Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1922 · page 33 of 67
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #32 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is an editorial (not a cartoon) from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang*, a satirical magazine. The piece uses the Romantic poem "Abou Ben Adhem" by Leigh Hunt as a framework to praise Riley Grannan, a gambler who died in 1908 in Nevada. The satire operates on multiple levels: it ironically suggests that Grannan—despite his profession in gambling—exemplified genuine moral virtue ("Dead Game Sports") through loyalty and non-judgment of others. The editorial mocks conventional morality by implying that someone like Grannan possessed more authentic goodness than self-righteous religious figures like evangelist Billy Sunday and "Doctor Crafts." The headline, "The Bull is Mightier Than the Bullet," likely refers to Grannan's reputation and influence. The piece celebrates working-class sporting culture and fraternal loyalty over religious hypocrisy—a typical *Whiz Bang* stance of irreverent, populist satire targeting 1920s American respectability.
📄 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 31 Whiz Editorials Bang “The Bull is Mightier Than the Bullet.” WHEN we were a soakey-nosed kid in Grand Forks, North Dakota, our teacher taught us a poem headed “Abou Ben Adhem,” which went something like this, “Then count me among those who love his fellow-men.” It appears that old Abou Ben Adhem hadn’t been listed among those in the angel’s Book of Gold, having a sure ticket through St. Peter’s gates, and for that reason the old fellow merely wanted to be charted among the Dead Game Sports who were square to their fellows; who judged not that they be not judged; that, being pure, to them all things were pure. The Abou Ben Adhem legend concluded by the angel making a return the next night and listing this old time legendary Sport on Page One of the Book of Gold. Riley Grannan, who died in April, 1908, at Rawhide, Nevada, was one of these Dead Game Sports, and while we can’t all be angels and see through the eyes of Billy Sunday and Doctor Crafts and lead the ordained exemplary life,