The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 106, July 2002 - April, 2003 Page: 556
675 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Austin newspaper remarked, "decorative art has taken possession of the
public mind and especially of the female mind, and it is manifesting all
the signs of an epidemic. In many cases it is carried to an absurd extreme,
of which Mr. Oscar Wilde in his follies is an exponent and apostle, but
even Mr. Wilde is left far in the rear by some of the crazies, the extreme
and the absurd will in time be brushed away, and a new department of art,
a sensible and a just art will be left, in which many women can find em-
ployment and money for the exercise of their talents."'
In May the Waco Daily Examiner quoted an interview Wilde gave in New
York, "The idea I had of America ... has been strongly confirmed, it is
that what this country needs principally is not the higher imaginative art,
but the simple decorative art that can make beautiful for us the com-
monest vessel of the house... ." The Irish visitor had barely landed in New
York when the Brenham Daily Banner (published in a town northwest of
Houston) accurately declared, "There seems to be an esthetic craze
sweeping over the entire land. The people of the United States are never
so happy as when they have a hobby.... now it is esthetics, next year it will
be something else." The Banner delivered a corrective when it believed
one was due: in the winter of 1882 after he visited Washington Wilde con-
cluded the capital was not aesthetic. Its broad, straight streets, he
thought, should be winding and narrow, full of surprises, and the win-
dows on the opposite sides should confront each other. The Banner re-
minded him that "in this country we believe in straight streets, straight
whiskey and the straight ticket and we all marching on the straight and
narrow path."1
In Comanche, a small town southwest of Fort Worth, the Chiefacknowl-
edged in February Wilde's affect, commenting, "Knee breeches, silk
stockings and pumps are the latest style for gentlemen in New York City,
incident to Oscar Wilde, the aesthete's advent. The fashion will reach
Texas in about two years, and the young men will have ample time to give
their calves some hay." The Dallas Weekly Herald noted that aesthetic
young men were using Wilde's visit to agitate the question of wearing
knee breeches. The paper commented that if a young man has a "limb
that is a poem" the innovation might be acceptable, "but general adopt-
ing of the proposed custom would undoubtedly display a startling com-
monality of prosaic legs, and we object to it." In Brenham the Banner re-
ferred to "Breeches of Decorum-Oscar Wilde's." By May, and before
beginning his southern tour, the ever active Wilde needed some new
clothes and negotiated with a New York tailor to make him two suits. One
' Austtn Dazly Statesman, May 2o, 1882.
"o Waco Dazly Examner, May 14, 1882 (ist quotation); Brenham Dazly Banner, Jan. 27 (2nd quo-
tation), Feb. 8 (3rd quotation), 1882.556
April
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 106, July 2002 - April, 2003, periodical, 2003; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101223/m1/634/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.