Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, March 1921 · page 62 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #18 — page 62: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate satirical pieces, not a cartoon. The first anecdote mocks "blue laws"—strict Sunday regulations—through a clash between urban modernity and rural puritanism. Two city girls playing music on Sunday offend a devout old man. Their flippant response ("whistle the first two or three bars") mockingly reduces the Ten Commandments to a tune, suggesting such strict religious enforcement is absurdly outdated. The second passage is philosophical nostalgia, disconnected from the first joke. The third paragraph references post-WWI geopolitics, likely satirizing the League of Nations' territorial settlements. The humor lies in the absurdist redistribution: giving Jerusalem to Jews and Ireland to Irish (seemingly logical) but Iceland to "icemen" and New York to "the United States" (tautological or ridiculous). This appears to mock how League negotiations seemed arbitrary or self-serving to American observers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
60 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Whistling to Hades Two girls from the city were spending their vaca- tion in a small town in the middle west, and at the house where they were stopping was a devout old man who believed that the blue Sunday laws should go into effect full blast. It so happened that the girls were in the parlor one Sunday morning, playing the popular airs, when the devout sir entered and said: “Do you know this is Sunday?” “Sure, what's the big idea?” “Do you know the ten commandments?” “Well, if you whistle the first two or three bars I might get them.” * * * It isn't the things we've won and possessed that fill the coffers of life to overflowing. It's the things we've lost, the things that make for sweet memories. That's the sum and substance of life that endures— memories and their lessons. * * * This is March, the month when the wind is tempered either to the lion or to the shorn lamb, and soon the grass will be green and the wind will be tem- pered for the silk-clad calf. Oh, boys, I'll say we can anticipate! * * * When the ball bearings of the new association of nations get rolling smoothly, we understand that Jeru- salem will be given to the Jews, Ireland to the Irish, Iceland to the icemen and New York City to the United States.