Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1923 · page 32 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #44 — page 32: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page from *Captain Billy's Whiz Bang* consists of satirical gossip-style items mocking small-town Minnesota life during Prohibition. The humor targets alcohol consumption disguised as propriety. The opening jokes reference reading matter that supposedly transforms a lazy man into an industrious one. Later items mock Prohibition evasion: Oscar Thormaldson's "delirium tremens" (alcohol withdrawal), Miss Altitude Highflier's arrest ("shot of snow"—cocaine), and most pointedly, Harvey Fawcett's "Bun Social" where "blended medicine" and "bevo" (a near-beer substitute) were served to prominent local figures including Congressman Andrew Volstead—who ironically sponsored the very Volstead Act that enacted Prohibition. The satire lies in the transparent pretense that these gatherings and substances weren't really about circumventing Prohibition laws.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
32 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Akkrummer read it and next morning a very changed young gentleman cow started out to find a job, and now Olaf says that every day in every way Ormsby is getting bullier and bullier. * * * Oscar J. Thormaldson has been confined to his house in Golden Valley with delirium tremens for the past few days. * * * MISS ALTITUDE HIGHFLIER gave a charming musicale down at the Robbins- dale police station Saturday night. She was screaming to beat the band and had to be given a shot of snow. * * * The Sugar Valley Methodist Ladies' Aid will give a navy bean supper next Wednesday from six to eight o'clock to be followed by a musical program. * * * HARVEY FAWCETT, business manager of the Robbinsdale Family Guardian, hustled half a dozen bottles of blended medicine last Friday and gave an interesting Bun Social at his palatial flat on the farm. Among the guests of honor were a former Min- nesota Congressman, Andrew J. Volstead, Judge Page Morris, Mayor Howard, Chief Blo- berger and Vern Ripley, who sets all the type for the old hand presses of the Guardian. The table was effectively arranged with a profusion of bottled bevo.