Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, March 1922 · page 5 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #31 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous travel column, not a political cartoon. The author—identified as the editor of *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang*—recounts a three-week vacation in Havana, Cuba, contrasting the exciting nightlife (gambling, horse racing, jai alai, bars) with his quiet Minnesota farm life. The satire is self-directed: the editor jokes about his difficulty writing the opening paragraph while admitting he's been drinking heavily with "the Haig brothers" (likely whiskey reference—Haig is a Scotch brand). The Confucius quote at the end wryly acknowledges personal responsibility for overindulgence rather than blaming alcohol itself. The piece captures 1920s American attitudes toward Havana as a playground for leisure and drinking, particularly relevant during Prohibition in the U.S. The tone is light, self-mocking comedy aimed at readers of this satirical magazine.
📄 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 3 Drippings From the Fawcett THREE weeks of Havana's cliquot, bacardi, cervesa, horse races, jai alai, casino, and the rattly-bang-bang, of garbage cans piercing shrieks of peddlers, not to mention rip-snorting roaring and exhausted automo- biles, have had their exhilerating effects on the usual hum drum existence that has been my part of living on a quiet Minnesota farm. The contrast is pleasant although somewhat tire- some. There's been too much excitement for the little old editor of this family journal of travel. Sometime in the dim and distant past I was told that the most difficult feature in writing was to transcribe the first paragraph. My hardest job here is to stay away from the Scotch and soda long enough to even think what the first paragraph will look like. How- ever, with the able assistance of my good old pals, the Haig brothers, I am at last seated by a rickety old dining room table in an apartment overlooking the Malecon, Morro Castle and the Gulf of Mexico. Confucius once said: “It is not the wine that makes a man drunk—it is the man him-