Descended from old New England stock, his father a consul-general, he had been born in Germany, in which country he had received his early education and his accent.

Then, still a boy, he had rejoined his father in Turkey, and accompanied him later to Persia, his father having been appointed Minister to that country.
Tudor had always been a wanderer, and with facile wit and quick vivid description he leaped from episode and place to episode and place, relating his experiences seemingly not because they were his, but for the sake of their bizarreness and uniqueness, for the unusual incident or the laughable situation.

He had gone through South American revolutions, been a Rough Rider in Cuba, a scout in South Africa, a war correspondent in the Russo-Japanese war.

He had _mushed_ dogs in the Klondike, washed gold from the sands of Nome, and edited a newspaper in San Francisco.

The President of the United States was his friend.