Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, June 1921 · page 31 of 67
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #21 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang* (a post-WWI satirical magazine, circa 1920s) presents a "Dear Bill" advice column featuring pun-based jokes with sexually suggestive answers. The humor relies on **wordplay disguising double meanings**: "Count Lehman" sounds like "Count 'em" (enlisted soldiers), "Busch Wah" suggests bravado, "Watt Hoe" implies a traveling salesman's reputation for seduction, and "Otto Know" sounds like "ought to know." Key social references include: - **Traveling salesmen** as stock seducers of small-town girls - **Farmers protecting daughters** from outsiders - **Nymphs/bathing girls** as sexualized entertainers in vaudeville shows - **Prohibition-era bootleggers** and corrupt cops sharing illegal alcohol The final line satirizes **class hypocrisy**: even lawbreakers maintain hierarchical distinctions ("For Officers Only"). The overall tone is risqué working-class humor typical of post-war American magazines targeting servicemen and working men.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
30 Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang Dear Bill—Who was the best known enlisted man in the United States army?—**Count Lehman.** Joe Latrine. * * * Dear W. B. Bill—I’m a bashful young man. How can I have a girl?—**Busch Wah.** Wiser men than I have puzzled over this question and never found a solution. However, I don’t see why you want one. * * * Dear Captain Bill—Who is it that attracts all the town girls to the depot, and who always suspects the playing card manufacturers, and who causes the farmer to load his shotgun?—**Watt Hoe.** Traveling Men, of course, God bless ’em. * * * Dear Skipper—What is considered the safest place on a battleship?—**Otto Know.** I believe if I were a sailor during an engagement that I might find it necessary to seek the seclusiveness of “the head.” * * * Dear Captain Bill—Will you please tell me what is a Nymph?—**Farmer Boy.** A Nymph, my boy, is a hasher with a good form who gets a job in a bathing girls’ show exhibiting her Prowess. * * * Democratic as he is, even the bootlegger treats his friend, the cop, from the bottle reserved “For Officers Only.”