Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1922 · page 26 of 67
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #32 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three brief humorous anecdotes typical of early 20th-century American satirical magazines: **"The Ace of Tragedies"** mocks Wild West vigilante justice. A juror who obstinately prevents a guilty verdict to save a man from hanging is ironically undermined when the town lynches the prisoner anyway during jury deliberation—making his moral stand pointless. **"Toole's Best One"** is a simple children's joke about a grocer's dishonesty. When refusing to sell two cents' worth of bananas, he falsely calls them "pineapples," but the boy calls his bluff by asking for the "pineapples" instead—exposing the grocer's lie through innocent logic. **"Southern Hospitality"** appears to be a setup for a joke (text incomplete), likely playing on stereotypical Southern dialect ("yore" for "your," "entatainment" for "entertainment") for comedic effect. The page reflects common early-1900s satire: frontier violence, working-class cleverness, and regional stereotypes used for entertainment.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
24 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang The Ace of Tragedies “It was in the spring of 1896,” related the grizzled veteran of the Yarn-Stretcher’s Club, according to the London Post, “that I was out in the Wild West. I was on a jury that was trying a man for homicide. I hated to think of the fellow being hanged, so I stuck out against the other eleven jurymen for five solid days and nights. My obstinacy was rewarded. One by one they gave in, and we returned into Court and returned a verdict of ‘Not Guilty.’ The only thing that spoiled my satisfaction with the result was that some of the citizens had lynched the prisoner the first day we were locked up.” And he sighed, reminiscently, as he took another gulp of his whisky-and-soda. * * * Toole’s Best One Small boy (handing grocer two cents)—“I want two cents’ worth of bananas.” “We have no bananas,” said the grocer, not wanting to monkey with two cents. “What’s them?” said the boy, pointing to a bunch of bananas. “Pineapples,” the grocer replied. “Well, gimme two cents’ worth of pine-apples.” * * * Southern Hospitality Does you all like yore entatainment wit or witout?