New-York tribune., 1921-01-02

l. Ia Li>N JeaI3 is the time LOWS
~ t. Freeman has spent in illustrat-
ing the unique de luxe edition of
The Feet of the Young Men, which
Doubleday Page have just published in
limited edition Of 377 copies; sixteen
years in illustrating poem of thirty
six lines! 1t was with him q splendid
adventure, this making of fitting
tribute to Rudyard Kiplng, the poet
who has most nearly expressed the
Spring fret" that troubles the heart
of youth.
Mr.. freeman has himself followed
the trails that the feet Of the young
men have trod. Ranchcr, big game
hunter, sailor Of Conrads shallow
Southern seas, writer, during the past
war lieutenant III the ROYAL Navy
Volunteer Reserve, he has explored the
far corners of the earth where "the
red gods make their medicine"
1t was in the spring OF 1904 that
the idea Of illustrating this poem with
photographs took shape. Freeman,
with some friends, had sailed for q
years cruise in The South Pacific. After
passing the titful trade ATTITUDES and the
Sandwich Islands and sailing in the loll-
ing days of tho doldruma he read The
Five Nations, which had just been pub
llshed, and was SO impressed with Ths
Feet Of the Young Men that he
dreamed Of paying a tribute to the
author by catching with his camera the
Spirit of the spring time visions which
the poem evoked. Next day he landed
from an outrigger canoe on a crescent
coral beach and pushed into q tropical
valley looking for a study of "the
steaming stiffness of the orchid scented
glades which the blazoned, bird-winged
butterflies flap through" He found
everything but the butterflies. That
was the beginning of The Quest.
For the next sixteen years Mr.. Free
man was ever seeking tho pictures
which should appropriately illustrate
the poem. These years were crowded
with other activities, but there was never
time when he WAS not on watch. Al
one time or another he made some
KIND OF photograph upon practically
every subject con- jured up by the poem.
Naturally, many Of these were not very
successful. One could hardly expect
the "beaver busted" or "the bull moose
waiting tho cow in thc lakeside lilies"
every time he went out with his
camera and flashlights In all, somo-
thing like six hundred trial exposures
were made
In one respect hc doviated from his
original resolve. When he found pho
tographs which more perfectly illua-
trated the spirit of one line or another
than his own he gave them pride Of
place. But something over half Of the
illustrations as they nova appear in the
book are his own. The rest Of the
South SEA cruise-Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji,
Hawaii and the Marquesas-was nc;
very fruitful, although the exquisite
picture illustrating the limo to my
palms and fiyin., foxes" was taken at
this time. The next three years we're
divided among the Far East, Austria
liza, South Africa, South America and
the West Indies, which allowed several
good studies; also the trip in the Pa
chc Northwest and Alaska. In tho
delta Of the Colorado and in Mexico he
found two studies which had hitherto
eludod him. THE copper-colored Indian
who is waiting like lover on the
desert mountains sky line" is Monanza,
his Cocopah guide. In real life Mo
nanza wasn't very good at waiting, for
nc was in such hurry to open up with
his old "forty-four" that he spoiled the
only two chances which the hunters
had at mountain sheep.
Several months along the const Of
China and tho upper Yangtse added
nothing to tho collection, but luck in
the Philippine archipelago was bette
Here he found the "gentlc yellow pi-
rate" Bagabo OF tho island of Min.
danho. with smile as broad as ths
blade Of his murdcrous baronH
The most difficult Of all lines W.,
.hc "n1siy-swest bnth meath the line p