expression; they are nothing but student work, the best passages in
them being mere paraphrases of Pater and Arnold, though the titles
were borrowed from Whistler. Dr. Ernest Bendz in his monograph on _The
Influence of Pater and Matthew Arnold in the Prose-Writings of Oscar
Wilde_ has established this fact with curious erudition and
completeness.
Still, the lecturer was a fine figure of a man: his knee-breeches and
silk stockings set all the women talking, and he spoke with suave
authority. Even the dullest had to admit that his elocution was
excellent, and the manner of speech is keenly appreciated in America.
In some of the Eastern towns, in New York especially, he had a certain
success, the success of sensation and of novelty, such success as
every large capital gives to the strange and eccentric.
In Boston he scored a triumph of character. Fifty or sixty Harvard
students came to his lecture dressed to caricature him in "swallow
tail coats, knee breeches, flowing wigs and green ties. They all wore
large lilies in their buttonholes and each man carried a huge
sunflower as he limped along." That evening Oscar appeared in ordinary
dress and went on with his lecture as if he had not noticed the
rudeness. The chief Boston paper gave him due credit:
"Everyone who witnessed the scene on Tuesday evening must
feel about it very much as we do, and those who came to
scoff, if they did not exactly remain to pray, at least left
the Music Hall with feelings of cordial liking, and, perhaps
to their own surprise, of respect for Oscar Wilde."[7]
As he travelled west to Louisville and Omaha his popularity dwined and
dwindled. Still he persevered and after leaving the States visited
Canada, reaching Halifax in the autumn.
One incident must find a place here. On September 6 he sent L80 to
Lady Wilde. I have been told that this was merely a return of money
she had advanced; but there can be no doubt that Oscar, unlike his
brother Willie, helped his mother again and again most generously,
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