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206

English fame, is served by the bar maids -- and then it's coffee [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] the next time, for the hours of selling are restricted from 12 to 2:30 and from [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] 6:30 to 9:30.  Here again you can't buck the inevitable set way.  As long as scotch and soda is the time honored drink, the bar maid and those who cluster ^[[about]] the bar cannot conceive of a person ordering anything else.  A cocktail cannot be bought; they may serve what purports to be an American pill, but it can't be done in England.  And again -- the English worker and his lady must have their "bitter beer" , war or no war, so instead of revoking a whole sheet of rules as with us the people here still have what they demand. 
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After the show a cup of tea or coffee or cocoa (unsweetened unless you can get saccharine) at some of the cafe's is nice before retiring.  I was interested to note at the Regent Palace that there was a multitude of the better class of Belgian Refugees in the tea-room.  The life of the place dies a quick death near midnight.

Lately there is talk of a shortage of coal causing a 10 o'clock closing law -- reminding me of letters from home about the severe reign of King Coal in New England this winter.