Foster was a World War I veteran, world wanderer, journalist, embassy attaché, stoker on ships, miner, stowaway, bandit’s prisoner in Mexico, who wrote of Latin America and the Orient. He died an early death of pneumonia at his mother’s house in New York state. This 1924 book is a prime example of his witty travel writing and close observation. The New York Times reported that in 1919 he started travelling and for some ten years he seldom remained in one place.