Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, October 1921 · page 36 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #25 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains sentimental prose about childhood cradles and motherhood, followed by political commentary. The main text is a nostalgic reflection on a child's death (Gordon) and mother's passing, emphasizing how adults long for maternal comfort. The final section satirizes pacifists and moral reformers who condemned the 1921 Dempsey-Carpentier boxing match as uncivilized. The author mocks these "sanctimonious" critics as hypocrites—the same people who advocated disarmament and reducing military strength to minimal levels. The phrase "boy scouts with Easter lilies" derisively portrays pacifism as weak and feminine. The satire reflects post-WWI American debates between isolationists/pacifists and those favoring military strength, with the magazine's editors clearly on the militarist side, dismissing peace advocates as naïve and contradictory moralists.
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34 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang sing, for nap by day and long sleep by night; rock and sing when well and glad or sick and sad. One day the cradle was stilled, the little brother, Gordon, was sound asleep, his long lashes cast shadows on the upturned cheek, and the little fingers had changed a red rose for a white lily. His cradle had rocked him nearer to the tomb for “birth is nothing but our death begun.” Dear cradle of childhood, that rested so many tired bodies and soothed so many hearts. Today the old cradle is in the dark garret and the tired mother rests in the dark grave. The hands that laid the pillow and spread the cover have stopped their work; the foot that rocked it has finished its journey; the face that hov- ered above it is gone and the song she sang is silent. Baby boys and girls are men and women now, but they can never forget the old cradle. How often when body, mind and heart ache we toss and cry during the long night hours, and wish that mother could hug, kiss and put us in the old cradle again and rock and sing us to sleep. * * * WE NOTE with amusement that certain of the sanctimonious sect still are pass- ing “resolutions” about the Dempsey- Carpentier fistic embroglio, deploring the same as a “disgrace to our civilization.” These are the same “birds” who would have us scrap our navy and reduce the army to a squad of boy scouts with Easter lilies in their hands.