It takes a war to change the personal habits of some peoples. I have come across several non-smokers who have now succumbed to the habit they had forsworn. It is not a question of pleasure or sociability, or even of steadying the nerves, but of safety in the dark. A glowing cigarette, they have found, is a useful blackout precaution, specially in crowded streets, It also comes in handy for identitying a coin, reading a bus ticket, and counting change. The glow, if sufficiently puffed, even makes possible the addressing of an envelope. And unlike a torch, it leaves the hand free. Such is darkest London in wartime.
Non-smokers are taking to smoking and, if the hatters are to be believed, men who formerly went bare-headed will soon all be wearing hats. The cult of the hatless as is doomed, or so they say. The reason Said a hatter this week: "Men no doubt realize that some form of head protection is necessary against splinters in air raids." Hence the present boom in bowlers,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.