"We desire to have nothing to do with either," returned the entrepreneur. "You see our object is to have an entirely new entertainment, and consequently we reject all items, that have figured in other programmes."
"Well, well," murmured the visitor; "you may be right. But I should like to see the result. I will wait until the performance is given, and judge for myself."
"I am sorry I cannot assist you to carry out this scheme," declared the Manager of the Progressive Music Hall, "because we are not going to have an entertainment."
"No, of course not. Of course it won't be an entertainment in the usual sense of the word. It can't naturally be an entertainment—I should have said a performance."
"But we give neither entertainment nor performance."
"Why not?"
Then came the answer, which was more convincing than surprising—"Because, my dear Sir, we can't get an audience!"
The New Hotel on the Embankment.— Our Dear Daily News, in a recent note, says that the "Hôtel Magnifique" (as it ought to be called, reminding us as the D. D. N. justly observes of the Hôtel Splendide in Paris) has been already styled by its proprietors The Cecil. "The Cecil!"—"There is only one in it," observes bluntly a certain well-known comedian, quoting the song "There's only one in it, that's me!" And pleased is Arthur Cecil with the gratuitous advertisement. But The Cecil! Good name for club, not for hotel. The Sarum sounds too ecclesiastical; so we return to The Magnificent, which can be familiar in our mouths as "The Mag." "Omne ignotum pro magnifico."