Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, May 1922 · page 47 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #33 — page 47: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two poems with no visible cartoons or illustrations—it appears to be a text-only content page from the satirical magazine. **"What Is Life to You?"** is a social satire using parallel structure to mock different professions and character types. Each line contrasts how different social figures perceive life's meaning: preachers see sermons, misers see money, grafters thrive while fools fail. The poem gently ridicules human nature and occupational obsession, concluding by asking readers to reflect on their own values. It's lighthearted social commentary typical of 1920s-era humor. **"The Man That's In Tune"** is inspirational verse celebrating spiritual and emotional harmony—being aligned with nature, community, duty, and the divine. It suggests that the person who maintains inner peace and moral balance will be rewarded in the afterlife ("gates wide open"). Together, these poems represent *Whiz Bang*'s mix of irreverent social observation and earnest moral reflection—characteristic of this period's American satirical magazines balancing cynicism with sentimentality.
📄 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 45 What Is Life to You? To the preacher life's a sermon To the joker it's a jest; To the miser life is money To the loafer life is rest. To the lawyer life's a trial To the poet life's a song To the doctor life's a patient That needs treatment right along To the soldier life's a battle To the teacher life's a school; Life's a good thing to the grafter, It's a failure to the fool. To the man upon the engine Life's a long and heavy grade; It's a gamble to the gambler, To the merchant life is trade. Life is but a long vacation To the man who loves his work; Life's an everlasting effort To shun duty, to the shirk. To the earnest Christian worker Life's a story ever new; Life is what we try to make it— Brother, what is life to you? * * * The Man That's In Tune There's lots of good in this good world of ours, There's plenty of sunshine comes in twixt the showers Old earth isn't stingy and heaven's liberal too, And they pay us up prompt for whatever we do; But I like to sort out the good things of this earth, And mark them and tag them for just what they're worth, And in my estimation the world's choicest boon The best of them all is—the man that's in tune. In tune with the mountains, the sea and the wood, With the sorrows and joys of the great brotherhood In tune with the earth, the planets and stars, And when you arrive at the big golden bars And you hear that choir sing and you want to enroll The angels will just thrum the cords of your soul And your spirit wakes from it's least earthly swoon With the gates wide open for the man that's in tune.