Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, April 1923 · page 5 of 68
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #44 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is a memoir-style anecdote rather than a cartoon. The author describes witnessing military operations in the Philippines (Mindanao and Jolo islands) under commanders who would later become famous in World War I: General John J. Pershing and General Leonard Wood. The satire is subtle and self-aware. The author admits to name-dropping these future military luminaries primarily for personal gratification—boasting of having served under them. He acknowledges this impulse somewhat sheepishly as "inward pleasure" and "pride," asking readers to forgive his vanity. The joke is *about* the human tendency to inflate one's own importance through association with the famous. By explicitly confessing this motivation rather than simply praising his commanders, the author pokes fun at how people construct narratives of their own significance. The magazine's satirical tone comes through in this honest admission of a rather petty human motivation.
📄 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 5 Fifteenth United States Cavalry were stationed across Lake Lanao, about ten miles away. One afternoon while walking my post on guard duty, a Moro datto presented a pass that bore the signature of one, J. J. Pershing, Captain and Adjutant. A few months later this same datto ran amuck and Brigadier General Wood, who had assumed command of the military forces in Mindanao, personally led us against said recal- citrant and his supporters in the Taraca river region. This campaign lasted one month and brought the quarry to bay on the island of Jolo, or Sulu, as it is more often termed. During the hunt Leonard Wood received a cable informing him that the Senate had pro- moted him to major general. A few weeks be- fore, General Pershing also had jumped over the heads of several hundred captains, majors and colonels to brigadier general. W E ALL know the part played in the world war by Bullard, Pershing and Wood. The reason for bringing up their names is the sort of inward pleasure we humans are prone to feel by reason of our little roles in the general scheme of things. I have a certain pride—which I trust is pardonable—for that