Oscar Wilde.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 6, Issue 34, 9 July 1895, Page 3

Oscar Wilde.

Some particulars of Oscar Wilde's prison life :—During the first month on the wheel, if put there Wilde will sleep on a bed, a bare board raised a few inches above the floor, and supplied with sheets. Clean sheets are given to each prisoner, two rugs, and a coverlet, but no mattress. His diet will be:—Breakfast at half-past seven a.m., cocoa and bread ; dinner atnoon, bacon and beans 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 his spell on the wheel, he will be put to some industrial employment—not play-writing, although it might be the most profitable to the prison department—but probably post-bay 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 be 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 aiv accorded. On his release, Wilde, if he has worked well, will have earned the magnificent sum of ten shillings, which is to be paid to him by an agent of the Discharged Prisoner's Society.