Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, August 1922 · page 33 of 67
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #36 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains satirical verses and one-liners from a 1920s humor magazine. The main poem, "In Haiti," warns against the dangers of tropical excess—a man abandons his boat to stay in Haiti, becomes addicted to gin and the "lure of the tropics," and returns home a broken derelict. The moral: temptation leads to ruin. The remaining items are short jokes mocking various social types: the "Rubaiyat of Robbinsdale" parodies poetry with mundane observations (parked cars); others mock poverty ("palm beach suit for pajamas"), Prohibition-era bootlegging, working-class poverty (Olaf's only suit being overalls), and class pretension (the yacht/motorboat exchange). The humor targets both moral decay and social climbing—recurring themes in 1920s satirical magazines.
📄 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 31 In Haiti I came to Haiti when things were bad, And the Cacos were running amuck; My boat come in but I loved my gin, And it sailed away while I stuck. The lure of the tropics has got me now, It's dragged me down in shame, And I curse the day that my boat sailed away And I stayed to play the game. And when you're back to the white man's land, You think that you'll soon be well; But the work is done, you're a broken “bum” And the rest of your life is h—l. So boys take heed from what I say, For I'm telling you what is straight; You'll lose your sight for the things that are right And once you're down it's too late. * * * Rubaiyat of Robbinsdale It's a long lane that has no parked automobile. * * * Be a good loser but don't make it a habit. * * * Some men are so impecunious they use their palm beach suit for pajamas in the winter time. * * * Why should the good die young when they never buy any stuff from the bootleggers? ⁂ ⁂ ⁂ Olaf has a suit for every day in the week— his overalls. ⁂ ⁂ ⁂ “This is a stiff piece,” remarked the organist at the funeral. * * * She—I'm simply wild about a yacht. He—Er, how do you act on a motor boat?