Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, December 1921 · page 45 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #28 — page 45: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three separate humorous anecdotes typical of 1920s satirical magazines: **"How to Get Tips"**: A joke about visiting a female barber in Bartlesville (likely Oklahoma, known for oil). The humor relies on the novelty and slight scandal of female barbers at this time, plus a misunderstanding about tipping—the protagonist reflexively says "Put it in the piano" (a common phrase for tipping musicians) instead of properly tipping the barber. **"Those Flivvers Again"**: A brief gag about Ford Model T automobiles ("flivvers"). A man overhears a sentimental couple in a car ahead, apparently reconciling, and assumes they're having intimate relations—so he backs away to give them privacy. **"Someone's Inhaling Ether"**: A flowery literary excerpt from the Chicago Tribune describing a woman's beauty in overwrought prose, likely satirizing sentimental or melodramatic newspaper fiction. All three pieces reflect 1920s attitudes toward new social phenomena: working women, automobile culture, and popular literature styles.
📄 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 43 How to Get Tips Smith Dalrymple tells this one: When I was in Bartlesville I went into a lady barber shop to get shaved. That was the first female joint I ever saw. When I went in the barber was sitting on a fellow's lap. She jumped up and said, “You're next.” I said, “I know it and I know who I am next to.” She said, “Do you want a close shave?” I said, “No, I just had one, my wife passed the window and didn't look in.” I gave her a quarter, she handed me back ten cents and before I thought where I was I said, “Put it in the piano.” * * * Those Flivvers Again We heard a couple talking in the rear of a machine ahead of us. The man sighed, “Oh, dearest, you never have acted this way before. Always you have been cold towards me and now you're—” So I put on my brakes and pulled my radiator away from the back of their machine. * * * Someone's Inhaling Ether (From the Chicago Tribune) “She had those wide blue eyes whose expression can be misleading in their infantile pathos; hair fine and shin- ing like gossamer gold; a complexion firm and white, with the barest breath of rose leaf pink on the cheek bones, and the whole of her was small, neat, rounded.”