Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #27 — page 28: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily text rather than cartoon content. It's a first-person account describing New Orleans ("the Crescent City") during Mardi Gras, emphasizing the city's reputation for moral laxity and decadence. The author critiques: - **Theater performances** featuring risqué jokes and scandalous clothing - **Horse racing and betting culture**, with female attendees portrayed as promiscuous - **Mardi Gras revelry** as morally corrupting ("Devil's spirit") - **Jazz dancing** described disparagingly—dancers move erratically like "automatons," "grasshoppers," and victims of neurological disease - **Dance halls** (*maisons de joie*) thriving despite Prohibition The piece reflects 1920s-era moral conservatism, using medical/scientific language ("locomotor-ataxia") to pathologize modern entertainment and urban vice. It's satirizing Jazz Age excess through disapproving, moralistic commentary.