âOver The Border: A Romanceâ written by Robert Barr who was a Scottish-Canadian short story writer and novelist. This book was published in 1903. Robert Barr (16 September 1849 â 21 October 1912) wrote more than 20 novels. Among the more estimable are âThe victorsâ (New York, 1901), about metropolitan politics, and âThe mutable manyâ (New York and London, 1896), which focused on an industrial strike. Both had a distinctively realistic basis, and both were written more objectively and less floridly than was Barrâs habit. A number of novels also had a Canadian setting. In the midst of alarms (Philadelphia, 1893) was a comic treatment of the 1866 Fenian invasion; as a teenager Barr had joined volunteers in St. Thomas in anticipation of such a disturbance. âThe measure of the ruleâ (London, 1907) was a satiric romance about his experiences at the Toronto Normal School.