Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, February 1922 · page 27 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #30 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from the satirical magazine contains several short humorous sketches typical of the 1920s-era publication. The opening "We Pass" joke plays on post-WWI awkwardness: a nurse encounters a wounded soldier she recognizes but can't place—he's a former policeman, suggesting wartime role changes or the difficulty of reintegrating veterans into civilian life. The remaining pieces are absurdist humor: a circular riddle about mistaking a geranium for a rose, a pun about "Pullman teeth" (likely referencing Pullman train cars and missing teeth), and bureaucratic satire about needing mayoral permits for dominoes in Colorado Springs. The final "Punctuation" joke is a visual pun: "abbreviated skirt" (a short skirt revealing legs) causes men to look for a "period"—playing on grammar terminology and contemporary anxiety about women's shorter hemlines, which were considered scandalous in the 1920s.
📄 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 25 We Pass The nurse at the front regarded the wounded soldier with a puzzled look. “Your face is familiar to me, but I can’t place you,” she said. “Let bygones be bygones, baby,” replied the soldier, “I used to be a policeman.” * * * Riddle-de-doot! Where did you get that rose? That isn’t a rose, that’s a geranium, No, it isn’t. It’s a rose. I said it’s a geranium. How do you spell it? It’s a rose all right. * * * My girl has Pullman teeth. One upper and one lower. * * * Colorado Springs is sure some town. Had to go up to the city hall to get a permit from the mayor to play a game of dominoes. * * * This wash board is a hundred years old. Yes, it surely is wrinkled. * * * Punctuation “Men are naturally grammatical.” “Yes?” “When they see an abbreviated skirt they always look after it for a period.”