Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1923 · page 45 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #44 — page 45: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains three humorous literary pieces typical of 1920s satirical magazines. The first piece celebrates a farm dog's courage during an attack by a boar hog, using colloquial rural language ("Some pup, wot?") for comedic effect. The second, credited to Maxwell Bodenheim (a real modernist poet known for experimental work), offers deliberately cryptic, high-minded "advice" to a young wife using abstract imagery about life's shapelessness. This appears to mock pretentious literary modernism—the grandiose philosophy contrasts absurdly with the mundane domestic setting. The third piece, attributed to a "Scandinavian Svengali," presents intentionally nonsensical surrealist imagery (night as day, flying elephants, prohibition-era "home-made corn" liquor). The title "Moon-Maddened Man" suggests madness, while the piece parodies both absurdist poetry and Scandinavian immigrant stereotypes popular in American humor of the era.
📄 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 45 The nerve of the pit bull, And the wit of the Airdale All together. Today an old boar hog turned on me With a sudden gnashing of his yellow tusks— Caught me in the pen; Didn't even have a fork— A grisly, maddened brute, Whom I had interrupted In a love scene. And what cha know? That durn bit of a pup Just naturally hove over the fence And nailed the devil by the ear, And hung on, Until I got a club And mopped up the enemy. Some pup, wot? * * * Advice to My Young Wife By Maxwell Bodenheim You have shattered your hands Against a lusterlessly brooding door And called it life. Life is breathlike shapelessness That you must cut to fugitives Of sound and color trampled by your feet. Life is like the air Bounding with unannounced frankness Into beards of thieves and mountain-sides. Offer all things myriad points To sharply coil about your heart. When naked breasts ask for the sword, It often clatters to the floor. * * * Ravings of a Moon-Maddened Man Composed by our Scandinavian Svengali The night was day; the still wind blew, While under the ocean an elephant flew, And from his trunk, all tattered and torn, He gulped a gallon of "Home-made corn."