Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, January 1921 · page 55 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #16 — page 55: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is a collection of satirical short pieces and classified ads mocking social situations of the era (appears to be 1920s). **Key pieces:** - **"Pretty Soft"** and **"Tells the World"**: Joke classifieds where the humor lies in unspoken marital troubles—one advertising a housekeeper position suspiciously free of children, another a man publicly disavowing responsibility for his wife's debts after she leaves him for another man. - **"Traveling Men, Attention!"**: A woman renting rooms in her house while her husband travels, phrased suggestively to prompt reader inference about impropriety. - **"Complications"**: A hospital joke where a recovering soldier's "complication" is being caught kissing a nurse—playing on double meaning. - **"A Wet Wedding"**: The satire hinges on a typo or malapropism—"syringes" instead of "springs" (flowers)—creating an absurdly medicalized wedding image. The humor targets infidelity, marital discord, and sexual innuendo typical of 1920s "adult" magazine comedy.
📄 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 53 Pretty Soft (From the Watertown, S. D., Public Opinion.) Wanted—An assistant housekeeper in a family of two. Good home, easy job. No children and none expected. Nothing but a Spaniel pup, looked after by head of family. A mighty fine chance for the right person. Phone 4765. * * * Tells the World (From the Winnipeg Free Press.) I, Francis William Crink, am not responsible for any debts after Oct. 1 of Mrs. Crink, now living with Mr. Peabody, window cleaner, at 744 Winnipeg ave. * * * Chiropodist or Manicurist? (From Indianapolis News.) Miss Edith May Hiatt, 18 When Building, personal attention which assures you absolute satisfaction. * * * Traveling Men, Attention! (Knoxville Journal and Tribune.) FOR RENT—A traveling man's wife, alone in a big 8-room house, wishes to rent three or four nice, unfurnished rooms to a congenial couple, or to two business women. Bath, hot and cold water furnished, with use of phone. Call Old Phone 3988. * * * Complications “Yes, Private Smith was making a splendid re-covery, but now there are complications.” “Oh, I am so sorry! Did he catch pneumonia?” “No, he was caught kissing the nurse!”” * * * A Wet Wedding Weddings, like other things, are progressive affairs in Idaho. Look at this from an Idaho paper: “Yesterday at high noon Miss Helen ——— and Ward ——— were united in marriage at the home of the bride's parents in Ward-ner. The ceremony was performed in the spacious living room which was beautifully decorated in syringes.”