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Published Monthly, at $3.00 per annum.
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Communications in regard to the contents of the Magazine should be addressed to the Editor, Horace W. Fuller, 15^ 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, facetia, anecdotes, etc. THE GREEN BAG. "/E are glad to find at least one member of
- * the profession who appreciates our claim
to be a " useless " as well as an " entertaining" journal. A subscriber in West Virginia writes : "I have enjoyed the visits of the 'Green Bag' very much during the past year. I admire the cour age which enables you to hold on to the designation of "useless but entertaining," because lawyers are a practical class, and because they admire frank ad mission. They make their admiration practical by holding out a helping hand to the ' Green Bag.'" An Ohio judge compliments us, as follows : — "I know of no legal publication that, in my opinion, equals the ' Green Bag ' in tendency to elevate the members of the bar, and deliver them from the idea that its sole aim is to make money."
A Detroit correspondent makes the following additions to the list of distinguished Alumni of Harvard Law School, published in our January number : — To the Editor of the " Green Bag" : Permit me to add to your list of distinguished alumni of the Harvard Law School these two resi dents of Detroit, — Hon. George Van Ness Lothrop, U. S. Minister to Russia; Hon. Henry Billings Brown, U. S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan, 1875— 1890, — now Associate-Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ' We have received from a Kansas lawyer a copy of his brief, presented in a case before the Supreme Court of that State. The language is certainly 13
forcible, even if not couched in the most polite language, as witness the following extracts : — "But we cannot be responsible for the mistakes in the minds of the counsel aforesaid, for we have long regarded them as furnishing additional evidence of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes' theory of an 1 idiotic area ' in the human mind, corresponding to the blind spot in the human retina. "On a motion for a rehearing this court will not con sider any matters not presented on the original hear ing; and as nothing was presented in the briefs of the insurance gang on the original hearing, of course they cannot present anything at this late date. "We have no patience to discuss this motion fur ther, and it needs no authorities to show its idiocy. The records of this court do not reveal a more frau dulent attempt to defeat justice and obstruct the pro cesses of the courts than is revealed in the somewhat variegated career of the Amick case." The Editor again urges his readers to aid him in keeping up the quality and quantity of the "Facetiae," by sending in all the good stories and anecdotes which may come to their ears.
LEGAL ANTIQUITIES. "Among our elder ancestors, the Ancient Brit ons," says Blackstone (Com. ii. 4), " cats were looked upon as creatures of intrinsic value, and the killing or stealing of one was a grievous crime, and subjected the offender to a fine, especially if it belonged to the King's household, and was the Custos horrei regit', for which there was a peculiar forfeiture." The fortunate cat that held the office of warden of the royal barn was thus protected by the law : " If any one shall kill or bear away by theft the cat which is warden of the royal barn, it shall be hung up by the tip of its tail, its head touching the floor, and over it shall be poured out grains of wheat until the last hairs of its tail shall be covered by the grain." This
