Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, February 1922 · page 36 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #30 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang* contains two distinct pieces: **The first section** is a sentimental narrative about a child's funeral, emphasizing grief and religious consolation—likely typical of the magazine's mixed content. **The second section** is satirical commentary on a proposed federal "Snooper's Brigade." A prohibition commissioner had announced plans for a society requiring citizens to spy on neighbors and report their conduct. The *Detroit Free-Press* mockingly termed it the "Snoopers' Brigade." The satire targets an Orwellian surveillance scheme that would turn Americans into informants against each other. The author notes, with apparent approval, that Americans rejected this idea—they weren't willing to become neighborhood investigators. This reflects resistance to authoritarian government overreach and invasive social control during the Prohibition era. The piece celebrates American resistance to state-sponsored domestic spying, positioning such surveillance as fundamentally un-American.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
34 Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang was the casket that the undertaker lifted it in his arms, just as the mother had the sick child, and carried it to the carriage and placed it on the seat. We entered the beautiful green cemetery, and lowered the little flower-decked coffin in the grave to rest until God’s “Good morning” in the graveless, griefless home of heaven. As I looked back, the mound seemed so small that a child could step over it in his play, but I knew it was higher than a mountain top to the mother because in it was buried all her love and hope. So we left the little casket and the little body in the little grave, feeling that this bud of promise would be transplanted to the Eternal Garden where the full flower would blossom and bloom without decay. * * * THE Detroit Free-Press calls it the “Snoop- ers’ Brigade,” and we are inclined to think that is a well-fitting title for the aggregation of people who are urging the for- mation of a society that would compel all men to be spies upon neighbors and reporters upon their actions. Sometime ago a federal prohibition commis- sioner announced plans for such an association, but he immediately discovered that the people of the United States are not ready to become investigators of their neighbors’ conduct, in any