Montgomery Daily Advertiser, June 23, 1882.
Mr. Frank
Gray, advance representative of Oscar Wilde, is in the city, for
the purpose of concluding arrangeents for a lecture by the young
apostle of aestheticism at McDonald's Opera House on next
Thursday night.
By an arrangement with R. D'Oyley Carte of London, Mr. Wilde is making a Southern tour under the management of Mr. Peter Tracy, of Memphis. He has secured sixteen nights for the South, one of which will be given to Montgomery, as above stated. The subject of Mr. Wilde's lecture will be Decorative Art. An advertisement and other matters relating to the lecture will appear in another issue.
From our Memphis and other exchanges we observe that Mr. Wilde has drawn crowded houses wherever he has appeared, and the people of Montgomery will no doubt embrace this, their only opportunity to see and hear the young man who has been the object of such general interest since his arrival in America.
Montgomery Daily Advertiser, June 24, 1882.
Mr. Oscar
Wilde, whose coming to Montgomery is announced, is being
discussed, and although many people dissent from his views of the
sunflower, the lily meets,with general favor.
Montgomery Daily Advertiser, June 29, 1882.
THE SELMA
TIMES ON OSCAR WILDE AND PRESIDENT DAVIS.
"Montgomery is to
have a genuine sensation. Oscar Wilde, the ridiculously notorious
disciple of aestheticisn will lecture there Thursday night.
Doubtless an immense assemblage of the morbidly curious will
greet him. The Advertiser says that Oscar will spend Tuesday and
Tuesday night with Jefferson Davis at Beauvoir, Mississippi,
lecture in Mobile Wednesday night and reach our capital Thursday
morning. It seems incredible that he is to be the guest of Davis.
The President of the Confederacy is the last man in the United
States we should suspect of taking an interest in the laughing
stock of the day. He is so modest, retiring, elegant in his
dignity, that we would not have thought it possible for the
self-asserting, sight seeing, pseudo-fanatical, long haired,
aesthetic humbug to have penetrated the quiet home of the grand
Southerner. It is true that Wilde intruded upon Longfellow, but
his kindness and submissiveness to impositions were saint-like.
Davis on the contrary, in our conception, has been possessed of a
massiveness of will power and an intolerance of hypocrisy that
should hedge him about as doth the traditional divinity of kings.
Surely there is a mistake about the Advertiser's item.
Possibly it was the intention of Wilde to thrust himself upon
Davis, nolens volens, and confident of success, he has
used the statement under consideration as an advertisement, a
scheme to secure the attention and to win the respect of
Southerners particularly. But the plan ought to fail. Southerners
will not think any more of Wilde, and may, if his statements
prove true, think less of Davis. We hope that to the credit of
the latter's good sense the projected visit will prove a
failure."
OSCAR ought not to have slighted Selma. Is it too late yet?
Montgomery Daily Advertiser, June 29, 1882.
OSCAR
WILDE.-- This world famous man will arrive from Mobile today, and
deliver his great lecture entitled "Decorative Art," in
McDonald's Opera House this evening. Mr. Wilde draws big crowds
of only the best and most refined people, and Montgomery will be
an exception in Mr. Wilde's Southern tour, if the Opera House
does not contain such an audience tonight. No lady has heard of
Mr. Wilde that is not anxious to see and hear him; and, 'tis
said, he "adores the fair sex."
Montgomery Daily
Advertiser, June 30, 1882.
OSCAR WILDE
A select
audience, and a very good one in number, were present last night
on the occasion of Oscar Wilde's lecture on "Art Decoration." The
lecturer walked on the stage alone, advanced to the table in
front, and was received with a round of applause. He was dressed
in a black velvet court suit, with knee breeches, dark stockings
and patent leather pumps. There was a profusion of lace around
his neck, down the front and at the cuffs. The familiar wood cut
so often seen in the newspapers gives a very good idea of his
profile, and the way he wears his hair. His bearing is erect and
graceful, and he speaks with ease and fluency.
Mr. Wilde entered at once upon the subject of his lecture without introductory remarks of any kind. The lecture was one of the peculiar nature that should be heard to be appreciated, and a synopsis or even a brief sketch will not be attempted.
The lecturer has the accent and intonation peculiar to the English, and every period was closed with the rising inflection. The close and respectful attention with which the audience listened to the lecture betrayed their interest in its subject and the manner in which it was treated. Nothing interrupted it save when some good point or well rounded period excited involuntary applause which was given with the decorum characteristic of the audience from beginning to end. Mr. Wilde spoke about one hour, and at the conclusion of his interesting lecture bowed, and retired amidst the applause of his audience.
The annual hop of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity came off last night in the dancing hall of McDonald's Opera House. The hall was musical with the hum of happy voices, the harmony of the band and the quick steps of flying feet. The young ladies were looking their loveliest. The soft air of the June night was laden with the perfume of flowers that the advent of Mr. Wilde has made so popular and so plentiful. Mr. Wilde himself graced the occasion with his presence and showed that grace in practice which he so beautifully teaches in the principle. The young ladies were charmed with his splendid figure, polished manners and pleasing speech, and he was charnied by the beauty and wit and taste of Montgomery's lovely daughters. The crowd dispersed at a late hour, one and all deeply grateful to the Phi Delta Thetas for the most pleasant evening of the season.