Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, January 1922 · page 12 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #29 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from the satirical magazine recounts a tour of San Francisco's Chinatown, presented as a humorous travelogue. The narrator—a farmer—describes accompanying police on a vice squad raid of gambling dens and opium joints ("hop joints"), using crude period language ("Chink") now recognized as offensive. The satire operates on multiple levels: the farmer's observations of Chinatown residents are presented with exoticizing, stereotypical detail (silken robes, jade beads, "Oriental grace"). The humor derives from the contrast between the narrator's rural background and urban vices, culminating in his reference to "Get Gertie's Garter"—likely a contemporary musical or entertainment—and his doubt about returning to farm life. The piece reflects early 20th-century American attitudes toward Asian immigrants and urban vice, framing police raids as entertainment worthy of tourism. Modern readers should recognize this reflects deeply problematic racial attitudes standard to the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
10 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Schiller, who is bond and warrant clerk in the Hall of Justice. It was next to Chinatown where we were met by the sergeant in charge of the China-town vice squad. Two of his operatives con-ducted our party through a score or more of Chink gambling and hop joints that had recently been raided. We sincerely thank the squad, but regret not having seen one or two places that had not been raided. It is the hour of dusk that Chinatown pads to and fro noiselessly. In the little tangle of crooked streets, blue lozenges of lights, sitting gods and queer smells that babble of Oriental talk is incessant at this hour. Women parade in gaudy headdress and beads of jade. The men wear their gaudiest silken robes. There are dried-up men whose faces are old with the age of eastern lore, young women who walk with mincing steps and Oriental grace, cherry-cheeked babies tottering uncertainly. We passed up Honolulu until later in the year and made a transcontinental jump to New York to try and “Get Gertie’s Garter.” Don’t believe I’ll ever be contented “down on the farm” after all the wonderful people and won-derful sights of the past two months. But here goes for Lil’ Ol’ New Yawk, as seen through the eyes of a farmer.