OSCAR WILDE’S PRISON LIFE.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 80, 5 July 1895, Page 3

OSCAR WILDE’S PRISON LIFE.

Some particularsof Oscar Wilde’s prison life ate given by a London paper;— During the first month on the wheel, if -put there, Wilde will sleep on a plank bed a bare board raised a few inches above the floor, and supplied with sheet*. Clean sheets are given to each prisoner, two rugs, and coverlet, but no mattress. His diet will be Breakfast at half-past seven a.m., cocoa and bread; dinner at noon, bacon and beaus one day, soup another, cold Australian meat another, and. brown, flour suet pudding another, the last three being repeated twice a week, potatoes with every dinner, After he has finished hia spell on the wheel he will he put. to some industrial employment—not play-writing, although, it might bathe most profitable to the prison department—but probably postbag making, tailoring, or merely picking oakum. He will exercise in the open air daily for an hour, walking with the rest of his ward in Indian file, no talking permitted. He will be allowed no communication with the outside, except by special permission; until he has completed three months of his sentence. Then he may write and receive one letter and he visited for twenty minutes by three friends, but in a visiting cell, separated 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 next upon his conduct. There is no escape from the plank bed until a certain number of marks are awarded for work done, and in the same way letters and visits are accorded. On his release, Wilde, if he has worked well will have earned the magnificent sum of ten shillings, which will be paid to him by an agent of the Discharged Prisoners Aid Society. _____