The Johnstown Floods, Gentlemen; too terrible to talk lightly of. Here is symbolised the discreditable Parachute Mania, which was a disagreeable feature of the dead year. May it die therewith! I hear a stir, a silken amongst my fair auditors. Yes, Ladies, the Marriage of the lucky Duke of PORTLAND, lucky, as I said at the time, with both Bridal and Bridle. Another Dropped Bill, Gentlemen; this time the Land Transfer Bill, "knocked out" in the Lords by the "Sluggers" of Legal Privilege. Westward Ho! goes the ubiquitous, inexhaustible G. O. M. on party thoughts intent; whilst near him is shadowed forth the rise of that Irreconcileable, Socialistic new "Fourth Party," the avowed purposes of which probably sometimes "give him pause." Great Show of the "Humorists in Art." Hope you all went to see it. If you didn't, 'twas your loss. Then--strange juxtaposition!--the Great Turf Libel Case! _Can_ one "libel" the Turf? _Mr. Punch_ wonders. Anyhow, "Donovan"--that Lucky Duke again!--wins the Derby. "Donovan" was evidently "on the job," not "out for an airing," eh? Visit of the SHAH of Persia. You will not want me to say anything more about that threshed-out subject. The Labour Congress in Switzerland was less talked of, but probably quite as important, whilst the appointment of Her Most Gracious MAJESTY as President of the Royal Agricultural Society is of even greater home-interest. Next comes the Great Event of the Year! _Mr. Punch's_ Visit to the Paris Exhibition, already celebrated by him in proper time and shape! You all of you have its record, of course. If not--get it!!! That Balloon bore a happy party, and needed no parachute. The Delagoa Bay Railway business, _Mr. Punch's_ pictorial comment on which so infuriated mischievous Master PORTUGAL! The Whitechapel Woe! Not a matter for words, Gentlemen, but deeds. Hooray! Another Royal Marriage! The Wedding March, with a FIFE accompaniment! And--quite "in a concatenation accordingly," though at t'other side of Panorama--the Golden Wedding of the G. O. M. Prospect and retrospect, both pleasant. Was it the tender association of sympathy which made the G. O. M. so eloquent in favour of the Royal Grants? Who knows? Anyhow, his more rampant "followers"--LABBY among them--would have liked, for the moment, to "muzzle" the "old man eloquent"--as MONRO did the London dogs. The Naval Review, and the German Emperor's brief visit, "synchronised," as the saps say; and _then_, as another "Big Thing," they made CHAPLIN Minister of Agriculture! "Capping the Climax," that! Hard-by another Great--or Big--Man, hews away at the Tithes Bill. Go it, HARCOURT! Following the example of another _really_ Great Man, Mr. GLADSTONE goes to Paris, sees the Exhibition, mounts the Eiffel Tower, perorates pleasantly about the Two Republics, France and America. Or should we say, America and France? _Arcades ambo?_ And the G. O. M. orating on them was _very_ Arcadian indeed.