The Strop of Hunger.

You feed the strop into it like paper into a printing-press, and it eats up the leather as low people eat spaghetti, making all the time a noise like a mowing-machine.

The Leading Gentleman drew his beautiful knife from its tawdry sheath and gave it a last loving strop on his horny palm.

But his armswell, if they was both stropped to a bench, as the sayin' is, I wonder where the champion of England would be then.

There was much laughter later on when Macaire, playfully tapping Strop with his stick, cracked the plate, and the pieces fell out!