INTRODUCTION
My dear Boys:
“Bob the Photographer” relates the adventures of a wide-awake lad who suddenly finds himself thrown out on the world at large to make his way and earn his own living.
Bob falls in with an amateur photographer, a “camera fiend,” and becomes so interested in the art that he resolves to take up photography for a living. He does so, and his pictures being good, he obtains a situation with a railroad company, to make pictures along the line, for use in the company’s guide books, and for other purposes. This work leads him into a number of adventures, in many of which he proves “a hero in spite of himself.”
My object in writing this tale was twofold. First, to let boys know how they can get on in this world, no matter how humble the start, providing they will do to the best of their ability whatever their hands find to do. Success is deserved only when one “pitches in” with a will, and when one “sticks at it” to the end.
My second object was to let my readers know something about photography, providing they have not already mastered the first steps in that art. During my leisure hours I have taken up “snap shotting” myself, and have found that, and the work of developing and printing the pictures, very interesting. All told, there is no cleaner or better recreation, nor one better calculated to make the follower more patient.
Trusting the story will prove to your liking, I remain,
Affectionately and sincerely yours,
Arthur M. Winfield.