Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, June 1922 · page 46 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #34 — page 46: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two satirical pieces from an early 20th-century American humor magazine. The first poem mocks Swedish immigrants through exaggerated dialect and stereotypes. A Swedish man named Swan courts "Tillie," gets drunk, goes on a spree, and is arrested by the judge ("yudge"), receiving a ten-day jail sentence. The humor relies on thick accent reproduction ("ay ban," "skal," "yob") and portrays the immigrant as foolish and impulsive—a common ethnic caricature of the era. The second piece, "A Moonshine Fit!," jokes about prohibition-era bootleg liquor, describing a drunk man's inability to find his bureau drawers. The final short poem references bank failures, likely the Lisle Bank collapse, using the phrase "Ain't we got fun"—suggesting sardonic humor about economic hardship during unstable banking periods. All three pieces use working-class vernacular and target vulnerable populations—immigrants and the economically struggling.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
44 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Ay ban foxy, say "hello Tillie, Wont you come and have a drink." We take drink and feel so yolly, And begin to dance and sing, And ay say to all Swede fellers, Ay skal pay for the whole dam ting. Tillie say ay ban gude feller. Looking mighty gude to her, She say come on Swan I show you, Best time ever did occur. Riding up in nice blue wagon, To the city yudge to see, He say Swan ten days ten dollars, Cause you ban on awful spree. Ay look in my pocket, got no money. Yudge, him say, can get no bail. All am left for this poor Swede man, Is to lay ten days in yale. Am going back to Nord Dakota, Get a yob on a farm somewhere, Ay skal say to all Swede fellers, Go to hal with the big State Fair. * * * A Moonshine Fit! By William Sanford. He drank some moon-shine before getting up And this beyond doubt was the cause Of his struggling hard for an hour or more Trying to get on the bureau drawers! * * * I think I'm quite sane, Also quite rational; But I've sought long in vain, For the Ladies' First National. The vaults are still there, You can see by the run; But where the Lisle Bank is— "Ain't we got fun."