NO USE FOR BRAINS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1073, 13 May 1882, Page 2

NO USE FOR BRAINS.

During the American civil war there was tightly or wrongly, a lamentable prejudice entertained against brevet rank and brigadier-generals. Lincoln's estimate of the comparative value of mules and brigadiers—the army mule was affectionately known as a " "brevet horse", —was about the same in each case, But there is another story scarcely less complimentary and much less familiar. According to the anonymous libeller; during an active engagement, a colonel, while bravely leading on his men, received a terrible blow on the head from the fragment of a. shell, which completely exposed the brain, He wa'B parried t'pihe rear and entrusted to the care of a ' Ar'geon who at once' resolved upon heroic treatment, and removed the brain bodily to repair lacerations. While he waß absorbed in this delicate operation, an aide-de-camp, unconscious of the severity of the officer's wound, rode up with a message that Colonel Bland was wanted immediately at headquarters, ut Mechanically, like the brainless pigeon in ? the interesting surgical experiment, the gallant officer clambered into the saddle and rode away; and,when the Burgeon, having completed the rearrangement of the wounted organ, returned to place it in position, he waa astonished to find the patient raisßing. At that moment his attention wbb- attracted' by the Bound of galloping hoofs, and looking round, his surprise was; intensified onhpholding the Colonel riding to tho front as

I Rally asif nothing bad happened, "Hi, / <J°lonell ho, Oolonell" ahoutod the sur! j Keen, purging him , "Stop. You're foe- ' R e .»' n ß/bout your brains I" "Never mind about them," roared the hero, clap- \ Pinff spurs to bis horse. "I.dont want ! wiem-i yejuat been brevetted Brigadier-