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The Green Bag.



Published Monthly, at $3.00 per annum.Single numbers, 35 cents.


Communications in regard to the contents of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editor,
Horace W. Fuller, 15½ Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.


The Editor will be glad to receive contributions of articles of moderate length upon subjects of interest to the profession; also anything in the way of legal antiquities or curiosities, facetiæ, anecdotes, etc.

THE GREEN BAG.

THE Law Journal (London) appears to have selected the "Green Bag" for a target, and is pouring in a broadside. If, however, it has no better ammunition than its last shot, we think we shall be able to survive its attacks. In its issue of March 30 it says:—

"Green is the color of the ocean in which, according to an ethereal authority, nothing of man that doth fade, but doth suffer a sea change into something rich and strange. Nothing of man fades so much as the stories that attach to his name commonly by a change of one man's story to another's. Some power of the kind appears to affect the 'Green Bag,' the second number of which has appeared. No doubt a receptacle of so much capacity and anxiety for titbits must absorb much foreign matter, which, however, should be treated with respect, and not, like Macaulay's children stolen by gypsies, disfigured so as to conceal its identity. In 'A Generation of Judges,' published in London some two years ago, there are many stories which the literary scissors have been unable to resist. One of these is told in the ' Life of Chief-Baron Kelly,' and concerns a brougham, a cab, an omnibus, and a puzzled woman with a baby. The 'Green Bag,' we grieve to say, extracts the words of the tale, and confuses its identity by attributing it to one 'Mr. Justice Bramwell.'"

We regret to say that at the time of publishing the anecdote in question we had never seen a copy of "A Generation of Judges," and consequently that "titbit" was not derived from that source. Where, then, did it come from? Why, from one of the leading law journals "across the pond"! If the Editor of our esteemed contemporary will turn to his file of the Irish Law Times, he will find, under date of June 4, 1887, the same anecdote, and will also find that it is there attributed to "Mr. Justice Bramwell."

It was, therefore, in the "United Kingdom" that the horrible crime was committed, and this poor little waif was "stolen like Macaulay's children, and disfigured so as to conceal its identity." The Editor of the "Green Bag" welcomed the "little stranger" and took him in, never dreaming that he was parading under false colors.

A handsome apology from the Law Journal is now in order.


The Irish Law Times, one of the brightest and most readable of our transatlantic exchanges, and to which we are indebted for many of the good things furnished to our readers, has the following pleasant words for the "Green Bag:"—

"Not even the black or blue bag of your barrister, or the red bag of his brother at the Parliamentary bar, could contain anything half so pleasant and agreeable as 'The Green Bag, a Useless but Entertaining Magazine for Lawyers,' the first numbers whereof have come to hand from Boston, Massachusetts. It is, in fact, a new departure in legal journalism: prose, poetry, engravings,—and all of them excellent,—but none of that solid pabulum looked for by the lawyer in the daily needs of practice. Light, readable, and entertaining, the new journal addresses itself to his hours of relaxation. It will amuse him, it will interest, but forbears to instruct him. It is not a bag to be associated with him in court, but to be left behind in the robing-room; like the English barrister's bag, used as a mere receptacle of forensic costume. The issues received render us anxious to receive the next; and while greeting the new-born monthly with zest, we hope that it will yet be the means of giving equal pleasure to many other readers in this country."


We trust our readers will bear in mind our desire for contributions, not only of short articles, but also of anything that will add to our fund of anecdotes, facetiæ, etc. Send along any good stories that you hear, and the Editor will be delighted to "bag" them.