The White Mail

THE WHITE MAIL
CY WARMAN
NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 1899
Copyright, 1899 , By Charles Scribner’s Sons. University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.
TO BRYAN WARMAN WITH A FATHER’S LOVE
CONTENTS
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The White Mail
THE PASSING OF THE WATCHMAN
Denis McGuire lived at Lick Skillet, on the ridge between the east and west forks of Silver Creek, midway between Troy and St. Jacobs, twenty-two miles east of St. Louis—Vandalia line. Denis McGuire was the section boss, Tommy McGuire was his only heir, Mrs. McGuire, in addition to being Tommy’s mother, made herself generally useful about the house.
Lick Skillet possessed a saw-mill and a blacksmith shop, and contained, if we count the “nigger” who drove Jim Anderson’s bull team at the mill, twenty-seven souls.
Denis McGuire was an honest Irishman, industrious and sober, except on Saturday nights, and possibly Sunday. He was unable to read or write, even his own name. Heidelberg, the station agent at St. Jacobs, the eastern terminus of McGuire’s section, kept his books and accounts and the time of the men. In return for this kindness McGuire used to do odd spurts of manual toil for Heidelberg. Sometimes, on a Saturday afternoon, he would set his car off at the end of his run, take his men over (between trains) and shovel snow and saw wood for the agent. In summer, when they had their scythes out, they invariably cut the weeds on the vacant lot between the station and Heidelberg’s house, clipped the lawn, and weeded the garden.