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A Quaker in the Hands of the Hack Drivers.

Mr. M. Burnett, a very respectable appearing man, dressed in the Quaker garb, came to this city on Wednesday night, on business from Kentucky. Immediately upon landing from the ferry boat, on this side of the river, he was surrounded by a swarm of hack drivers. He informed them, one and all, that he did not desire to ride, as it was but a short distance to King's Hotel, where he intended shopping. As soon as this announcement was made, an accommodating soul, named Thomas Slevin, at once made himself known as the driver of a King's Hotel coach, and so urgent were his solicitations, that Mr. Burnett got into his coach. He was driven a long distance, and finally the coach stopped in an alley leading out of Fourth street above Washington avenue. Mr. Burnett saw that an effort was being made to victimize him, and so he got out of the coach and started to walk off. Slevin seized hold of him, and threatened to knock him over the head, and so endeavored to get hold of his carpet sack. After a pretty severe struggle, the Quaker succeeded in getting Slevin out of the alley to Fourth street, and shortly afterwards Policeman Kenny came along and took him into custody. He was arraigned before the Recorder, but had his case continued.

Daily Missouri Republican (Saint Louis, Missouri), August 23, 1861.