Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, August 1921 · page 38 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #23 — page 38: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page announces upcoming poetry submissions to *Whiz Bang*'s "Smokehouse Poetry" section—apparently their venue for edgy, morally provocative verse. **"Betrayed"** by Angela Morgan addresses female sexual transgression sympathetically, arguing against judgment of "fallen women" by invoking Christ's defense of the adulteress ("Let him without sin cast the first stone"). The poem emphasizes spiritual love over bodily pleasure, framing the woman's "fall" as yielding to profound emotional connection rather than mere lust. **"The Far East"** appears to be a soldier's poem set in the Philippines (Subic Bay is a real location). It depicts a Filipino woman in stereotypical terms ("goo-goo dame," pidgin English dialogue), presenting her as sexually available and waiting for a departing American soldier. The poem romanticizes this transactional relationship in casual, comedic verse. Together, these pieces reveal *Whiz Bang*'s editorial interests: defending moral complexity regarding women's sexuality while simultaneously trafficking in crude racial/ethnic stereotypes about non-Western women. The juxtaposition reflects period attitudes toward respectability and "otherness."
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
36 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Smokehouse Poetry In the September issue Smokehouse Poetry will feature The Unwritten Law by Budd McKillips, author of After the Raid, which scored such a re-cent success in the Whiz Bang, and Angela Mor-gan's poem, Betrayed. Bad, hopelessly bad! I yielded to love that sways mankind, Not the mere measure of bodily pleasure, But love that wakes in the soul and mind, Born of the spirit at God's behest; And I bartered all I had, I, with the warmth of a child at my breast— Am bad, hopelessly bad! That is the start of Miss Morgan's plea for the woman who falls and brings to memory the biblical words, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." There will be several other red-blooded gems in the smokehouse poetry section next month. * * * The Far East By the mud hole down in Subic, Looking lazy at the bay, There's a goo — goo dame awaiting, And I think I hear her say, "Come you back, you malo soldier Come you back, from o'er the sea, Come you back and pay your jaw- bone Por-a-que you jaw-bone me." Her little skirt was baggy, Only reaches to her knees,