The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-22
WRIST BOUND IN STEEL.
Handouts Hold an Involuntary Prisoner
Captive.

There is at least one woman in Min
nesota who declines to venture a second
time into the interior of a county Jail
Recently a party of people from New
Canada We're in St. Paul and decided
to visit the jail. Among them was a
well-known French farmer and his wife.
Deputy Sheriff Flandrake, who was on
duty in the Jail, showed the visitors
around, pointing out the prisoners and
telling the Old-time stories of the Jail
After they had seen everything that
there was to see they stood in the lower
corridor talking to the jailer. The wife
of the French farmer noticed a long
chain with half a dozen pairs of hand
cuffs attached hanging on the wall.
What was that for? Flandrake eX-
planned that it was in case of fire. The
prisoners would be attached to these
chains by the handouts. They had half
dozen chains like that hanging in
different parts of the Jail. He showed
the visitors that the handouts We're al
ways kept open SO that they could be
used at a moments notice.
The lady laughed at the idea of any
one thinking they could keep prisoners
by little thing like such a handcuff
Anyone could get out of them. You
must scrunch your hand up and slip
right out. Mr.. Flandrake said she had
better let him snap one of them on
her wrist and then she would see how
hard it would be to get away. Her hus-
band seconded the proposal and she
laughingly allowed one of the cuffs to
be snapped on one of her wrists. She
tried this way and that, but she
couldn't get her hand out. There was
no way but to give up.
"Oh, guess you'll have to stay
there says Mr.. Flandrake, and they
laughed some more. But, of course, he
didn't mean that and he went to get the
keys.
1t was then that he made the startling
discovery that his keys would not I'M
lock the cuff The cuff was old and the
keys were new and they did not fit He
tried every key he had and all the
jailer had. None of them would I'M
lock the cuff. Then a search of the
Jail was made. A half hundred hand
cuff keys were found, but not one of
them would fit the lock. The joke was
getting serious. No one knew what
to do.
Finally Flandrake remembered that
there were a lot of handouts in the
sheriff's office in the court house, and
thither he ran for more keys.
By this time the lady in the handcuff
was getting scared. 1t looked as if she
would have to remain there until some
one could be found to file off the little
band of steel that encircled her wrist.
And filing through that sort of steel is
not the easiest thing in the world.
After a few minutes Mr.. Flandrake
returned from the office with a dozen
more keys. The last one of the lot fitted
the lock and the cuff was removed,
much to the relief of the lady and her
friends and the deputy. The expert
menting required two hours, and during
all that time the lady was attached
to a chain 20 feet long and weighing
so or hundred pounds.
She is now satisfied that it is harder
to get out of the handouts than she
thought it was. Deputy Flandrake will
not again show ladies how the hand
cuffs work, there are a half dozen
brand new keys in the Jail and the pris-
oners have a joke that will keep them
laughing for some time.-Chicago