Origins of the Sunday Comics by Peter Maresca for July 14, 2021

Be fair, the hat was (probably) 15% off.

This is a hard one to reproduce the text for. It’s embraced that early-comic-strip thing of putting arrows to stuff and labelling it all. But here’s a quick effort at it:

First row, first panel:

Arrow pointing to Conscience, above George’s House. There’s an X. ‘Cross does not show where Conscience landed – see footnote. Footnote: Conscience probably never will laad.’

First row, second panel:

Wife: ‘George, we must economize. We must deny ourselves a little every day.’

First row, third panel:

George: ‘No cigars, by jove, I’ll begin by smoking a pipe.’

Conscience: ‘Nice work.’

First row, fourth panel:

George: ‘I guess I can get another season’s wear out of these old pans.’

Conscience: ‘Good George.’

Second row, first panel:

Friend: ‘Going to the club, old man?’

George: ‘Nope! Economizing!’

Conscience: ‘Great’

Second row, second panel:

George on the phone: ‘Nope, not tonight.’

Conscience; ‘Great.’

Second row, third panel:

George: ‘Saving a quater by mending these [ shoes ] may help.’

Second row, final panel:

AND THEN

Great big arrow pointing to the wife’s new hat, labelled ‘We Must Deny Ourselves’ Etc.

All the imbedded explanations might be for the benefit of young readers.

“George ran for three months”, and then he got tired.

If you adjust for inflation, that hat cost $2,500!

It looks like Mr and Mrs George could each consider losing a few kilos.I wondered why someone was bringing him a pressure cooker, not having seen a hat box for many a moon.