Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #18 — page 12: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a humorous list playing on railroad terminology. A "carman" was a railroad worker who maintained freight cars. The joke uses technical railroad terms as euphemisms for relationship situations: - **EXITER** (woman won't talk) = Exit valve - **CONTROLLER** (too excited) = Speed controller - **METER** (halfway compromise) = Measuring device - **DISPATCHER** (wants to "go all the way") = Train dispatcher The satire mocks both workplace jargon and early 20th-century courtship dynamics—treating romantic interactions like mechanical railroad operations. It's lighthearted gender humor typical of 1920s magazines, presenting women's moods and preferences through an industrial/male-dominated lens. The other items on the page ("A New Proposal" and "Business Was Good") are brief humorous anecdotes unrelated to the carman code.