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the following epistle, leave us guessing as to which one he is of our many " Old Subscribers "? EDITOR OF THE GREEN BAG. My dear Sir : — Will you allow me, as an old sub scriber, to suggest that you give us less pictures and more "entertaining" matter. The last two num bers have not contained anything humorous, and hardly anything entertaining. Many of the illustra tions have been repetitions of those heretofore pub lished in the magazine, and consequently have not the charm of novelty. I hope you are not going to let THE GREEN BAG fall away from its standard of the past. Very tru]y yourSj
February, 7, 1901 •
"AN 0LD SuBSCRIBER"
Can it be that our correspondent is such a slave to habit that, having been accustomed to find his humorous and entertaining matter la beled " Facetiae," he fails to recognize what he is in search of, now that the familiar heading has been dropped? Let him pluck up courage to read the " Notes " in which his favorite column has been merged, in deference to the spirit of this age of combinations. We can assure him that " Facetiae " by any other name will read as well. And if he wishes to be really strenuous in his search for the humorous, let him follow this tip,— hunt for an excellent joke concealed in one of this month's book-reviews. The illustra tions to which our correspondent objects are, we take it, the collection of portraits of John Mar shall, in our last number. We supposed, inno cently, that it might be of interest, at a time when the accession of the great Chief Justice to the bench was being celebrated all over the country, to have brought together, for easy com parison, several of the best portraits, even though some of them had been published in our pages from four to nine years ago. Our critic is to be congratulated either on his excellent memory, which enables him to carry clearly in his mind portraits seen years before, or on hav ing a file of THE GREKN BAG at his elbow and the leisure to hunt up the scattered illustrations. Some of our readers may not be so fortunate. But after all, helpful as is the letter quoted above, there is one further step which its writer should take; to wit, to contribute, from time to time, his fair share of " humorous and enter taining " matter. Fortunately he knows exactly what should be published in our pages; and we beg to assure him that his contributions will be welcomed.
NOTES. IN an insurance case on trial in Vermont it was brought out that on the farm in question there had been two barns, and that it was the older one of the two that had been burned. Charles Bingham, who was fairly well along in years and very bald, was trying the case for the defendant company, and in his cross-examina tion sought to bring out the fact that the expression " old barn " and " new barn " were used merely as convenient designations, without necessarily implying that the burned barn was much older or in poorer condition than the other. The witness seemed drowsy and stupid, • and kept reiterating the statement that it was the " old " barn that had burned. "See here," said Mr. Bingham at last, with some warmth, " you keep saying that it was the оЛ/barn. What do you mean by that? Wasn't it in pretty good condition? Tell me what you mean by old." "Well, squire," said the witness, rousing up, "the barn vías old, and it needed shingling about as badly as you do." RUFUS CHOATE, it will be remembered, died at Halifax, N. S. His body was conveyed by rail to St. John, N. В., thence by steamer to Boston. While it was being carried from the station to the pier in St. John it was followed by a large concourse of curious people. The gathering attracted the attention of persons in a building on a side street at the head of which it was passing. "Hello I" said one of them. " What's the crowd about?" "I'll go and see," volunteered a lanky, retired sea-faring man turning a quid of tobacco in his mouth. Accordingly he went to the corner and inquired of a passer-by the cause of the commo tion. "Lawyer Choate," was the laconic reply. Returning to his friends, he spat out his tobacco, sat on the edge of a work bench, and with a half exultant grunt exclaimed, " Only a darned lawyer choked." AT a recent criminal session a deputy in spector of police was on the stand, and in the most matter-of-fact wav testified as follows :
