Dr Arthur Ban-some and The Times Book Club in, connection with, Dr Ransome's book on Oscar Wilde, alleging that Lord Douglas was responsible for Wilde's public disgrace and abandonment to poverty. Lord Douglas testified that he had paid three months' rent for a villa at Naples for Wilde and had given liim large monetary help at various periods. He had paid Wilde's funeral expenses. The evidence contained astounding revelations regarding the career of Wilde and Lord Douglas. LORD DOUGLAS -CROSSEXAMINED. INTERESTING- EVIDENCE. (Received Last Night, 9.40 o'clock.) LONDON, April 18. Dr Ransome's book suggested that after his imprisonment Wilde's wife provided him with am. income of £l5O per annum, to enable him to start afresh, under the name of Sebastian Mel moth. Lord Alfred Douglas, however, took Wilde to Naples, where he shared in a life of momentary magnificence. Lord Douglas was subjected to a. searching cross-examination, particularly in reference to articles appearing" im the newspaper Truth in May, 1890, and his own poems. , During the cross-examination counsel for the defence produced unpublished sections of "De Profundis," the- manuscripts af which are in the British Museum. Included was a letter to Lord Doug' las, written during Wilde's iinprison-mj-.it. The reading of the letter occupied an hour and a half, and was remarkable for its literary style, and the reflection on Wilde's moods after his downfall. Wilde bitterly accused Lord Douglas of being the cause of his ruin. Wilde made play-writing as an intellectual work, impossible.