Living Statue in a Call.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3598, 16 November 1905, Page 2

Living Statue in a Call.

PRISONER WHO REMAINS MOTIONLESS FOR DAYS. The authorities at Carmarthen Gaol (says an English paper) have the custody of a strange prisoner, who is described as a living statue. He is a butcher named Shreiner, awaiting trial on a charge of attempting to murder a lady and gentleman with whom he had been in service at Tyraawr. •Shreiner will remain motionless for days unless moved limb by limb bv a warder. His stobidity is remarkable. On subterfuge, no attempt at a sudden fright has succeeded in making him flinch or move an eyelid when in his moods. Opinions differ as to his mental state. The man refuses absolutely all kinds of food left in his cell, and the doctor has to forcibly feed him by means of a tube. He will lie on his stomach for a whole day without moving a muscle; sometimes he is stretched on his back; at other times he stands in a cornsr of his cell. At all times he takes not the slightest notice of anything that occurs in his vicinity. There are many ways known to prison officials whereby mere acting on the part of a prisoner, In waver clever and collected, can be detected, but all these devices have failed in the present case. He will not utter a word or sound, never varies his vacant stare into sp ice, and has to be dressed and undressed as f he were a bronze statue.