[3] He began working as a journalist for the Cleveland Leader in 1879, and in 1882 he moved to Washington DC as the correspondent there.

[3] Carpenter collected enough assignments with newspaper syndicates and Cosmopolitan Magazine to pay for a trip around the world in 1888–1889.

[4] He was charged with sending a "letter" each week to twelve periodicals, describing life in the countries to which he traveled.

[3] His travels and writings were so extensive historians have trouble placing his exact whereabouts at any given time, though his books speak to where he went.

[4] He has been noted for his 1922 study of the regeneration of Europe after WWI, and the first granted interview with Chinese statesman Li Hung Chang.

The Boston Globe obituary observed he "always wrote fascinatingly, always in a language the common man and woman could understand, always of subjects even children are interested in.