“American Oscar Wilde”

Rev. Kadir Edward Davis, pastor of the Central Christian church, of Oakland, is frantically busy calling in advertising lithographs scattered throughout California announcing that “Rev. Kadir Edward Davis, popularly known as ‘The American Oscar Wilde,’” would appear at a certain date and deliver a lecture. It is a ticklish time for the aesthetic clergyman. He no longer wears a sunflower and is struggling with the temptation to cut his long hair. He has had new plates prepared for his display lithographs and hereafter he will be proclaimed merely as “the versatile gentleman.” For years Mr. Davis traveled over the United States, announcing himself as the “American Oscar Wilde,” a designation given him by an eastern paper. “I am at a loss to know just what to do,” said he to a reporter. “It is true that I have been a great admirer of the author of ‘Dorian Grey‘ and ‘A Woman of No Importance.’ I believed in aesthetics. I think a preacher should be a leader in dress as well as thought. The day for preachers to garb themselves in camel’s hair and leathern girdles is past. I took Oscar Wilde as my model. I think he is a man of great genius. Now I am not afraid of criticism and while my methods may be considered bizarre by more conservative Christians, I feel that I am pursuing a proper course in appealing to the curiosity, artistic sensibilities and even the humor of the people. But I am not going to pose any more as the American Oscar Wilde. I don’t just know how I am going to get the public to drop the title. On my lithographs my title henceforth will be the ‘Versatile Gentleman.’”