A MODERN TIMON.

Evening Star, Issue 3861, 9 July 1875, Page 3

A MODERN TIMON.

An old soldier has met his end under miserable circumstances. John Hickey, who entered the Royal Sappers and Miners in 1829, and was discharged at his own request in 1844, died ou SunJay or Monday last—no one is certain which—on a stretcher in his squalid hut at Axe Creek. In 1855 he became the owner of a freehold area of 100 acres in that locality, and has since lived the life of a Timon, from hand to mouth. He was never a drinking man, but his eccentricity was unique, for he would live with no one, not even his wife and daughter, who resided in the neighborhood, suppoitiug themselves without his aid. He invariably slept with his musket and fixed bayonet by his bedside, and his joyless, misanthropical life closed in silence—his last remaining strength just sufficing to carry a bowl of water to his parched lips. He was discovered next day by a publican, who rented part of his land, almost naked in bis bed, the clothes on the floor, the empty bucket and dipper, together with putrescent meat and stale bread and vegetables surrounding him. The cause of death was pneumonia, brought on by want of nourishment and exposure.—‘Bendigo Independent.’