St. Paul daily globe., 1889-01-21

THE IRON VIRGIN OF NUREMBERG.
Death by electricity will probably prove
entirely painless. Thus the condemned
felon Of to-day finds far less terrible
revenge awaiting him at the hands of
the law than did the criminal of past
generations. The story of the tortureS
undergone by convicted men in olden
times is almost revolving to contemplate,
and yet the barbaric ingenuity displayed
by the official tormentors is interesting
in view of the recent change in the
method of inflicting the death penalty.
For the most inhuman and cruel
deaths we have to 60 to-day to Central
Asia. where the victim is buried in the
earth up to his shoulders and there left
miserably to die. Still more barbaric
in cruelty were the executions of the
past. done in the tOrture-rO0mS of the
prisons, where judges sought to press
avoWalS by the most inhuman means.
One of the best known of the medieval
methods OF execution, perhaps, is the So
called Iron Virginia model of which may
still be seen in the great museum at
Nuremberg. There were many forms
of this dreadful invention. One was a
figure of the virgin which clasped its
victims in arms furnished with poign-
ards and then opening them dropped
the body down trap OH a sort of cradle
of swords, arranged so as to cut it to
pieces. a running stream below clearing
all traces of it away.
The model now preserved in Nurem-
berg presents Nuremberg maiden of
the sixteenth century in the long mantel
generally worn. The front of the figure
is provided with opening doors, and
then it is seen that the inside of
the jnferneI thing is provided
with sharp iron spikes, which,
when the victim was placed
within, pierced every portion of the
Wretch's body. The machine is said to
have been introduced into Nuremberg
in 1888 and is believed to have originated
in Spain and to have been transplanted
into Germany during the reign of
Charles V, who was monarch of both
countries.
Verestchagin, the Russian artist. has
three striking pictures of ancient and
modern methods of executions. These
are the shooting of mutineerS in India
by the British from the mouth of can
non, the hanging of Nihilists in Russia
and crucifiXiOn among the Jews.
In regard to the latter, it may
be noted that the crucifxion
applied to Christ was one of the simpler
modes of putting to death by the
Romans. There were crucifiXions in all
possible imaginings. In some cases the
victim was suspended head downward,
and III others the cross was made in
the shape of the letter X, and on this
the wretcheS were stretched out until
death released them from their agony.
The Romans displayed. indeed, sur
prising degree of inventive genius in
their machines for the inhiction of tor
ture, though the rope, the lever, the
crank and the pulley were the great
motors in all cases. One of their re-
finements of cruelty was to faSten the
victim firmly by his hands to the ground
and then, by means of windlas,
worked by long arms and strong mems
pull the Wretch'S limbs out of joint by
attaching rope to his feet and length
ening him out gradually till something
gave way. Another method, for pollt-
cal criminals, was to hurl them from
the Tarpeiean Rock. But even in their
methods the old SaXOns could give
them a pointer in wholesale butch
cry. One of the fayorite methods
of our dear old barbaric forefathers in
disposng of their prisoners of war was
to sacrifice them to their gods in the
Wicker Image, which is described as "a
statue or image of a man in a vast pro-
portion, whose limbs consisted of twigs
weaved togethar in the nature of basket
ware: these were filled with live men
and after that set on fire, and so the
poor creatures were destroyed in
We smoak and flames." A modifca-
ton of this system of cruelty was that
applied to the Christian martyrs IN later
years. The old SaXons, too, killed their
malefactOrS by means of hanging in
about the same way as we, their de-
scendants, have done up to the present
time.
The cruelties of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries were terrible, and
in the torture chambers the instruments
used were surely the devices of
the Tower of London form loathsome
collection. There is the trough IN
which the victim was wracked to con-
fession, theiron necklace, the ''Scayen-
gers daughter" which consisted of
irons for the neck, hands and feet;
thumb screws, an ak and hook for the
tearing away of flesh, then the
executioner'S block and hatchet and
mask in use at the final ceremonies, as
shown in Gilbert & SulIivan's last op-
eretta, ''Yeomen of the Guard" at the
Casino, in that scene where ibrettist
and composer really come up to the
height OF the situation in brilliant
finale. And men were slain in the good
old times for very small offenses. In
Germany, especially, the most dreadful
punishments were inflicted.
O.