Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1921 · page 7 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #19 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains humorous anecdotes from the editor rather than visual cartoons. The main content satirizes early 20th-century social stereotypes. The primary joke targets "divan dearies" and "lounge lizards"—period slang for effeminate men and idle, frivolous socialites. The humor derives from a police station encounter where one such man inquires about another's arrest, relieved the charge is merely "flirting" rather than theft. The implication—that these men might be suspected criminals—plays into contemporary prejudices against perceived homosexuality and masculine nonconformity. The final anecdote about the pig appears unrelated, illustrating folk-economics reasoning: the narrator breaks even financially but considers it profitable due to winter pig use. The Shakespeare reference frames these "lounge lizards" as modern versions of Oswald, the servant villain from *King Lear*, suggesting moral judgment of such men.
📄 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 5 In our last issue we published that portion of Shake- speare's “King Lear” wherein Kent denounces Oswald, the lounge lizard, which brings my memory back to nights in 1913 when I was a police reporter for a morning paper in Minneapolis. This was prior to my incrustment upon the fertile pastures of Robbins- dale. One evening, while “chinning” with the desk ser- geant at headquarters, a policeman brought in a typical “divan dearie”—one of the sissy variety, but well dressed. The sergeant gave him a private cell and was just returning to his desk when another of the same species walked in. “I have been informed,” said the caller in a meek voice, “that this place is a jail, and I would like to know if you have a prisoner here by the name of Harold Archibald Eaton.” The sergeant referred to the “blot- ter” and replied affirmatively. He informed the inquirer that Eaton was being held on a charge of flirting. Great joy was registered by the caller, and he replied in accents sweet: “Oh, dear, what a relief! I was afraid he might have been arrested for stealing.” * * * Last fall I bought a pig for $5. It cost me $5 to feed the pig this winter. This spring I sold the pig for $10. Of course, I didn't make any money, but I had the use of the pig all winter.