such as the "Irish Buddhist" U Dhammaloka. Young readers may find it hard to believe that the societies were true descriptions of situations of less than a century ago, but they ring true in the context of other autobiographical writings and even the fiction of those days and of many decades after. His observations and much of his wording inevitably mirror the racist attitudes and religious prejudices of his time, but it is appropriate to note from incidents retailed in works such as Zone Policeman 88, chapters II, VIII, X and elsewhere, that Franck's personal attitudes towards everyone were basically humane, unpretentious, and courteous, if informal. His tone becomes subtly acrid in retailing examples of explicit racism or other forms of inter-group insensitivity. His unconscious remarks and use of words that nowadays are unacceptable in civilised speech are mainly of interest in revealing the differences between the conventions of the day and those of say, the late 20th century. In Wandering in Northern China (1923), he visited Korea, which had been a Japanese colony since 1910. The first thing he noted was that Korea was virtually devoid of trees. The aristocracy had been stripped of their duties but were allowed to wear the unique attire of their rank, although many were living in poverty. Franck reported that the women "displayed to the public gaze exactly that portion of the torso which the women of most nations take pains to conceal." In the same book he reported on a visit to the northern Chinese city of Harbin, which at the time of writing (1923) contained a large population of refugee Russian aristocracy. He reported that the refugees held formal gatherings every Saturday night, complete with formal dress, although most of them were destitute. A former Russian aristocrat approached the director of the YMCA whom Franck was visiting to ask for some food; the director told him he would be welcome to lunch in exchange for cutting the grass. The Russian apologized but said he was unable to comply—manual labor was declasse—and departed, unfed. In Zone Policeman 88 (1913), Franck worked as a police officer in the Panama Canal Zone and assisting in the census of its citizens. In Vagabonding Down the Andes (1917), he tells of his trip walking the spine of the Andes, traveling with a camera and a revolver, but without a blanket. He paid for his return trip