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Show HOW THE LOST OR STOLEN IS NOW FOUND Identification Bureau Keeps Tabs On Thousands Of Guns Most overyono knows that an automobile au-tomobile may bo Identities wherever It wanders, not only by its license tag but by a serial number stamped usually usual-ly on tho rear of the chassis framo. Both this llcenso number and serial number aro filed at tho capltol of the stato wherein tho owner of tho car resides and the serial number with tho manufacturer of tho car. Tho selling price of automobiles runs Into hundreds of dollars nt least more generally; Into thousands nnd It Is no strango that somo sort of record re-cord plan has been doveloped for keoplng tabs on such a goodly bundlo of property. But who would assume that every ono of tho hundreds of thousands of Ilemlngton repeating and auto loading shotguns and rides In use In tho United States costing singly, sin-gly, but a small fraction of tho price ot tho cheapest automobllo nro similarly sim-ilarly numbered and registered at a central point? Going to tho Itemlngtctn factory for information wo And that on every arm produced there a serial number Is stamped Into tho steel. This number num-ber cannot bo removed except by filing, fil-ing, which would bo an obvious evidence evi-dence of wrong doing. Wlh every gun shipped Is included a stamped Identification Identi-fication card which tho purchaser fills in with his name and address, tho model and serial number of tho gun, dato of purchase, etc. This card he malls to tho main offices of the Ilemlngton Ilem-lngton Company', nt New York City, whero In a gun Identification bureau which has long been maintained the card Is filed In a Are proof cabinet. The scries of cabinets In which tlto cards are filed has evolved from the modest little wooden drawer used In the early days of Remington go? making mak-ing to a constantly growing row ot modern nil steel compartments. Tho dally requests that fall within the provlnco of this bureau to handle have to do with everything that can happen to a gun and somo things that can Only bo imagined. Probably tho most frequent calls for help come from the theft or loss of guns. A typical case was brought to tho attention of tho bureau a fow months ago when Dr. C. II. Brown of Portland, Oregon, Ore-gon, reported that his Ilemlngton rifle had been stolen from a gun club lock-ei. lock-ei. It later dovoloped that this rlflo was thrown by tho pursued thief Into the Columbia HIver, whero It lay" for twelve months, when It wns returned to Dr. Browln, who squirted a little oil Into tho action and went on shoot lng tho weapon ns ho had done one year before. It was necessary, however, how-ever, for tho bureau to convlnco Dr. Brown that It wa3 really his own gun that had withstood such a long bath, practically unharmed. Now and then some shooter writes In that ho has allowed his gun -to kocoruo mixed with others of,, tho same model and has not been able to pick It out. It Is easy to Imagine bow this difficulty may come to pass when it Is considered that In many gun clubs a score or moro ot Remingtons Reming-tons of the same model and general appearance are in use. In some lost, strayed or stolen cases tho trained employes ot the1 bureau lend their experiqneo to quite elaborate Investigations, Investi-gations, rendering service that would be hard to duplicate through any other oth-er medium. So tho sporiman may fcol satisfied that ho samo caioful records aro on fllo regarding his favorite Remington that are available in connection with his Hmouslno or tho ono next door. |