The increase in the enlisted strength of the Marine Corps from 17,400 to 30,000, or by 12,600, also gives an additional allowance of 504 officers to the corps, which, under the bill, are distributed among the grades of major, captain, first lieutenant and second lieutenant. The Marine Corps is one of the most picturesque military organizations in the world. There is, probably, no other such body of trained soldiery. While they are under the control of the Navy Department, they can be detached from that branch of the service and assigned for duty with any other branch of the military forces of the country. POLICEMEN OF THE SEA. They are the policemen of the sea; they are artillerymen, infantrymen, cavalry, engineers, and soldiers, first, last and all the time. They are the first troops in action, and there is no restriction as to the kind of military duty they are called upon to perform. The Marines served on shore and on board vessels of the navy throughout the Revolutionary War, two battalions having been authorized by the Continental Congress November 10, 1775. The present organization really dates from July, 1798, when Congress passed an act approving the establishment of an organization to be known as the Marine Corps, consisting of 1 major, 4 captains, 16 first lieutenants, 12 second lieutenants, 48 sergeants, 48 corporals, 32 drums and fifes and 720 privates. Every one of the 15,000 men who composed the more than a century old Marine Corps when the war broke out was ready and on his toes when the call for action came. There was nothing in the way of scientific preparedness that got by them. In the matter of trench helmets, for instance, when it was time for the American nation to come to the front in the great world war, the Marines had a helmet so much of an improvement on the one used by the Allies that there was no comparison. Armored motorcars, likewise, of the most improved type, belonged to the Marine Corps when the call for action came. These cars are capable of making 45 miles an hour, and there were plenty of them for service in the Marine Corps. Some interesting equipment never used before the big war composed part of the quartermasters' stores in the Marine Corps. It's a marvel what these chaps can do with a big naval gun--one of those big brutes which are bolted down to the deck of a warship. It doesn't look like a thing to be picked up and carted around the country. That's precisely what the heavy artillery companies do, however. It takes them but a few minutes to sling one of these five-inchers over the side of a ship, land it, and take it wherever it is needed. They do this with the aid of a single-spar derrick, some little narrow-gauge trucks and a portable narrow-gauge railroad. TRANSPORTATION OF BIG GUN.