ove the opportunity. Muscle was
the trump card, and won. The weak had to step aside, or rather they were
pushed aside without apology. No respect was paid to rank or name. A
long-armed second lieutenant had no scruple in taking hold of a pair of
shoulders that wore eagles, and pushing them out of the way. It was
_sauve qui peut_, and no standing aside for betters--no deference to
age, and gray hairs ceased to be honored. Mere physical force was the
test of championship. Those poor weak ones who gravitated to the
outskirts of such an eager crowding mass--just as the light kernels will
find their way to the top of a shaken measure of wheat--doubtless
thought, as they felt themselves crowded further and further from the
door of egress:

"'Oh, it is excellent
To have a giant's strength, but 'tis tyrannous
To use it like a giant!'

"I made several attempts," Glazier continues, "to assert what I
considered my rights, but as I had not, at that time, much muscle to
back my claims, they were not recognized, and thus I spent the whole
night in a bootless struggle for freedom.

"In digging the tunnel we had encountered a large root which we could
not well remove, and the passage at this point was very narrow.
Lieutenant Wallace F. Randolph, Fifth United States Artillery, a
corpulent fellow, was caught fast by the root. There was a man before
him, and another behind, which almost entirely excluded atmospheric
circulation, and before they could pull him out of his unfortunate
predicament, Randolph was almost dead. He was, however, successful at
last. This blockade greatly retarded the line of march, and made the
crowd within still more desperate.

"Some of the outsiders in the struggle, who despaired of accomplishing
anything by strength, had recourse to a stratagem. There had been
considerable noise during the struggle for position, and the guards were
expected to make their appearance at any moment. The outsiders, taking
advantage of this apprehension, went to the farther end of the
cook-room, and, in the darkness, made a racket with pots and kettles,
which sounded very much like the clashing of fire-arms; while some of
their number in the crowd sang out: 'Guards! guards!' In an instant
every man was gone from the tunnel, and a frantic rush took place for
the single stairway by about five hundred men. Such a struggling and
pressing I have never elsewhere seen, or participated in. We neither
walked