Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #67 — page 19: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a humorous illustrated joke about a woman who becomes itchy (gets hives) while managing beehives. The cartoon shows her scratching frantically while surrounded by scattered boxes and swarming bees depicted as small dots. The punchline plays on a double meaning: she blamed her hives (the skin condition) on her beekeeping, but changed her mind when the actual bees physically pushed against her. The humor derives from the literal collision between the woman and her bee colonies—she realizes the real problem isn't an allergic reaction but rather aggressive bees literally backing into and shoving her. It's a straightforward visual gag relying on wordplay between "hives" (skin condition) and "hives" (beekeeping structures), typical of early 20th-century magazine humor.