, 1880-08-13
An Old Soldiers Story,

Mr. Thomas Normington, OF East
Third street, is an old man OF oo' poor
,nainel and deerepit, but with history
rich in incident. When the reporter
accosted him last evening, the old man,
s;ttins down, began to talk of men and
sh;ncs which passed into history three
..aarnerations Genera baok DSll5Nti IN q
"They say you have been a. soldier,
Mr. Normington, t" said the reporter,
The old. man made an unsuccessful
effort to straighten up, and replied with
dignity: ,,.g ..,.,.,
had one either II served the king bet
ter than the king served me-" "
"You mean Queen Victoria, | sup
rose" said the reporter thinking the
veteran was confusing titles. ~. .,,,..
"Oh, no. I served under fopr Eng
lish sovereigns, When ] enlisted |
swore to fight for and protect the crown
Of George Ill, the same king against
whom this country faushtyz When he
died I had tasepe st the oath in fsygrI
Of George NJ ,bacs more for wiliam
Wand w., and !; s f'es 'hsil'sls girl was
'''Sass; %Wsro YOU evysssslsed, Morning
ton9" .sESNsy !,
The ex-soAisr of the Iron Duke
pointed to ssrstAl Ga scars ot Frcnch,
Chinese and East Indian origin.
"I'was wounded in my feelings far
worse than these Scratches" exclaimed
he, his wsinklsd face becoming more
"How, MI ormingtons''' N. \.
The old nan nnbhttoned his shirt col
lar from behind. and requested the re-
porter to look ~ skis back, which was
scanned all over with long scars, cross
ing and recrosaing each other. orc 70, "a
~ got thea in Dublin, Ireland r said
he. "You see Tile regiment had iast
come home from India, md Twanted to
get leave to 60 home to my native place,
Cambridge, England, but the Colonel
wouldn'tilet me Co. There was good
deal of trouble in ireland just then.
Well, / was a little mad at tho refusal,
and went out in the city and stopped
absent four days with some friends [
had made. I reported myself on the
fourth day and was put in che guard
room Of the Richmond barracks. The
Colonel was furious because absented
myself without lesve. ilsl'll aog the life
out of you for this, said he, and he put
me back for q garrison court martial. I
was tried and sentenced to receive one
hundred rand fifty lsshes. Ugh! /
shas't forget that morning It was on
the l0th Of December, 1926, I was
brought.out on ths barrack square, in
che center of which stood the triangles
The troops from Beggars Bush, Royal,
Linen Hall, Portobello and Bridge bar
racks were drawn up all around me, and
when the, adjutant had read the sentence
I was ordered TO strip. They bound me
hand and foot and then the first drtiin-
mer gave me fifty. / thought hot IRON
swords were being drawn across my
back. Then another man came to re-
tieve the tired fogger.1 He was left
handed and his cuts made cross wourds
and fetched tbs places missed by the
tirst man. I.fainted before he was
througb,. and the show had to stop until
the doctor revived inc, 1t wouldn't
have been tun for them to have laid on
the remaining stripes while was un-
conscious. When / came to, the left
handed manreoommenced, and The hell
torture began again He got through
his fifty and then Harry MeDermots my
chum, was Hroaglft tosgivs me The clos.
ing half hundred.1 THe,felt as ibadlas /
did, but he ,haa TO- do, 1.-THE 4Colonels
eye was on him, and l believe Harry
put more force into his blows TO avoid
the suspicion ofshowing me favor. rsT
"After Ibgot well, pihe resumed, III
returned to duty, and served with the
regiment until it came to Canada. /
was stationed at Hamilton, Ont, and
put on the lookout, duty Dressed in
plain clothes and well armed, / had TO
look for deserters making for the States.
While in this service I came to Erie
and made up my mind to live here some
day. and you see here am.
Mr.. Norminston did not make for
tune in Eric, but he obtained employ
nent and managed to get along very
fairly until accidcntc and old age rem
dered him almost Ehelnleasa Last year