Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 09.pdf/268

 PUBLISHED MONTHLY, AT $4.00 PER ANNUM.

SINGLE NUMBERS, 50 CENTS.

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 inter est to the profession; also anything in the way of ¡egal antiquities or curiosities, facéties, anec dote's, etc. THE OREEN BAG.

EDITOR OF THE GREEN BAG. Sir : " Your Disgusted Layman " was always half sure he was right as to Portia's trick on Shylock, that it wasn't either law or sense. Now that the best and sweetest — as well as most mentally acute — girl in the world, the deaf and blind Helen Keller, agrees with " Your Disgusted Lay man," he wouldn't give two cents to have the Supreme Court of the U. S. "affirm " him. In a recent letter to Y. D. L. from Mr. Arthur Gilman of The Cambridge School, where Helen is studying, he writes : " She must know the meaning of ' chicane,' and the exact meaning. I showed her that Burke meant trickery, sharp practice, or a legal quibble, and referred to the means which the Americans had used to ensure to themselves the privilege of holding town-meet ings after August i, 1774, when they were for bidden. I showed her that they knew that by parliamentary usage an adjourned meeting was not a new one, but the same old one, and that by adjourning the last meeting previous to the time set as a limit, they would be able to meet and adjourn at liberty without asking permission of the royal governor. Helen saw the legal quib ble at once, and exclaimed, as her mind ran back to 'The Merchant of Venice,' 'There is an in stance in the trial scene where Portia successfully used a legal quibble that Bellario had taught her.'" Now surely Mr. Westley will not defend Shake speare as a lawyer after Helen Keller has " re versed " him? YOUR DISGUSTED LAYMAN. LEGAL ANTIQUITIES.

"LET this be the method of taking down judg ments and committing them to writing," says

Lord Bacon. " Record the cases precisely, the judgments themselves word for word; add the reasons which the judges allege for their judg ments; do not mix up the authority of cases brought forward as examples with the principal case; and omit the perorations of counsel, unless they contain something very remarkable." FACETIÆ. A Pious youth, when rather balmy, Longed a saint in Heaven to dwell; So 'listed in a fighting army And found himself a sentinel.

"I CAN'T hear a suit that isn't pending," said a judge to a young lawyer who was seeking advice. "I know it isn't pending," replied the young man, in some confusion, " but it is about to pend." IN Kentucky, as well as farther south, for some years after the late war, courage exhibited and scars received in the service of the lost cause were, as a rule, a sure passport to public office. The element of capacity being thus minimized, some brave but incompetent heroes reached positions unattainable in less troublesome times. One of these was C. C. Having a smattering of law, stentorian lungs, and a fervid oratory, he sought and was chosen public prosecutor in the th district. On one occasion he was engaged in the trial of a murder case. The prisoner pleaded " not guilty," and relied on evidence showing an alibi. In closing the argument for the prosecution, C. was especially vehement. "Gentlemen of the jury," said he, "the prisoner is trying to escape the law by pleading an alibi. What is an alibi, gentlemen? If I had Bouvier's Law Dictionary I would read you the definition, but in its absence I can repeat to you the sub stance of it. An alibi, as I recollect it, is where a man charged with a crime proves that he was somewhere else at the very time he committed it." 239