Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #59 — page 45: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily **advertising for "Smokehouse Poetry"** — apparently Captain Billy's magazine feature or section. The cartoon header shows a rickety smokehouse with figures engaged in comic activity. The main content is a romantic/sentimental poem titled "Chicago Blues," presented as a letter from a reader. The poem expresses romantic longing ("sooner or later you'll forget / All you're saying tonight—and yet") with passionate imagery about kissing and starlight. The framing note beneath suggests this is genuinely reader-submitted poetry that the editor found mediocre ("I had expected something good, but it"). This is **satirical commentary on amateur poetry submissions** — presenting sentimental romance verses as examples of the sometimes overwrought material magazines received from readers. The "Smokehouse Poetry" title itself appears mockingly dismissive of such submissions.