Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #3 — page 62: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page contains two humorous pieces from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang*, an American satirical magazine. **"A Private Still"** is a joke playing on the term "private." An Irish man named Pat tricks an excise officer (tax collector) hunting illegal whiskey distilleries by pointing to his brother Mike, a soldier, and claiming he's "a private still"—a pun on "private" (the military rank) versus "still" (an illegal distillery). The joke satirizes Irish resistance to alcohol taxation and law enforcement during Prohibition-era America. **"A Bird"** is a brief poem describing a turkey, using sexually suggestive language about its physical appearance and movements—typical of the magazine's cheeky, adult-oriented humor.