Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, January 1921 · page 9 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #16 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from the satirical magazine contains three humorous pieces targeting early 1920s social attitudes: **"January First"** features biblical figures Adam and Peter at heaven's gates, with Adam seeking a New Year's pass to Earth to "turn over a new leaf"—a pun on his original sin and the tradition of New Year's resolutions. **The Gus anecdote** mocks drunk behavior, with an intoxicated hired man fallen in a watering trough. His slurred speech ("Offzer," "womin'n shildern") and chivalrous concern for women and children despite his own predicament satirize masculine pride. **"If You Look That Way"** is the most pointed piece. It sarcastically deconstructs the cliché that women are mysterious and inscrutable. The author argues men can now "see right through her...thanks to the modern skirt"—mocking both the post-WWI fashion trend of shorter hemlines and men's superficial, voyeuristic understanding of women. It's simultaneously a joke about fashion and a commentary on reductive masculine attitudes toward women.
📄 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 7 January First THE other day Adam approached Peter at the pear-ly gates and said: “I should very much like, Peter, to get a pass the first of the year to revisit my old haunts on earth.” “Nothing doing, Adam. You started too much trouble down there when you were a young man.” “Aw, Pete, be a good sport and let me go.” “What do you want to go down there for any’-how?” “I want to turn over a new leaf.” * * * Gus, our hired man, one of those lucky birds that had imbibed rather too freely of the sacred liquid, had fallen into a watering trough. When I tried to help him as he floundered about, he said: “Offzer, I ken save m’self, you save the womin’n shildern.” * * * If You Look That Way It’s oft been said that woman is a mystery to us that we will never quite see through, no matter how we fuss. It’s said that woman is a book forever closed to man, though now and then she condescends slightly to lift the ban. It’s oft been said we cannot hope to fathom womankind and to that fact the other sex might well make up its mind. But we have called the libel out and dragged it in the dirt. We see right through her now with ease—thanks to the modern skirt.