Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1879 — Tooth and Torture. [ARTICLE]

Tooth and Torture.

It is popularly supposed that torture is a thing of the past. This is not the case. There are chambers of torture in every city in the land. There are instruments of torture therein that would cause the thumb-screws of old to blush at their inefficiency. The rack was a harmless amusement compared with these modern inventions. In this dread chamber of modern times is a comfortable easy-chair, and beside it is a litfle circular table that can swing around in front of the victim, and on that table a row of glittering instruments are placed, the sight of which would make the blood of a hero run cold. These steel instruments are sharp and blunt and pointed and crooked and straight. A spirit lamp of small size throws its sickly flicker over the awful scene. There is any amount of apparatus around with unknown names but whose purpose is torture. The presiding flend wears a sweet smile as he prods in the tooth for the nerve. He generally finds it. When the victim either yells or y remarks, “Ah—a little tender, is this supreme moment that the patent

loses Ms patience and rises in his might, if he ha* strength enough left, and slays his tormentor. Verdict justifiable homicide.— Detroit Free Press.