Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, June 1921 · page 57 of 67
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #21 — page 57: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate humor pieces typical of 1920s satirical magazines: **"He Led in Prayer"** mocks religious conversion through a railroad worker's prayer that uses only railroad terminology (flagged, deck, couplings, switches, semaphore) to express spiritual concepts. The satire critiques both superficial religious conversion and working-class speech patterns, presenting the prayer as absurdly literal-minded. **"A Robbinsdale Salad"** is a one-liner joke: the "salad" is a young, unplucked chicken with "pep" and lettuce—essentially nothing, mocking pretentious or fraudulent restaurant fare. **"Just Like Old Crow"** depicts a drunk husband's excuse: he claims he's eaten frog legs (which he pronounces phonetically as "frogsh' legsh") and that's why he smells of beer and hops. The humor relies on his absurd, obviously false excuse and working-class dialect ("dearie," slurred speech). All three pieces use class-based humor targeting working-class men and their speech patterns, typical of the era's popular comedy.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
56 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang He Led in Prayer An old railroad man was converted, as the story goes, and was asked to lead in prayer. Here is the way he worked it: "Oh, Lord, now that I have flagged Thee, lift my feet off the rough road of life and plant them safely on the deck of the train of salvation. Let me use the safety lamp known as prudence; make all couplings in the train with the strong link of Thy love. And, Heavenly Father, keep all switches closed that lead off to sidings, especially those with a blind end. Oh, Lord, if it be Thy pleasure, have every sema- phore block along the line show the white line of hope, that I may make the run of life without stopping. And, Lord, give us the Ten Commandments as a sched- ule time, and when my train shall have pulled into the great, dark station of Death, may Thou, the Super- intendent of the Universe, say with a smile: 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant; come up and sign the payroll and receive your check for eternal happiness.' " * * * A Robbinsdale Salad A young chicken, undressed; a little pep; lettuce. * * * Just Like Old Crow Once again the husband came staggering home late. "Oh, John, have you been drinking again?" sobbed his wife as she caught a whiff of beer. "No, dearie; you wronged me; I've been eatin' frogsh' legsh, and you smell the hops."