The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1904-10-16
Question Of Whether .Pinero's
Erometer Is Decent or Other
wise Gravely Debated.
is UNDISMAYED
Mrs. Grundy's Official Represent
ative, the Examiner of Plays,
Says 1t Is Proper, but w. I.
Stead Thinks Differently.

PUBLIC AND THE NEW YORK HERALD.
London. Oct. B.-(Copyrisht. 1S04. -
Arthur w Pinero's dancing doll Is the talk
OF London. Every seat at Wyndham's
Theater. where "A Wife Without a Smile
the play in which the doll made its ap-
pearance. was produced Wednesday night.
has been booked for six weeks ahead.
All the town wants to see for itself
whether what has been desired as an
erometer Is a high or low. innocent or
suggestive decent or Indecent doll.
| The doll IS an invention of Seymour Rip
pingiiL. the husband Of the wife without a
smile. Rippingill has attached the toy to
a spring. which passes through the cell
ing Of the drawing-room and is fastened
to the sofa of an upper room. occupied
by Mr.. and Mrs WebbMarsh. two recently
married people. who frequently retire
there. ostensibly to work. but in reality
to spoon.
R~ippingiifs idea was that the doll would
show whether or not Webbmarsh and his
| wife were spooning. and that Mrs. Rip
pingill might thereby be induced to laugh.
Rippinsin thought that even a kiss or the
g%entlest pressure Of the hand should pro-
duce a SILVER of the doll.
CREATIONS REMARKABLE.
The audience sees the pendant doll, not
merely shiTerins. but dancing up and
down and performing the most extraor-
binary gyrstions at the end OF its string.
Perhaps its unwise," says one critic,
ito inquire into the mechanism of this doll
business. which at several moments in the
play made the house roar with laughter.
There vera a great many laughs in the
play, but if we were to describe in plain.
un%varnished Saxon the cause. we are
afraid We might be giving an entirely
wrong impression of the piece"
A secon critic said:
"One of Rippinsil's delicious jokes IL the
labored incident OF the hanging up Of a
doll on a string to act as a telltale when
couples sit on the sofa and indulge in
kissing, but why the act of kissing should
a gitate the string and GAUGE the doll to
gyrate is a question in the higher occult
ism Of which Mr.. Pinero alone has the
secret.
And yet. when Mrs. Grundy's oficial
representative. Mr.. George BEDFORD, ex-
aminer OF plays. was asked IL he saw
nothing Objectionable in Mr. Pinero's doll.
he replied it seemed to him to be sheer
insolence to seek for q vile suggestion In
q Wife Without a Smile which he de-
scribed as the work Of our greatest dram
atist.
I'm perfectly certain" he added. with
out the shadow or a vestige of a doubt
that Mr. Pinero. who is well known to
me n whom 1 highly esteem. had not
the slightest intention of what 1 may cali
nastfness in the situations of his play.
Until to-day, vixen 1t was pointed out to
NE that the action Of the doll suspended
from the ceiling might be misunderstood.
I had never dreamed hat such a charge
could be made against the author"
Nj. Arthur Chudleigh. who. with Mr..
Charles Frohman. is responsible for the
production. was asked for his views of the
suggestion that the doll incidents savored
Of improperly.
Quite absurd said Mr.. Chudleixh.
You must understand that the mechan-
Ism is go delicate that 1t would even reg
lister a handshake."
PINERo'S FRIEND.
A friend and a6mirer of 1Ir. Pfnero gives
what he describes ~ an explanation Of