No purer, gentler or simpler aspirations were ever expressed in the varying forms of music and verse than flowed from Foster's pen, even as penetrating benevolence came from the pen of O.Henry, embittered and solitary as his life had been.

Indeed when we come to regard what the drinkers of history have done for the world in spite of the artificial stimulus they craved, we may say with Lincoln as Lincoln said of Grant, 'Send the other generals some of the same brand.' "Foster was an aristocrat of aristocrats, both by birth and gifts.

He inherited the blood of Richard Steele and of the Kemble family, noted in English letters and dramatic annals.

To these artistic strains he added undoubtedly the musical temperament of an Italian grandmother or great-grand-mother.

He was a cousin of John Rowan, the distinguished Kentucky lawyer and senator.