Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, March 1924 · page 9 of 71
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #57 — page 9: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two rural humor stories typical of early 20th-century American satirical magazines. **First story**: Gus, a farmhand, offers to teach his city cousin how to milk a cow. The cousin, inexperienced and lacking confidence (as mentioned in the header), asks if he should "learn on the calf" instead—a naive, illogical suggestion that plays on the contrast between city slicker ignorance and rural common sense. **Second story**: A visiting Minneapolis man spends five nights at a Robbinsdale hotel causing escalating chaos—fighting, cheating staff, telling inappropriate stories, and voyeuristic behavior. When presented with his bill, he protests it as "outrageous" and asks for clergy discounts, apparently expecting the hotel to reduce charges based on religious affiliation. The satire mocks his audacity: he causes extensive trouble then demands special treatment. Both stories employ rural vs. urban stereotypes common to the era, portraying city visitors as either foolishly ignorant or morally corrupt.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Farmyard Fun and Filosophy 7 GUS says his city cousin would be quite a feller if he had more self-confidence. He's a smart Alec, you bet, otherwise; but he doesn't seem to be sure of himself. The other day he visited the farm and Gus took him down to the barn. “There,” Gus said to him, “take this pail, back up to that cow and I'll show you how to milk.” “Seeings I'm new at it,” the cousin replied, “hadn't I better learn on the calf?” NOT long ago, a Minneapolis citizen came to Robbinsdale and registered at the hotel. The first night he raised hades while tipsy; the next night he got in a fight and tried to clean out the place; the next night he skinned the clerk out of his bankroll with a couple of trained ivories; the next night he drove all the ladies out of the sitting room by telling risque stories; and on the final night after being locked out of the maid's room, he amused himself by blowing smoke through the keyhole and peeking over the transom. Then he decided to leave. When he got his bill, he kicked like a steer. “It's an ou_age, brother,” he said. “Don't you make any reductions to the clergy?”