PREFACE 



FISHING is a sport especially suited to boys. 

 It is a cleanly, healthy, open-air recreation, de- 

 void of feverish excitements, and yet not desti- 

 tute of quiet pleasures which are inexpressibly 

 fascinating during the tender years of childhood, 

 and, above all, entirely innocent in their ten- 

 dencies. As youth succeeds childhood, the love 

 of fishing deepens, and as maturity is attained, 

 this love becomes a part of the man, never to 

 be wholly cast aside. And as old age approaches, 

 and gun and dog and saddle are regretfully re- 

 tired, angling still remains the contemplative 

 man's pastime. Thus throughout life is angling 

 a source of comfort and pleasure, leaving no bad 

 taste in the mouth or sting in the conscience, 

 and being indeed unequalled by any other sport 

 whatsoever in its purity and guilelessness. For 

 what does Annie Trumbull Slosson's " Fishin' 

 Jimmy " say in his quaint, homely fashion ? " I 



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