He graduated from Santa Clara College and briefly served in the army during the Indian Wars of the 1870s before going to work for the New Orleans Times in 1876.

[3] In 1891, Carleton reported on the current plight of various Native American nations, and he uncovered the fact that the Sisseton Sioux, who were dangerously low on food, were still owed money by the government for sale of their surplus land.

As one story went (and was told in different variations), the actor Maurice Barrymore once met Carleton in the street, who said "I s-s-s-say, B-B-B-B-Barry, have you g-g-g-got half an h-h-h-hour to s-s-s-spare, I w-w-w-want to t-t-talk to you for f-f-f-five m-m-m-minutes.

"[18] American writer Willa Cather wrote favorably of Carleton's popular appeal, noting, for example, in an 1894 column: "No one doubts or disputes that Shakespeare was the greatest of all dramatists, but the world is not always ready for the best.

The following year, she wrote: "Among the younger American dramatists there are very few who begin to have that feeling for language, who have begun to write lines that can stand alone.