OSCAR WILDE'S PRISON LIFE.

North Otago Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8241, 24 July 1895, Page 1

OSCAR WILDE'S PRISON LIFE.

Some particulars of Oscar Wilde's prison life are given by a London paper : During the firs^ month on the wheel, if put there, Wilde will sit ep on a plank bed, a bare board raised a few inches from the floor, and supplied wi h sheets. Clean shee' 8 are given to each prisoner, two rugs, and coverlet, but no ma tre-s. His diet will be : Breakfast at halfpasb seven a.m., cocoa and bread; dinner ab noon, bacon and beans one day soup another, cold Australian meat another, the last three being repeated twice a week, potatoes with every dinner. After he has finished his spell on the wheel hs will be put to some industrial employment — not play-wnting, although it might be the most profitable to the prison department — but probably post bag making, tailoring, or merely picking oakum. He will exercise in the opea air daily for an hour, walking with the rest of his ward in Indian file ; no talking permitted. He will be allowed uo communication with the outside, except by special permission, until he has completed three months of his sentence. Then he may wri c and teceiveone letter and be visited for 20 minutes by three fiiend->, but in a vi&itinef cell, sepaiated from them by wire blinds, and in the presence of a warder. The letter and visit may be repeated at intervals of three months, but all these concessions depend first, upon his industry, and nex.fi up .11 his conduct. There is no escape from the pkiik bed until a number of marks are awarded for work done, and in the same way io ters and visits are Hccorded On his releis?, Wilde, if he has worke t well, will have earned the magnincen r sum of ten shillings, which will be paid to him by an agent of the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society.