Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/144

 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, i 5^ 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. 7'HY call your magazine useless? is the query "" of many intelligent but unimaginative law yers. It seems hardly worth while to offer an ex planation to those who do not appreciate the intent at once; but as the phrase appears actually to trouble many of our friends, and, when quoted in the papers, has been taken to be an adverse criti cism on the merits of the magazine, it may be well here to work out an exegesis for the benefit of such querists. The chief feature of legal literature nowadays is the bewildering profusion of periodicals, all claim ing to be useful. Besides the quarterlies and the monthlies and the weeklies, general and local, which follow the old traditions of legal magazines, there has latterly sprung up a crop of weekly reporters and digests, and even of monthly text-books, which come to every lawyer's office in such quantities that shelves and tables, chairs and floor, are littered with accumulating pamphlets. And hardly a mail comes in without announcements of new periodi cals, or puffs of those already in the field; each extolling itself as more " practical " and "useful" than its rival?. Out of the whole lot, only one or two find room for anything but opinions and mono graphs. Small type, close columns, large pages, overwhelm the profession with a deluge of cases. Even the most omnivorous " dig," whose recrea tion lies in over-work, and who delights in legal dyspepsia, finally finds so steady a diet of poor print and indifferent law pall upon his wearied brain, and yearns for something from which this "useful " element is entirely banished. It is for such lawyers, as well as for the lighter- hearted and idler members of the profession, that " The Green Bag " comes into existence; and it is boldly an

nounced as being " useless," as a revolt against the depressing " practical " tendencies of the peri odical literature of the day. It offers a little toothsome literary cake and jam, to offset the heavy bread and the over-cooked meats of the legal table. It is meant to be " useless," it is " use less," it will continue to be " useless," in the sense which we have indicated; and those sadeyed recluses who are content to mortify eyes and brain with the " reporter system " and nothing else, may go their way and muddle their brains in peace. The foregoing remarks are not intended as a slur upon any of our legal contemporaries. We value and appreciate many of them highly, es pecially those which find room in their columns for a few bright notes and vigorous editorials, as well as occasional articles of interest to the profes sion. But we do maintain that lawyers are surfeited with " reports of cases," and are glad to turn from these " useful " periodicals, to something which is perfectly " useless " to them, so far as practice in the courts is concerned.

Smith v. Marrable (in verse), published in our February number, should have been credited to a little work, recently published, entitled " Lays of a Limb of the Law," by John Popplestone.

A correspondent writes as follows : — "The anecdotes related of Hon. Henry W. Paine, by Mr. Swasey, in his article on ' The Boston University Law School,' published in the February number of 'The Green Bag,' recall to my mind one or two stories attributed to Mr. Paine, which may be new to some of your readers. "One afternoon as he was riding in a Cambridge horse-car, reading a book bound in sheep, a friend remarked to him, — "' Ah! Mr. Paine, I see that you are reading law.'