The New York herald., 1922-04-09

GOLDIE GREEN. BY Samuel Mer-
win. Bobhs- Merrill Company.
/ ~ AMUEL MERWIN in "Goldie
~ Green" has told the story of a
different kin6 of fiapper. If
Marigold Green had been born into
different environment lsay the F.
Scott Fitzgerald environment) she
would undoubtedly have sized up
men and life (and hootch and ciga-
rettes) just as she does in Mr. Mer-
wins novel, and used all three no
less judiciously. if not so much to her
actual advantage. Marigold Green
was born into a family that included
whining mother, mild, uncom-
planning but unquestionable failure
of father; a humorless brother de-
termined TO protect" her, a younger
brother just as much Of a problem.
and the twins. Hence she learned
her first lesson of life and men in
her teens. not at proms and thes
dansants but vending tickets i'm the
booth of the Parthenon. Picture Pal
ace in Sunbury, a suburb of Chi
cago.
How she used the knowledge ac-
quired there to advance herself,
salamander like, from the ticket
booth to an insurance agency in a
big hotel lobby and thence to the
managership of, first, the Parthenon;
then a second movie theater, and.
finally, whole circuit of them, is
entertainingly told in the Merwin
novel. incidentally, Goldie in her
upward climb carries the other men,
bers of her family with her. proyid-
ing them with an automobile, in
stalling them in new and more pre-
tentious home, obtaining a perma-
nent if not over lucrative post for
her father and almost humanizing
the serious brother. Goldie has a
vocabulary all her own. no illusions
regarding men and an Unsuitable
thirst for battle. This last keeps
the story moving swiftly from start
to finish, for Goldie encounters
enough obstacles to discourage any
one but the poppy, short skirtsd-
conspicuous. if you will-example of
American youth that she is.
The tale is not given over entirely.
however, to commercial battles and
ambitions. There is love interest,
too-a pleasing bit. And it is char
that, after steering through a world
in which scores of designing men
prowled at large, a world echoing
daily with what she would have-in
her first Parthenon days, anyway
termed wise cracks" Miss Green
elects to marry not the original
source of the capital which brought
her the managership of the Parthe-
non but the dreaming artist, the
youth who first made her realize that
the great lobby of the Beach Hotel
that she had so long stood in awe Of
was not splendid but vulgar; the
youth who told her of beauty-real
beauty. She marries, running true
to form. not the equally desirable
suitor on whom she can depend for
the rest of her life but the dreamer
who is SO dependent on her, whom
she must carry along with her other
battles and burdens.
Goldie knows where she wants to
go, but she isn't going to be
scorched getting there. She makes
this plain early in the story when,
triumphantly holding up a contract
for the insurance agency just won
after a motor drive with the dis
penser of such documents, she adds
to the comment of Ter father that it
seems to be properly signed:
And Witnessed Trust Little Eva
on any ice there isl"
The characters in Mr.. Merwin's
novel are finely drawn. The heroine
keeps the book sparkling and the
story is altogether satisfying and
entertaining, with never bit of
dragging" Goldie is one of type