Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, December 1924 · page 69 of 71
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #67 — page 69: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a humorous rural anecdote by Gus, the farm narrator. The illustration shows a cow-valet character observing the chaos below. The joke centers on domestic frustration: a meek, quiet husband finally snaps and shoots at his hired man while playing "Turkey In The Straw"—a rowdy folk tune. The punchline suggests the wife's pious, controlled demeanor (prayer meetings, disapproving of dancing) masked simmering tension. Maggie's comment implies that raising eight boys alone would naturally drive anyone to an outburst. The satire gently mocks both rural domesticity and gender dynamics—portraying the quiet, religious wife as potentially formidable and the "meek husband" as having hidden volatility. The hired man's bemused perspective adds ironic distance to the chaos. The humor relies on period-specific rural stereotypes and the surprise inversion of expected gender roles in farm life.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
COGITATIONS OF A COW VALET By GUS The Hired Man I T'S a funny thing about this here life stuff; nobody ever can know much about anybody. Indeed, it takes more than a high-falutin' alienist sometimes, to figger out much about hisself. F'r instance, they's a family livin' near Whiz Bang farm—mother, dad, and eight young 'uns. Mother ain't purty, but she sure does pack a barrelful of brains. She's one of these old-fashioned women, ya might say, past fifty, quiet, goes to town every Wednesday night to prayer meeting, and thinks dancin' is sinful. Now, then. T'other day when I was putting in some good licks on the fall plowing in the lower lot, I heard a banging goin' on, and I hopped over the fence and chased through the jimson weeds and down the road until I came smack up longside a feller crawling on his hands and knees for all git out, and bellering like Pedro does when we put on the bull ring. Buckshot was playin' "Turkey In The Straw" on the leaves and dust. The feller crawl-ing was the hired man, and the feller shootin' was the meek husband of the good woman I'm telling you about. Yarning about it that night, Maggie said: "Huh! Eight children and every last one of 'em boys; of course she was going to blow up some day!" Gosh! Ain't we hired hands got fun! GUS. [64]