The Steel Maiden.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 114, 21 April 1883, Page 3

The Steel Maiden.

A German correspondent tells of the steel maiden, which is kept m a room precisely as she was m the days of her usefulness, as a final punishment for heretics. You are shown what appears at first sijjhVio be the rude statue of a woman clumsily hewn out of wood. The guide noiselessly opened it, one door swinging to the right and another to the left. The statue was hollow, and juat the size of an average man. Inside were straps by which the offender was bound so that he could not move a muscle. All the doors were lined with long sharp steel spikes, strong and thick, When the victim was firmly secured, the door on the left side 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 of the right was closed m a similar manner, and he would receive another complement of spikes, the close ing;? of the doors being done very slowly, so that the torture of the man m the embrace of the maiden might be as long as possible., The very last spike pierced his heart. Atter remaining shut up for a while the strnps were unloosened from the outside, a spring was touched, and i the man fell 15 teet into a cleverly-con-structed machine that ground him up j as fine as mince meat, and dropped him into the' river below, making food for fishes. :