THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
that the hastily worded telegrams in the Sunday papers conveyed. The majority of people in London do not read Sunday papers.
The habit of personal security, moreover, is so deeply fixed in the Londoner's mind, and startling intelligence so much a matter of course in the papers, that they could read without any personal tremors: "About seven o'clock last night the Martians came out of the cylinder, and, moving about under an armor of metallic shields, have completely wrecked Woking station, with the adjacent houses, and massacred an entire battalion of the Cardigan Regiment. No details are known. Maxims have been absolutely useless against their armor; the field-guns have been disabled by them. Flying hussars have been galloping into Chertsey. The Martians appear to be moving slowly towards Chertsey or Windsor. Great anxiety prevails in West Surrey, and earthworks are being thrown up to check the advance Londonwards." That was how the Sunday Sun put it, and a clever and remarkably prompt "hand-book" article in the Referee compared the affair to a menagerie suddenly let loose in a village.
No one in London knew positively of the nature of the armored Martians, and there was still a fixed idea that these monsters must be
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