reading labels from column headings, redux - Graphics

I asked the question below in 2001 in this newsgroup, and then the
answer was "no".
Now I am using gnuplot 4.0 and would like to ask again.

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Can gnuplot read column headings from a file and use them as labels?

Suppose you have a file "try.dat" with the contents.

x xx xxx
1 1 1
2 4 8
3 9 27

Columns 2 and 3 can with the command

plot "try.dat" using 1:2 title "xx", "try.dat" using 1:3 title "xxx"

Instead of explicitly specifying the titles "xx" and "xxx", I would
like
gnuplot to read them from the file "try.dat". Is there a way to do
this?

Obviously, one way to do this is to read the column labels using some
programming language such as AWK write the gnuplot commands to a
text file, including the titles, and run the command file. It would be
nice
if reading column headings were "built-in".