Show THS SUNFLOWER APOSTLE i x Ij E What fools these mortals betr In his own country Oscar Wilde is l a poor poet coming of a poor but respectable r E re-spectable family and altogether a person who would or should excite no especial attention in a community commu-nity In this country Oscar is one of the few really prominent persons before the public In the show parlance 1 par-lance he is perhaps the best card I in the pack barring female minstrels t min-strels and leg dramatists What is the attraction about this strange pecimen of humanity Oscar is 4 not handsome and is strikingly awkward as an elocutionist he violates vio-lates every rule of rhetoricand is painfully dreary in his manner of expression In the matter d of his lecture he tells nothing noth-ing that any tyro in art does not know He strings words J together with an utter recklessness I as to the time and intelligence of i I his listeners As a specimen of physical manliness he can boast i nothing over the very ordinary among men Only in the matters of exhibiting decidedly vulgar front 1 teeth and displaying an abundance of not even wavy hair is he a suc rag I cess Monday some hundreds of ua did as some hundreds do in ffl every city visited by this strange < L being namely paid some hundreds i ° of dollars for the privilege of seeing I see-ing Oscar and listening to a lecture i that was punctuated only by the rising inflection that had a beginning and an end r but was without form and t Y + avoid 3 void We do not think Oscar comes i within the ranks of that extensive class covered by the too ready and popular term of fools anymore s than the fellow who mutilates the ji blue and stars for a coat the red and white stripes for trousers and displays dis-plays agility and idiocy in the saw 3 ° dust arena is a fool The clown is usually the most intellectual and + altogether ablest and best paid man about the circus and after one of Wildes lectures everyone of the l audience perhaps feels that Oscar fi i by long odds the shrewdest fellow in the house It is hard to explain i why people flock to see and hear him unless Puck furnishes the explanation ex-planation What fools these mortals mor-tals be trt |