Now or Never

The only thing the Government wants U.S. citizens to hoard -- is begging them to hoard -- they will not hoard is coal.

The situation is so serious that Leon Henderson & Co. have put on a campaign: ''Buy Coal Now"-- or maybe never. Main reason is an impending shortage, not of coal but of transport: railroads, now carrying fuel because of submarine attacks on shipping, will be too busy next fall, when the huge grain crops and war shipments must be moved, to move coal.

To insure warm U.S. houses next winter, Henderson & Co. also advise immediate conversion >of oil furnaces and stoves to coal burners. As added bait, the OPA last week refused to allow a 25-c--a-ton increase in the price of coal.

Mrs. Magna's Charta

For the first time in their 51-year history, the Daughters of the American Revolution have been shooed out of Washington. Because of wartime congestion in the capital (where they own their own hall), they will have to meet in Chicago. Into Chicago last week marched President General Mrs. William H. Pouch, to prepare the way for some 3,500 DARters who will assemble next month. She outlined convention plans: i) to lambaste Union Now, and foreign-language schools; 2) to praise the work of "that great American, Martin Dies." Said buxom Mrs. Pouch: "Mr. Dies can never be discredited in our eyes." At their convention, DARters will probably forgo corsages, eschew orchids. Mrs. Pouch said that she had appealed to the Illinois delegation to see to it that the convention this year is not "lavish." Some of the delegates, said Mrs. Pouch, are even planning to wear old clothes. Added President Pouch: "We are going to emulate President General Mrs. Russell William Magna, who in 1931 wore only one eve ning dress and only one street dress during the entire convention." Watchword chosen for the 1942 convention: Courage.

Home-Grown Money

The first entirely home-grown U.S. paper money was put into test circulation last week by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank. No one spotted the difference: nylon, instead of silk threads, in the bills.

Rug-Cutting Cut

Gates, cats and ickies were hurt good. Longhairs took it on the puss, too. And it was a slight case of murder to the whole waxing biz. What happened was this: WPB bopped civilian use of shellac*by 70%, and shellac is the big item (15-25%) of each platter. Angle for the stab: shellac comes from India, which seems to be in quite a jam right now. Not only that, but shellac is hot stuff in war stuff over here. Anyway, this means a cut in rug-cutting, and no good news for highbrows, either. Needle-nuts can play their old platters down to a nub for all Donald Nelson cares, Only bugle at the funeral is that shellac in records can be reclaimed; maybe the jive jerks will be able to turn in old disks for new ones like toothpaste tubes. But the whole thing sounded to hot men like a can of corn at a real session.

War Twists

The Fuller Brush Man, hero and butt of a billion jokes, is now the Fuller Brush Woman. War did it. Fuller executives last week said that the girls are almost as good salesmen earn almost as much in commissions, as men. Advocated costume for Fuller Brush Women: flat shoes and loose clothing, to allow freedom of action in demonstrating and to keep the customer's eye on the brush.

*Shellac is the glandular secretion of the lac bug, named from the Hindustani lakh, meaning hundred thousand, referring to the innumerable minute insects that secrete the resin.

*Miami window-display mannequins are being deglamorized for war, reported Women's Wear. The means: trimming down long, seductive eyelashes.

* U.S. retailers have discovered that women will not buy a dress priced $18.75. The reason: war bonds cost $18.75, too.

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