Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, July 1922 · page 35 of 67
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #35 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This passage from the satirical magazine depicts a street scene where a drunk man attracts a crowd eager to mock him. The narrator intervenes, redirecting the situation toward compassion rather than cruelty. The satire targets two groups: the callous crowd that views the drunk man's misery as entertainment ("let's have some sport with him"), and implicitly, the taxi driver who candidly admits his routine involvement in transporting intoxicated men—and his expectation that some will "get nabbed by the cops." The joke operates on contrasting values: the crowd's instinct toward humiliation versus the narrator's quiet charity (providing money for a cab ride home). The driver's casual admission that this is "the same old story" satirizes urban indifference and suggests police harassment of drunks was routine and expected. The ending—where the silent crowd disperses—suggests the narrator's moral stance has shamed them into reflection, mocking their initial callousness and society's casual cruelty toward the vulnerable.
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34 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang moment's notice, and disappears as quickly. Someone said, "Go get a cop, and call the wagon, the ol' man's had one too many—let's have some sport with him." "Wait a minute," I interposed, "he doesn't need a policeman—he wants a taxi to take him home. Quick! somebody go for one while I stay with him." Somewhat abashed, a young fellow ran around the corner, and I asked my man if he had any money. "I dunno," he answered huskily, "look and see." I felt in his pockets and found a dollar. "Now, where do you live?" I asked, as I saw the auto turn the corner. "Over at—," he mumbled, and nearly col- lapsed in my arms. We put him in the taxi and I added another dollar to the one I found, and gave them both to the driver. "All right, gentlemen," said the driver, after he had slipped the silver inside his gray fur-coat. "I'll take care of him, it's the same old story, only sometimes they get nabbed by the cops before we get 'em." The crowd which had before been disposed to call the police and witness some sport, was now silent, and as the taxi-cab vanished in the whirling snow-flakes, the men one by one went away.