Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, December 1924 · page 13 of 71
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #67 — page 13: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous rural-versus-urban anecdote featuring Olaf, a naive Danish immigrant ("Copenhagen snoose expert"—snoose being moist snuff tobacco). The joke illustrates the stereotype of the gullible country bumpkin easily conned by city slickers. The con: A fake authority figure (posing as an "elevator starter") claims pigeon-counting is illegal in Minneapolis and charges $1 per bird. Olaf deliberately undercounts (reporting 8 when he counted 12) to avoid paying the full fine—but the real joke is he pays at all for something obviously fake. The satire targets both figures: Olaf's blind trust in urban authority and his clumsy attempt at cunning, and the con artist's brazen confidence-scheme tactics. The piece reflects early 20th-century American anxieties about rural people's vulnerability in modernizing cities, while gently mocking immigrant naiveté and urban deception.
📄 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] Fence Post Observations SOME of these days, Olaf, my Copenhagen snoose expert, is going to get an awful bump financially. To be perfectly frank, I don't believe there was ever such a gullible goose. Set him five feet outside the farm bound- ary lines, and it's dollars to doughnuts some city slicker will edge up and hog-tie him for a loss before he can take a pinch of snuff. His latest escapade was when he uncon- sciously blocked Minneapolis traffic, while gaz- ing aloft at a flock of pigeons hovering over the Donaldson Glass Block. A burly bunco-steerer in an elevator starter's uniform seized him by the arm, pulled him to the sidewalk, and gruffly demanded to know what he was doing. "Counting pigeons," honestly replied Olaf. "Don't you know that ain't allowed here?" questioned the stranger. "It's going to cost you exactly $1 apiece. How many didja count?" "Eight," slyly answered Olaf, and trium- phantly handed over $8. He had counted twelve. [11]