Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1923 · page 4 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #44 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes Prohibition-era anxieties through darkly comedic logic. The author argues that since Prohibition made America "dry," British rum runners now operate freely from Nassau, making everyone happy—until he extends this absurdly: those same Caribbean islands could easily become bases for enemy bombing raids during wartime. The joke's punch comes from the mock-serious invocation of General Pershing's recent statements about aircraft's military importance. The author warns New Yorkers that while they might tolerate gin bottles raining down, actual bombs would send them fleeing to Breezy Point Lodge. This satirizes American foreign policy anxieties post-WWI, weaponized prohibition enforcement concerns, and the emerging threat of aerial warfare—all wrapped in sardonic humor about the unintended consequences of Prohibition. The piece then transitions to the author's personal military memoir, relating these modern military concerns to his Philippines service under Major Robert Lee Bullard against the Moros.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
4 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang this country went dry and that a large fleet of British rum runners is engaged in the smug- gling trade at Nassau and everybody is happy. Not long ago General Pershing said that he was convinced by aircraft experiments of the essential importance of airplanes in attacks against battleships. Islands which can bombard the American coast with rum moved in slow tubs in times of peace, might be used easily as a base for dropping other kinds of bombs in time of war. New Yorkers may not object to the dropping of gin bottles but if there were a downpour of the other varieties of medicine, they would all be flocking out to our Breezy Point Lodge to get away from the air raiders. CONTEMPLATION of my little ocean trip, coupled with the Pershing interview, car- ries me back to my “kid” days of 1898 when I boarded a transport at San Francisco bound for the Philippines on my first sea voyage. It took more than a month for a buck private to cross in those days. It was my good fortune in the Philippines to have as commanding officer, Major Robert Lee Bullard. We were stationed in the wild interior of Mindanao in an attempt to pacify the fanatical Moros. Several troops of the