THE STEEL MAIDEN.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3140, 26 April 1883, Page 3

THE STEEL MAIDEN.

A German correspondent of the “Toledo Blade" tells of the steel maiden, which is kept in her room precisely as she was in the days of her usefulness, You are shown what at first sight appears to be the statue of a woman clumsily hewn out of wood. The guide noiselessly opened it, one door swinging to the right and 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 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 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 a 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 as long as possible. The very last spike pierced his heart. After remaining shut up for a while the; straps were unfastened from the outside, a spring was touched and the man fell 15ft into a cleverly constructed machine that ground him up as fine as mince-meat and dropped him into the river below, making food for fishes.