ece of file steel.

For many years the Marine Corps, except upon dress occasions, has had no
cutting weapon. It is not strange, therefore, that many of the officers
of the corps, while on duty in the Philippines, adopted for use in the
field that weapon of the Moro tribesmen.

The introduction of the bolo as the field arm of the Marine Corps--the
sword having given place to the pistol several years ago in this branch
of the service--robs the time-tried and traditional Mameluke saber of
the corps of the distinction of being the only cutting weapon in the
equipment of this division of the Government's sea fighters.

The Mamelukes are inseparably associated with the military history of
Egypt, the first country in which a regular military organization was
established, and a country in which the fighting element was the most
honored and powerful of all classes. This type of blade was adopted by
our Marine Corps in 1825, and later by the officers of the Royal Horse
Artillery of England.

Until recently the allowance of machine guns in our army has been two to
a regiment, but abroad four to six are used.

AUTOMATIC MACHINE RIFLES.

These guns are automatic machine rifles, firing ordinary rifle
cartridges, which (in the Benet-Mercie weapon, a French invention which
we have adopted) are supplied in brass clips of thirty. A small part of
the gas generated by the explosion of the individual cartridge operates
the mechanism, discharging the bullet, throwing out the empty shell and
making ready for the next shot.

A machine gun is designed to enable one man to fire the equivalent of a
volley, or series of volleys, discharged by an entire platoon (one-third
of a company) of infantrymen. As at present developed, it represents a
step toward the evolution of a shoulder-rifle that will throw a
continuous stream of bullets.

The latest government rifle--the weapons of the individual soldiers--are
manufactured at the Springfield (Mass.) Armory, which is the
government's great small-arms factory, and at the Rock Island (Ill.)
Arsenal--the facilities of the latter having hitherto been held in
reserve for emergency purposes. The rifle cartridges are turned out at
the Frankford Arsenal, in Philadelphia, and at private plants in Lowell,
New Haven, Bridgeport and Cincinnati. These concerns and another near
St. Louis also make the cartridges for the automatic pistols.

At the outbreak of the world war we had 150 batteries of light fie