Editorial comment on this plate:

Our frontispiece this week is a realistic, or what some would prefer to call a “naturalistic” picture. It certainly shows a group of typical American boys in a characteristic pursuit. Nothing could be better of its kind than the little fellow in the foreground with sleeves rolled up preparatory to clutching one of the shy fishes which they are all striving to capture.
The negative was made by a Chautauquan, Mr. H. Macy, of St. Paul, and the subject was found during a saunter in Worcester, Mass. The boys were entirely unconscious of being photographed, which probably accounts for their natural poses and positions.
“Never a one looked up as I snapped my shutter,” writes Mr. Macy. “My lens was a slow one, and the low-power green rays were everywhere, so tint, after a very long and slow development, I did not get all the detail and density I wanted.” The finished result in photo-gravure, we must all admit, however, looks very well. It is an excellent picture of its kind, and we are glad to have the pleasure of showing it to our readers.