Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, March 1922 · page 9 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #31 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang* (a early 20th-century satirical magazine) recounts the author's encounter with Scottish entertainer **Harry Lauder**, a famous performer known for comedic portrayals of Scottish characters and, apparently, a reputation for thriftiness ("jokes on Sir Harry's thrift"). The humor turns on class and rural identity: the author—identified with the magazine's "Captain Bilious Billy" persona—was invited to a formal "full dress affair" but, as a farmer ("horny-handed tiller of the soil"), humorously suggests overalls would be more fitting. The magazine's chairman introduced Lauder to the audience, and Scottish humor followed. The second section addresses readers' skepticism that "Captain Billy" was a real person rather than a fictional character created for the magazine. People questioned whether the author actually consumed moonshine (illegally distilled liquor) or had a hired hand named Gus—elements apparently featured in the publication's satirical content about rural American life.
📄 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 7 might add, diplomatically informed me that “it was to be a full dress affair.” How in heck could a horny-handed tiller of the soil be expected to possess a dress suit? After thanking my kind auditors in as gracious a manner as possible, I suggested that probably Sir Harry might consider overalls more appropriate for me. Anyway I did not attend the reception. Next day my Friar friends told me about it and I was happily regaled with Scottish humor. The chairman, they said, graciously introduced Lauder as his “closest friend.” Will these jokes on Sir Harry’s thrift never cease? * * * DURING recent pilgrimages that carried me east, west, north and south, I ran across many amusing, although sometimes embarrassing situations. Chief among them was the constantly manifested surprise of newly-found friends that there was actually such a personage, in flesh and blood, as Captain Bilious Billy. Here is a fair list of the questions usually dished out by new acquaintances: “Why, I supposed the Whiz Bang was only ‘kidding’ and that ‘Captain Billy’ was merely a book name.” “And do you really drink that horrid moon-shine?” “Did you have a hired man named Gus?”