Stephens City star. (Stephens City, Va.) 1881-1883, 1882-12-02
THE STEEL MAIDEN.
A Look Mt Some of the Instruments OF Human
Torture Used in the Middle Ages.

In letter from Germany, descriptive
of the instruments of torture used in
former times, an American journalist
says: In an adjoining tower is room
where there are preserved a number OF |
very curious instruments of torture,
used in Nuremberg hundreds of years
ago, before the days of jails and peni-
tentiaries. There are thumbscrews Of
the most approved patterns, and
hemlets for gossiping men and women.
A singularly cheerful piece of furni-
ture 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 the wheel was stripped naked and
firmly bound to a plank, face down.
ward. The piece of iron on the wheel
was heated hot and the wheel was
rolled up and down and across the
victims back till justice was satisfied
or the victim was dead.
Inasmuch as the spike was long
enough to go halfway through the
mans body, and was always heated
red hot, the victim generally died, and
Justice was entirely satisfied. 1t was
not as expeditions as the guillotine, but
it was just as certain. The only man
who ever survived it was adjudged a
magician because he survived it, and
was promptly beheaded for being
magician. That settled him. He didn't
bother Nuremberg any more.
There are also displayed switches
made of fine threads of steel, 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 qualmish-
ness. Your party is taken in charge
by a guide, who shows you large
assortment of horrors before you come
tOthe chief one, as sort of preparation
There are stocks of all kinds, gags for
tattlers, handouts anklets, and cradle,
the bed>of which is filled with spikes,
in which old-timc offenders were faith
fully rocked to sleep-a sleep from
which there was no awakening. There
are long tables with screw at the top
and bottom, to which men were strap
ped by the hands and feet, the screws
then turned, till the unfortunate man
was torn apart. In another room is a
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 repeti.
ton.
Wife-beaters in those times were
severely punished. They were furnished
with close-fitting helmets, from which
heavy weights were suspended. They
were given conspicuous place in the
public square, appropriately labeled
and placed in stocks, with heavy
weights attached to their arms ant
feet, and there they sat the live-lons
day, subjected to the jeers and ridicul'
of the town. Seeding wives were pu
in cages, with gags in their mouths
and exposed in the public square. Yo1
are shown all kinds of beheadin;
blocks and gallows upon which note'
villains had gone to their reward
while the walls are covered from to-
to bottom with pictures of the practi
cal operations of the various instru
ments that filled the room.
All this preparatory to the stet
maiden, which is kept in a room abov'
precisely as she was in the days of he
usefulness. You are shown what al
pears at first sight to be rude statr
of q woman clumsily hewn out of WOO
The guide noiselessly opened it, OF
door swinging to the right and IL
other to the left. The statue W;
hollow, and just the size of the averat
man. Inside were straps by which Il
offender was bound, so that he cou
not move a muscle. All the doc
were lined with long, sharp, steel spike
strong and thick. When the victi
was firmly secured, the door on the lt
was slowly but firmly shut, and t
long spikes went into his body, t'
being SO arranged as to pierre his ey
Then the door on the left " ; closed
similar manner, and he would recei