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 GREEN BAG.
As the green bag of the lawyer, although ostensibly designed for the convenient transportation of dry and musty papers of the law, frequently is made use of as a receptacle for many articles not strictly within the letter of the law; so this magazine is intended to convey to the legal profession, from month to month, a collection of articles, which we trust will prove of interest, although they may not all prove to be strictly legal. Our "Green Bag" is not intended as a text-book or a legal reporter; and the lawyer who turns to these pages for material which will aid him in the preparation of his case will seek in vain. But if wearied by the labors of the day his mind requires relaxation, it will find in the "Green Bag," we hope, entertainment and amusement.
The magazine will be made up of articles upon interesting topics by leading members of the bar, short biographical sketches of prominent lawyers (with portraits), a collection of legal antiquities, curious cases, CAUSES CÉLÈBRES, etc. The humor ous side of the law will not be neglected, and the "Green Bag" will be liberally supplied with the latest legal anecdotes. A considerable space will also be devoted to current legal news and gossip.
A leading feature will be a series of fully illustrated articles upon the various law schools in the United States, the Supreme Courts of the United States and of the several States, etc.
It has seemed to us that a work of this kind will supply a long-felt want in the profession, namely, a bright, entertaining magazine, designed rather to interest and amuse than to instruct; and that is just what we intend the " Green Bag " to be. With these few words we introduce our new venture to the profession, and bespeak for it a kindly reception at the hands of our legal friends.
The antiquity of the " green bag," as the badge of a lawyer, is indisputable. It appears that barristers carried them in the reign of Queen Anne. In Dr. Arbuthnot's "History of John Bull," is the following : " I am told, Cousin Diego, you are one of those that have undertaken to manage me, and that you have said you will carry a green bag yourself rather than we shall make an end of our lawsuit. I'll teach them and you to manage."
Additional evidence of the fact that lawyers used to carry green bags towards the end of the seventeenth century, is to be found in " The Plain Dealer," a comedy by Wycherley. One of the principal characters in the play is the widow Blackacre, a petulant, litigious woman, always in law, and mother of Jerry Blackacre, " a true, raw squire, under age and his mother's government, and bred to the law." In act i.. sc. 1, we find the following stage directions : " Enter Widow Blackacre with a mantle and a green bag, and several papers in the other hand. Jerry Blackacre, her son, in a gown laden with green bags, following her." In act iii., sc. 1, the widow is called impertinent and ignorant by a lawyer, of whom she demands back her fee, on his returning her brief and de clining to plead for her. This draws from her the following reply : " Impertinent again, and ignorant, to me! Gadsbodikins, you puny upstart in the law, to use me so! You green-bag carrier, murderer of unfortunate causes," etc. Further on, to Jerry Freeman, she says : " ... rather than wear this gown and carry green bags all thy life, and be pointed at for a 'torny."
A good story is told of a learned English conveyancer who had been requested by some of his family to bring home with him one evening from chambers a child's hat and a pair of shoes. As he was in the habit of carrying home papers every evening in his bag, in this receptacle did he place the articles required. When he had reached the churchyard in Portugal Street, he was accosted by the watchman. "I say, Mister, what ha' you
