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Bringing Up Father is among the longest running comic strips in the United States, beginning in 1913 and running all the way to 2000. It revolved around an Irish family whose titular father, Jiggs, was everything one would expect from a stereotypical Irishman. Jiggs always had a cigar and loved to gamble and drink. George McManus, the creator, did not give Jiggs these qualities out of ignorance, however. Both of his parents were from Ireland, so he had a wealth of knowledge and experience in that area.
This strip (which just happens to be from the same day as yesterday's) is typical Jiggs behavior. The premise of Bringing Up Father as a whole is that Jiggs fell into a large amount of money by chance and moved to New York, but doesn't know how to deal with his fortunes and retains all of his working class attitudes. That's obvious here, as he gambles away all the money that he was supposed to spend on a Christmas gift for his wife. The upside is that he now knows how to play baccarat, though I'm not sure that's worth it.