Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1922 · page 39 of 67
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #32 — page 39: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains an **eulogy or tribute to Riley Grannan**, a figure from the world of sports and gambling. The text defends Grannan against moral condemnation, arguing that his acts of charity—funding happiness for people in the "night life" (appearing to reference gambling/entertainment venues)—constituted genuine goodness despite his unorthodox lifestyle. The passage critiques "puritanical ideas" and "mediaeval creeds" that judge people by strict moral codes, instead celebrating Grannan's practical benevolence toward marginalized people. The elaborate metaphor about God's sunbeams (closing the visible text) suggests divine approval of beauty and generosity distributed beyond conventional morality. This appears to be **Captain Billy's Whiz Bang defending a non-conformist figure against contemporary moral judgmentalism**—characteristic of the magazine's satirical irreverence toward Victorian standards. Without seeing any cartoon elements on this page, the satire operates through the text's passionate rhetorical defense of an unconventional man's character.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
38 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang heart is trouble, and it always comes with the years; and the smile that is worth the homage of each is the smile that shines through tears.' "There are those who will condemn him. They believe that today he is reaping the reward of misspent life. They are those who are dominated by mediaeval creeds. Them I am not addressing. They are ruled by the skeleton hand of the past. They fail to see the moral side of a character lived outside their puritanical ideas. Riley Grannan's goodness was not of a type that reached its expression in the handclasp of friendship. It found its voice in the word of cheer to a discouraged brother. His were deeds of quiet charity. His were acts of manhood. "Riley Grannan lived in the world of sport. My words are not minced because I am telling what I believe to be true. It was the world of sport, sometimes of hilarity, sometimes worse. He left the impress of his character upon us all, and through the medium of his financial power he was able with his money to brighten the lives of all who knew him. He wasted his money, so the world says; but did it ever occur to you that the men and women of such class upon whom he wasted it are yet men and women? A little happiness brought into their lives means as much to them as happiness carried into the lives of the straight and the good. If you can take one ray of sunshine into the night life and thereby carry a single hour of happiness, you are a benefactor. Riley Grannan did this. "God confined not his sunbeams to the nourishing of potatoes and corn. His scattering of sunshine was prodigal. Contemplate. He flings the auroral beauties round the cold shoulders of the north. He hangs the quivering picture of the mirage above the palpitating heart of the desert. He scatters the sunbeams like shattered gold upon the bosom of a myriad of lakes that gem the robe of nature. He spangles the canopy of night with star jewels and silvers the world with the reflected beams from on high. He hangs the gorgeous crimson