Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, July 1922 · page 50 of 67
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #35 — page 50: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang* is a nostalgic article about the Old West, not a political cartoon. It recounts a funeral for Riley Grannan in Rawhide, Nevada, attended by Rev. H. W. Knickerbocker ("Old Sky-Pilot Knick") approximately fourteen years prior to publication. The piece celebrates vanishing frontier figures—rough adventurers drawn by gold rushes—particularly "Diamondfield Jack Davis," a gunslinger known for notches on his gun's grip (indicating kills). The article romanticizes this era as irreplaceable, lamenting that "no more will such a galaxy of picturesque figures be assembled." The subtitle jokes that Knickerbocker refused "to Give God Pointers"—suggesting the preacher's sermon was so forceful he didn't need divine guidance. This is a sentimental, nostalgic piece celebrating Old West mythology and frontier characters, typical of the magazine's Americana content.
📄 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 49 In The Good Old Days “Old Sky-Pilot Knick” The Preacher Who Refused “to Give God Pointers.” WHIZ BANG readers may be interested in knowing something more about the characters who were present at the bier of Riley Grannan in Rawhide some fourteen years ago when the Rev. H. W. Knickerbocker delivered his immortal funeral oration, and what had brought them to the desert city. The Old West gradually is fading and no more will such a galaxy of picturesque figures be assembled as in the days when the gold fever drew thousands to some newly-discovered Golconda nearly over night. Gold was the magnet that had drawn a goodly number of dashing adventurers to Rawhide and many of them were present and listened with moist eyes to Old Knick as he delivered extemporaneously his heart-gripping encomium over the body of the dead sports-man. Among them were such characters as Diamondfield Jack Davis, renowned for the notches on the grip of his gat, whose cheery words added to a fifty-dollar bill had at one time saved Old Knick from a suicide’s grave; Jack