Brick In One's Hat Meaning

Example : 1846, “Magnelia Pedestria; or, Leaves from a Pedestrian’s Note Book”, The Yale Literary Magazine, v. 12, November, 1846, p. 33:  Seated at the same table with our Mr.—, was a gentleman, who, to use the current phrase, ‘had a brick in his hat.’1849, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Kavanagh, p. 177–178:  Her husband had taken to the tavern, and often came home very late, “with a brick in his hat,” as Sally expressed it.