Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, March 1921 · page 41 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #18 — page 41: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two satirical poems from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang*, a 1920s humor magazine known for irreverent content. The first poem parodies Robert W. Service's famous narrative poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew," recasting it as a saloon murder mystery where the narrator identifies "Dangerous Dan McGrew" and a mysterious "Hound of Hell" as rivals. The twist: the Lady Lou (a character from Service's original) is implicated as the real culprit who "kissed him and pinched his poke" (stole from him), suggesting femme fatale treachery rather than the expected gunfight outcome. The second poem satirizes Prohibition-era hypocrisy. The speaker boasts of his illegal home-made bar ("beneath the stair"), mocking government efforts to eliminate alcohol consumption. He defies what he calls "official blighters" and argues that personal freedoms cannot be legislated away—a common anti-Prohibition sentiment of the era. Both poems use vernacular language and irreverent humor to mock authority and conventional morality, typical of Whiz Bang's satirical style during the Prohibition period.
📄 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 39 But I want to state, and my words are straight And I'll bet my poke their true That one of you is a “Hound of Hell” And that one is Dan McGrew. Then I ducked my head and the lights went out And two guns blazed in the dark Then the lights went up and a woman screamed And two men lay stiff and stark. Pitched on his head and pumped full of lead Lay Dangerous Dan McGrew, While the man from the creeks, lay crushed to the breast Of the Lady that was known as Lou. These are the simple facts of the case And I guess I ought to know They said that the stranger was crazed with hooch And I'm not denying it's so. I'm not so wise as there lawyer guys But strictly between us two The woman that kissed him and pinched his poke Was the Lady, that was known as Lou. * * * My Little Home-Made Bar While the wintry wind is blowing, and it's hailing and it's snowing; Folks all wonder how I manage to keep warm. If they only knew the reason why I always keep in season, At my door, an endless line would straightway form, Comes the Summer, hot and torrid, I don't swear it's blinkin' horrid, It's a time of joy and comfort, I declare, For in my lowly cellar is the coziest rathskellar, That's my little home-made bar beneath the stair. Thus I scorn official blighters who'd regenerate booze fighters, By arresting them and placing them in jail; Virtue can't be legislated into man, degenerated, Ancient rights can't be usurped—they will prevail, So I'm happy, hail and hearty and sometimes put on a party Of my own without a solitary care, Where I spend such blissful hours, in the fairest of all bowers, In my little home-made bar beneath the stair. comicbooks.com