OSCAR WILDE SCRIP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17158, 29 September 1923, Page 1

OSCAR WILDE SCRIP.

[TO THE EDITOR.! Sir,—l have received two papers lately from Dr Thacker. One of them, the “ Sunday Express.” is publishing selections from a voluminous collection of automatic writings which critics say is decidedly' “ Wildean ” in style, etc. The automatist is an M.A. and a mathematician. When he “ sits ” for “ Oscar ” he occupies his mind with algebra. W. T. Stead adopted a similar precaution when “Julia’s Letters** were given through his hand. “ Oscar,’* as he always pre-signs his script, writes at great speed—up to 2500 words an hour. Scintillating epigrams, barbed observations on men and books, grandiose declarations pour forth in a steady stream. The automatist’s hand replied to a lady present, “ Honesty, madam, may be the best polciy for the grocer, but it is the very* worst for a woman with a past. Charming women always have a past. Plain women never have a future.” In one place poor Wilde writes: “Like blind Homer I am a wanderer. Over the whole world I have wandered. looking for eyes through which I might see. Through the eyes of a Tamil girl I have seen the tea fields of Ceylon. Mount Ararat I have seen through the eyes of a Kurd.” Then he goes on: “I have forgiven the world the humiliation t heaped upon me, but I find it hard to forgive the translation of my beautiful prose into German.” We have here a glimpse of a gifted soul working out his purgatory.—l am. etc.. PETER TROLOVE-