The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1882-11-30
THE STEEL MAIDEN.
A Look at Some ofthe Instruments OF
Human Torture Used in the Middle

"A LOOK AT some OILn0 instruments Ol
Human Torture Used in the Middle
Ages.
From q German Letter by D. r. Locke.
In an adjoining tower is a room where
there are preserved number of very
curious instruments of torture used in
Nuremberg hundreds Of years ago, be-
fore the days of jails and penitentiaries.
There are thumbscrews Of the most ap-
proved patterns, and helmets for gossip
ing men and women. a singularly
cheerful piece of furniture is large,
heavy wheel, on one side of which stands
out large, sharp piece of iron. In the
glorious days of old an offender who
had to be punished with tho wheel was
stripped naked and firmly Bound to a
plank, face downward The piece of
iron on tho wheel was heated hot, and
the wheel was rolled up and down and
across the victims back till Justice was
satisfied or the victim wa dead.
lnasmuch us the spike was long enough
to 90 half way through the mans body,
and was always heated red hot, the VIC
tim generally died, and justice was en-
tirely satisfied. It WAS not as expedi'
tons as the guillontine, but it was just as
certain. The only man who ever sur.
vived it was adjudged a magician because
he survived it, and was promptly be-
headed for being q magician. That set
tied him. He didn't bother Nure mberg
any more.
There are also displayed switches
made of fine threads ofsteel, which were
laid on the bare back with great effect.
A little of these things goes a great way
but on being told that in the adjoining
tower is the ''steel maiden" you get over
your qualmishness. Your party is taken
in charge by guide, who shows you q
large assortment of horrors before you
come to the chief one, as sort of prepa-
ration. There are stocks of all kinds,
gags for tattlers, handouts, anklets, and
cradle, the bed of which is filled with
spikes, in which old-time offenders were
faithfully rocked to sleep--a sleep from
which there was no awakening. There
are long tables with a screw at
top and bottom, to which men
were strapped by the hands and feet
the screws then turned till the unfor-
tunate man was torn apart. In another
room is large iron cage. In those
cheerful days, when a merchant, baker
or butcher was found selling his goods
by false weight or measure, he was placed
in this cage and carried all through the
city, with his name and trade fastened
conspicuously in front. After making
the grand tour he was taken, cage and
all, to the river, and ducked again and
again, till it was thought that his lesson
was sufficient to prevent repetition.
Perhaos some such form might be adj
vantageous in these days.
Wife-beaters in those times were Sc
verely punished. They were furnished
with close-ftting helmets, from which
heavy weights were suspended. They
were given conspicuous place in the
publ: square, appropriately labeled;
and placed in stocks, with heavy weights
attached to their arms and feet, and
there they sat the .ive-long day, sub
iected to the jeers and ridicule of the
town. Scolding wives were put III cages,
with gags in their mouths and exposed
in the public square. You are shown all
kinds OF beheading blocks and gallowa
upon which noted villains had gone to
their reward, while the walls are COW
cred from the top to bottom with pictures
of the practical operations Of the
various instruments that filed the
room.
All this preparatory to the steel maid
on, which is kept in room above, pre-
cisely as she was in the days Of her use
fulness. You are shown what appears
at first sight to be rude statue of a
woman clumsily hewn out of wood. The
guide noiselessly opened it, one door
swinging to the right the other to the
left. The statue was hollow and just the
size of the average man. Inside were
straps by which the offender was bound
go that he could not move muscle. All
the doors were lined with long, sharp,
steel spikes, strong and thick. Waen
the victim was firmly secured, the door
on the lett was slowly but firmly shut,
and the long spikes went into his body
two being so arranged as to pierce his
eyes. Then the door on the right was
closed in similar manner, and he would
receive another complement of spikes
the closing of the doors being done very
slowly, that the torture of the man in
the embrace of the maiden might be pro-
longed as long as possible. The very last
spike pierced his heart After remain
ing shut up for awhile, the straps were
unloosened from the outside, spring
was touched and the man fell Is feet in
to cleverly constructed machine that
ground him up as fine as mincemea
and dropped him into the river below
making food for fishes.