Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, August 1921 · page 37 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #23 — page 37: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from the satirical magazine contains editorial notes and two brief jokes. The editorial describes the overwhelming popularity of "The Blue Velvet Band" poem, which generated so many reader requests that the magazine republished it and saw similar demand spikes. The text indicates this became their most popular content. The "Probably a Boxing Match" section presents a domestic humor joke playing on a misunderstanding. A woman recently returned from Paris tells her husband she can't attend a dance because her trunks (luggage) haven't arrived. He responds with mock alarm, implying she means her swimsuit/bathing trunks—suggesting he's sarcastically questioning what sort of "dance" she thinks they're attending. The humor derives from the wife's innocent reference to luggage being deliberately misinterpreted as swimwear. The final aphorism offers cynical relationship advice: don't meddle in marital disputes, as the couple will reconcile while you'll lose both as friends—a common theme in period satire about domestic life.
📄 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 35 The Whiz Bang mail box was full every day with requests for more copies of the issue containing “The Blue Velvet Band.” Consequently, we republished the poem in our October issue, which we also called our first Annual. The big rush of the May issue was repeated in October, and from that time on we have been flooded with requests for copies of the poem. One enthusiast offered us a ten spot if we’d have Gus, the hired man, copy the poem from our personal files for him. This year we are making the Winter Annual a separate book, with four times as much reading matter. “The Blue Velvet Band,” the verse of the dope layout, the burglar and the inner walls of San Quentin. “Lasca,” the tale of the stampede, “The Face on the Bar-room Floor,” and “Johnnie and Frankie,” are some of the poems scheduled for the “Pedigreed Follies of 1921-22” in October. * * * Probably a Boxing Match She (just back from Paris): “I can’t go to this dance tonight, my trunks haven’t arrived.” He: “Good Lord, what kind of a dance do you think this is going to be?” * * * If you interfere between man and wife, remember this, that they will be friends again and you won’t.