During his first night aboard steamer "City of Buffalo," Mr. George Morris dreams he is being chased around deck by a pair of young ladies — one a pronounced blonde, and the other an equally pronounced brunette . . . and he suffers a great deal of uncertainty as to which he desires the most to avoid. At last they have him cornered and start mopping the deck with him — with the "swish, swish, swish" of men scrubbing the deck in early morning

Troubling dream . . . yet the blonde from whom sought escape, by booking this voyage, is also on board — as is this reserved, literate, and interesting brunette, Miss Katherine Earle . . . who is traveling not so much away from America, as he is, but "toward" a definite destination . . . about which she will say nothing. Scottish novelist Robert Barr (1850-1912) is at the height of his powers with "In a Steamer Chair" and the other stories in this collection, depicting life aboard the oceangoing steamer ships around the turn of the last century with knife-sharp precision and artistry.

Robert Barr (1849 - 1912) was a Scottish-Canadian short story writer and novelist, born in Glasgow, Scotland. In 1881 Barr decided to "vamoose the ranch," as he stated, and relocated to London, to establish there the weekly English edition of the Detroit Free Press. In 1892 he founded the magazine The Idler, choosing Jerome K. Jerome as his collaborator (wanting, as Jerome said, "a popular name"). He retired from its co-editorship in 1895. In London of the 1890s Barr became a more prolific author-publishing a book a year-and was familiar with many of the best-selling authors of his day, including Bret Harte and Stephen Crane. Most of his literary output was of the crime genre, then quite in vogue.