On 11 november 1844, a Mob gathered outside philadelphia's chesnut street theatre for, in the words of the theater's manager, Francis Wemyss, the purpose “of a grand row” (395). The crowd intended to prevent the opening of The Quaker City; or, The Monks of Monk Hall, a play George Lippard had adapted from the work he was simultaneously publishing serially; it would become the best-selling novel of the first half of the nineteenth century. Capitalizing on a sensational 1843 murder case that fascinated Philadelphians, the novel retold the story of Singleton Mercer, a Philadelphia clerk acquitted of killing his sister's seducer. Infuriated by the playbill, Mercer attempted to purchase two hundred tickets for his supporters, who threatened to destroy the theater (Durang 247). Wemyss wanted Mercer jailed, but the mayor, wary of “riot and bloodshed,” countered, “I really think you have struck the first blow in your playbill” and called for the play's cancellation (qtd. in Wemyss 319-20). As the crowd of irate Philadelphians gathered, Lippard strode through it draped in an “ample cloak and carrying a sword-cane to repel assaults” (Bouton 20). Facing the very real prospect of violence, Wemyss reluctantly canceled the production.