Show old Stilli what made you leave the army at so early an age with such a fair record behind you and so promising a career in front of you I 1 once asked an officer whose chief defect was a proneness to i act on hot beaded impulse the purport of the reply was at my last inspection spec tion I 1 was questioned by the general concerning the prices of the soldiers socks and shirts I 1 gave him to understand that I 1 neither knew nor cared and of course I 1 was pretty sharply reprimanded I 1 became so disgusted with this and similar absurdities of regimental pedantry that I 1 sent in my papers the weary waste of time the twaddle of the ok military correspondence was a for burlesque once as president of r board to report on an accident to p horse I 1 simply stated that the leg wai broken and received a rather sharp reprimand for embodying an opinion in such trivial language thereupon 1 amended the defect by suggesting thai the tibia was fractured and was complimented ted for the satisfactory lucidity of my report tradition declares eliat in india si similar board recorded an opinion eliat the elephant is dead and bad the general in a towering passion sent back the proceedings for revision whereupon the board amended its report the elephant is still dead and smells worse mag |