A young man sits on a bench in a Bavarian street playing the zither as he watches a young woman walk past. Etching by Hubert Herkomer.

"Mr. Herkomer, in the etching which forms our frontispiece, has sought a subject once more among the hills and valleys of that beautiful Bavaria which his pencil has so often illustrated. Nowhere, probably, in this hackneyed world is the dignity of labouring life so unimpaired as in those happy islands [sic]. There is also to be found among such primitive peasants as those who have so often served Mr. Herkomer for models a peculiar harmony with their surroundings which is eminently picturesque. Type of face, build of figure, quaintness of costume—all are in exquisite keeping with the gabled roofs, the mountain distances, the hill-side vegetation. The love of music adds also a charm, otherwise unattainable, to the people's simplicity; and their music is eminently characteristic of them and their surroundings. No wonder, then, the maiden's heart is touched by the tones of the zither, through the sweet notes of which the young peasant is wooing a charming bride."--The treasury of art illustrated, loc. cit.