Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, January 1921 · page 28 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #16 — page 28: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a short story (not a cartoon) from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang*, a satirical humor magazine. The narrative describes a newlywed couple who receive a "magic" potion from a gypsy—a glass vial of clear liquid supposedly guaranteed to stay transparent only if both spouses remain faithful. The story sets up a classic morality-test premise: the couple treats it as a joke initially, but the gypsy's warning about infidelity turning the liquid "grayish" creates narrative tension. When the husband entertains friends while his wife visits relatives, he recalls the gypsy's prophecy—presumably hinting at temptation or unfaithfulness to follow. The satire mocks both gypsy fortune-telling superstitions and marital fidelity anxieties common to the era. The "test of faith" operates on multiple levels: faith in the gypsy's powers, faith between spouses, and readers' faith in whether the magical claim holds true.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
26 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang His Test of Faith By RUDOLPH KUEFFNER A COUPLE, on their wedding trip, met a gypsy whose prophecies so greatly amused them that they gave her an extra dollar for good luck. In appreciation of the gift, the grateful gypsy pre- sented her benefactors with a little white, glass phial containing a clear liquid. She admonished them to hold this phial as a sacred treasure, because the liquid would retain its crystalline clearness only so long as the loving couple were faithful to each other. But, warned the gypsy, unfaithfulness on the part of either will cause this liquid to turn a grayish hue. The couple laughingly accepted the small bottle, took it home and, although disbelieving the gypsical dope-sheet, placed it carefully in an unused linen closet. They soon forgot the incident and lived in happiness for some time. One summer, a few years later, the wife journeyed afar to visit relatives. Letters of love were exchanged and the hubby gave all his time to business cares, with the exception of Sundays, when he would entertain a few friends at his home. At one of these Sunday par- ties he amused the guests with the gypsy story of honeymoon days.