Despite an impressive resonant voice, Wilde made no claim of being a great orator; however, he tried to give the audiences what they expected in appearance as well as a certain degree of enlightenment. He noted on one occasion that the audience was disappointed that he had worn ordinary clothing rather than his knee breeches. On January 31, Wilde was to speak at the Music Hall in Boston. Sixty Harvard students decided to parody Wilde's clothes and manners. When the auditorium was nearly full, the students, each dressed like Bunthorne, paraded in pairs down the center aisle to their seats in the front rows, swishing sunflowers and lilies as they went. Wilde, who had been tipped off, appeared in conventional evening dress. After welcoming the students and the rest of the audience, he drolly commented, "Caricature is the tribute that mediocrity pays to genius." This won loud applause from the entire audience. He then sighed a quiet prayer, "Save me from my disciples," which again evoked enthusiastic applause.
Wilde's appearances were not always so well received. Lecturing on literature or "The English Renaissance" or "The House Beautiful" or "The Decorative Arts," he sometimes spoke to small crowds or received mediocre reviews. At other times, he was a huge success, so much so that his tour, originally scheduled for three months, was extended to ten months. He spoke in more than a hundred cities and towns throughout the Northeast, Midwest, South, and West, and in several cities in Canada. He appeared in Philadelphia, Boston, and San Francisco but also in Atchison, Kansas; Brantford, Ontario; Macon, Georgia; and Galveston, Texas.
