long military coat cut open leaning heavily for
support upon two privates of Company G, Hawthorn and Stewart (boys). He
was crying in a maudlin way, "You just take me to a place and I'll drink
soft stuff." They entreated him to return at once to the regimental
quarters, even begged him, but he cast them aside and went staggering
down the road to the line, where he met the grave-faced deputy face to
face. The latter looked in the white of his eyes and said: "You can't
pass here, sir."

"Can't pass here?" he cried, waving his arms. "You challenge an officer?
Stand aside!"

"You can't pass here," this time quietly, but firmly; "not while you're
drunk."

"Stand aside," yelled the Lieutenant. "Do you you know who I am? You
talk to an officer of the National Guard."

"Yes; and listen," said the man in front of him so impatiently that it
hushed his antagonist's tirade; "I talk to an 'officer' of the National
Guard--I, who have lost my wife, my children and all in this flood no
man has yet described; we, who have seen our dead with their bodies
mutilated and their fingers cut from their hands by dirty foreigners for
a little gold, are not afraid to talk for what is right, even to an
officer of the National Guard."

A Big Man's Honest Rage.

While he spoke another great, dark, stout man, who looked as if he had
suffered, came up, and upon taking in the situation every vein in his
forehead swelled purple with rage.

"You dirty cur," he cried to the officer; "you dirty, drunken cur, if it
was not for the sake of peace I'd lay you out where you stand."

"Come on," yelled the Lieutenant, with an oath.

The big man sent out a terrible blow that would have left the
Lieutenant senseless had not one of the privates dashed in between,
receiving part of it and warding it off. The Lieutenant got out of his
military coat. The privates seized the big man and with another, who ran
to the scene, held him back. The Lieutenant put his hand to his pistol
pocket, the deputy Fitzpatrick seized him and the struggle for the
weapon began. For a moment it was fierce and desperate, then another
private came to the deputy's assistance. The revolver was wrested from
the drunken officer and he himself was pushed back panting to the
ground.

The Victor was Magnanimous.

Deputy Fitzpatrick seized the military coat he had thrown on the ground,
and with it and the weapon started to the regimental headquarters. Then
the privates got around h