Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, February 1922 · page 42 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #30 — page 42: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two separate poems from an early 20th-century American humor magazine. **"Captain Billy's Whiz Bang" poem**: A hobo's nostalgic monologue about life on the rails. He recalls romantic manipulation ("mush-talk"), leaving for St. Louis, and the hobo lifestyle. The poem references the **Volstead Act** (Prohibition, 1920-1933), mentioning a desire to escape to Mexico or Cuba where drinking remains legal. The "widder" (widow) references suggest hobos exploited older women for food and shelter. **"Charley Wong" poem**: A frontier tale by H.A. D'Arcy about Bill Durant's wife during the Gold Rush era (circa 1859-60). It describes mining camp life, celebrating the birth of the "first one in the camp" and miners' protective devotion to her. The narrative later mentions conflict with a Chinaman, reflecting the racial tensions common in frontier literature of this era. Both poems romanticize marginalized figures—hobos and frontier settlers—in vernacular verse typical of this satirical magazine.
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Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
40 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang How I used to feed her full of the “mush-talk” and the bull For the snow had begun blowin' and I didn't like to pull! But that's all put behind me, long ago and far away Since I hit out for St. Looey one night on the C. & A. But they're tellin' in the jungles that the winter's one best bet For a young and handsome hobo is to be a widder's pet. Oh them boardin' kitchen smells as she fed me jams and jells And the skuts of 'suds' from Ryans—I won't ever need naught else! Ship me somewhere south of “Chi” though where the bloomin' mob ain't cursed With a Volstead disposition and a man can quench his thirst For the winter snows are falling and its there that I would be Either Juarez or Havana with a widder on my knee! * * * Charley Wong Copyrighted. By permission of the Author, Green Room Club, New York. By H. A. D'Arcy. The west was pretty wild when Bill Durant and I went out, 'Twer in '59 or '60, somewhar that about, Bill took his pretty wife along (they'd been wed about a year), A buxom kind of girl she war, that never thought o' fear. And I don't know that she needed to, for the miners one and all, Would have fought for her like devils if she'd ever made the call; And afore we'd fairly built a hut to keep her from the damp A little baby gal was born—the first