Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, January 1921 · page 29 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #16 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two separate humor pieces from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang*, an early 20th-century American satirical magazine. **First story**: A practical joke where a husband's friends convince him to add ink to a medicinal phial to fake infidelity and test his wife's faithfulness. The joke's punchline: his wife discovers the deception, cleans it up without confrontation, and the husband never needs his friends to "prove his faithfulness"—she's already caught on and handled it quietly. **Second story ("The Difference")**: Two former schoolfriends reunite. Gladys works as a stenographer with a kind, generous boss who gives her gifts and takes her to dinner/theater for $25/week. Ethel does the same work but pointedly notes hers involves "no shorthand-typing mixed up with it"—a crude euphemism suggesting Ethel's boss demands sexual favors rather than just office work. The satire mocks the exploitation of young working women by authority figures. Both pieces reflect period anxieties about workplace morality and marital trust.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang 27 At the finish of the host's recital, one of the men with an eye to a practical joke suggested pouring a bit of ink in the phial so as to make the liquid turn to gray. “On her return you can have a lot of fun at her jealousness,” he said, “and then call us in to prove your faithfulness.” The trick was done and in a few days Friend Wife came home. While house-cleaning next day, she thought of the phial. Great horrors! Its contents had turned from pure white to a grayish tint. “My God, is it really so?” But after a few moments of hesitation she quickly poured out the gray substance and refilled the phial with clear water, placing it back in its former location. Needless to say, it was not necessary for hubby's friends to call to testify in his behalf. * * * The Difference The two school friends accidentally met in the whirl of the city, and, of course, began a rapid fire of questions. “What am I doing?” said Gladys, in reply to a query. “Oh, I’m a stenographer.” “What’s the boss like?” “Well, he’s quite young, and is awfully kind to me. See, he gave me this bangle and this brooch, and nearly every week he takes me to dinner and the theatre. And the salary’s quite good—$25 a week. And you, Ethel—what are you doing, dear?” “Same as you,” snapped Ethel, “only there’s no shorthand-typing mixed up with it.”