[Illustration: NO. 12.--"EASTERN HANDCUFF."]

No. 12 is mostly used in Eastern Europe.

My personal experience of handcuffs is small, because I dislike them,
for in addition to their clumsiness, I know that when I have laid my
hands upon my man, it will be difficult for him to escape.

My intimate knowledge of all kinds of criminals in all kinds of plights
justifies me in saying that when they see the game is up they do not
attempt resistance. The only trouble I have had has been with
desperadoes and old offenders, men who have once tasted prison-life and
have a horror of returning to captivity.

Expert thieves have been known to open handcuffs without a key, by means
of knocking the part containing the spring on a stone or hard substance.
It will be remembered that when the notorious criminal "Charles Peace"
was being taken to London by train, he contrived, although handcuffed,
to make his escape through the carriage window. When he was captured it
was noticed that he had freed one of his hands.

I was once bringing from Leith an Austrian sailor who was charged with
ripping open his mate, and as I considered that I had a disagreeable
character to deal with, I handcuffed him. Naturally, he found the
confinement irksome, and on our journey he repeatedly implored me to
take them off promising that he would make no attempt to escape. The
sincerity of his manner touched me and I released him, very fortunately
for myself, for I was taken ill before reaching London, and, strange as
it may appear, was nursed most tenderly by the man who had ripped a
fellow mate.