Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, July 1921 · page 20 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #22 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two brief humorous pieces typical of 1920s American comic magazines. **First Story:** A slapstick comedy about a clumsy young window dresser at "The Elite Modes" shop who accidentally damages a wax mannequin while awkwardly carrying it. A dapper, foreign-accented floorwalker (suggested by "ees," "ze") scolds him with exasperation, comparing the mishap to "a bull in a china-closet"—a common period idiom for destructive clumsiness. The young man flees back to his original department, embarrassed. **Second Item:** A single-sentence joke from a Hennepin County (Minnesota) divorce court where a woman complains her husband hasn't kissed her in forty years. The editorial comment notes the pathos in the word "even"—suggesting such neglect represents emotional abandonment in marriage. Both pieces use everyday situations to mine humor from social awkwardness and marital disappointment, reflecting working-class and middle-class concerns of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
18 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang ous mob. The sight of a very flushed youth, holding the limp female figure in his awkward arms, scantily clad, beautiful face impassive, instead of exciting sym- pathy, brought forth only mirth at his clumsy attempts to withdraw. Evidently such an experience had never occurred to the embarrassed youth before, but he ral- lied and finally reached the door. As he started through, carefully, almost tenderly holding the lovely form, the delicate crepe de chine underslip caught on the little glass doorknob; to his utter chagrin, he let go altogether, leaning against the framework of the door; this was too much! Wildly he thought of abandoning his duty, when the stern voice of a very dapper, wax-mustached, and excited gentleman who forced his way through the door, brought him up with a jerk. “What ees the matter with you?” almost shrieked the head floorwalker of “The Elite Modes” shop. “Look, look!” he cried, gesticulating wildly, “worse than ze bull in ze china-closet! Go back to where you belong, and stay there!” The new window dresser of “The Elite Modes” gave one look at the broken nose of the wax window- model which he had dropped, and fled—back to his old love, the gingham department! * * * “It is forty years since my husband even kissed me,” complained a woman in Hennepin county divorce court. There is much pathos in that “even.”