even a glimpse of the rear-guard. The
marines, just as swiftly and quietly as if they were on their way to
Hayti, Santo Domingo, Vera Cruz, or Nicaragua, had departed.

We all know what they did and what subsequent regiments of marines sent
to the front has done. Their fighting in the region of Torcy in the
German drive of last June, when the Teutonic shock troops got a reverse
shock from the marines, has already become a part of our brightest
fighting tradition. The marines are fighters, have always been so--but
it took their participation in this war to bring them prominently before
the public.

"Who and what are the marines?" was the question frequently asked when
the communiques began to retail their exploits. Ideas were very hazy
concerning them, and indeed, while we all are by this time quite
familiar with what they can do, there are many of us even now who do not
quite know what they are.

[Illustration: _From a photograph copyright by International Film
Service._ AMERICAN MARINES WHO TOOK PART IN THE MARNE OFFENSIVE ON
PARADE IN PARIS, JULY 4, 1918.]

Be it said, then, that the United States Marine Corps was authorized by
the Continental Congress on November 10, 1775, and therefore has the
distinction of being the oldest military branch in the United States
service. The corps served valiantly throughout the Revolutionary War,
and was disbanded at the close of the war, April 11, 1782. But the corps
was reorganized and permanently established July 11, 1798. From that day
to this, its officers have been zealous participants in every expedition
and action in which the navy has engaged, and in many trying campaigns
they have won distinction with their brethren of the army. Their motto
is _Semper Fidelis_, and ever have they lived up to it in war and in
peace.

The marines serve both on land and sea. They are trained, clothed, and
equipped very much as are soldiers of the land forces. In their
preliminary instruction on shore, at navy-yards and naval-stations, they
are instructed and drilled in the duties of infantry soldiers,
field-artillery men, and as machine-gun companies. In preparation for
their duties as landing-parties from ships of the navy, for
expeditionary duty, and as defenders of naval advance bases, they are
further trained in the use of portable search-lights, the wireless
telegraph, the heliograph, and the various other methods of signalling.
They study range-finding; erection, operation, and m