Viewed in isolation, this short feature is only mildly amusing, but its cultural context makes it more interesting. It was not, as it might first appear to be, footage of an isolated practical joke, but rather was a movie version of a scene involving a popular character from a well-known stage musical of the late 1800s, Edward E. Rice's "Evangeline". The play and the character have both long since been forgotten, with this short movie one of the few surviving reminders of either.
Although Rice's play was suggested by Longfellow's poem of the same name, the character of "The Lone Fisherman" was added solely for the stage, and appeared nowhere in the original poem. (The entire play seems to have borne very little resemblance at all to the poem.) Rice introduced the character of the fisherman as a quirky feature to his production, and the character became rather popular for a time. This film version thus shows one brief scene involving the character, which audiences of the time probably enjoyed seeing.
The majority of the short movies from the 1890s contain straightforward material that is still easily identifiable, even if it is clear that they come from a different time. This is a rather interesting exception, in that though what actually happens on screen is clear enough, its cultural context is now forgotten, making it appear to be something a bit different than it was originally.
