The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 106, July 2002 - April, 2003 Page: 559
675 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Oscar Wilde Lectures in Texas, 1882
and would not decline a liberal offer." Only the press in Dallas deliber-
ately slighted the visit, although a troupe of young male performers, the
Sunflower Minstrels, were a source of local pride, and their entertain-
ments were pronounced the equal of professionals by the Dallas Daily
Herald. In a clairvoyant estimate of what awaited Wilde in Texas, the San
Antonio EveningLight noted, "Oscar Wilde is en route for Texas, and we ex-
pect he will have a splendid reception even though it may be mixed with
a considerable amount of ridicule and abuse.""
A. H. [Aurelia Hadley] Mohl, gifted journalist and author of a weekly
column on activities in Washington that was circulated in several Texas
newspapers, wrote in June:
So Oscar Wilde is going to Texas! Well, it's a good graduating school for young
men of his type. I do hope young Texas will treat him ... politely.... Remember,
young gentlemen, though if you are gentlemen I need not remind you, it is the
one who does a rude thing not the one to whom it is done, who is degraded by it.
Courtesy is as sure a mark of a true gentleman as gentleness is of a brave man. You
will find much in this eccentric young man to like if you will only rise above prej-
udice. He is truthful, candid and frank, with an almost childish simplicity of man-
ner, and brave enough withal to defy public opinion. He has weaknesses and little
vanities but who has not? Be true to your-selves and your heritage of free judg-
ment young men of Texas, and do not be rude to the stranger within your gates.'8
Galveston was the young celebrity's first stop in Texas. There, the Daily
News editorialized, "Ridicule without stint, some of it kindly, much of it
spiteful, has been cast upon Mr. Wilde and his peculiar art tenets and po-
etic effusions. Without knowing or caring to know what his ideas actually
are, many have condemned him in toto and have laughed him to scorn.
We shall, however, soon have the opportunity to learn from his own lips
what this new evangel is ..., and we can then judge for ourselves." The ed-
itorial closed with a long, philosophical sentence:
One thing is certain, if the visit of Oscar Wilde to these shores shall tend in any
measure to draw attention to the inharmoniousness of our surroundings, either
in form or color, to smooth down artistic crudities and enormities in our archi-
tecture, in our furniture, or even apparel and conceptions and instincts to a more
truly artistic standpoint, he will have done us a good deed and the future histori-
an may possibly have yet to chronicle the commencement of a high refinement
among us, as a people from the time of his appearing in this country.19
7 R M. McKie and B. F. Deal to El Paso Herald, June 21, 1882 (1st quotation); Dallas Daily Her-
ald,June 21-22, 1882; San Antonio EvenzngLight,June 17, 1882 (2nd quotation).
1 Waco Daily Examiner, June 25, 1882 (quotation). See also Judith N. McArthur in Ron Tyler, et
al (eds.), The New Handbook of Texas (6 vols.; Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1996), III,
789.
' Galveston Daily News,June 15, 1882.2003
559
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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/m1/637/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.