a very
short space of time it was reduced to a skeleton; having occasion for a
few minutes to leave the room, the company in the meanwhile secreted the
bones of the goose. The waiter now entered for the purpose of removing
the cloth: casting his eyes round the room, he seemed absorbed in
perplexity--"What is the matter?" asked one of the company; "do you miss
arty thing?"--"Yes, Sir, the bones of a goose!"--"Why then you may save
yourself the trouble of further search; the gentleman just gone out,
of modest manners and puny appetite, has devoured the goose, bones and
all!"--The waiter lost no time in reporting the appalling fact to
his master, who now more than ever was desirous of getting rid of the
glutton--but how? it was impossible to exclude him the ordinary, or set
bounds to his appetite; the only resource left was that of buying him
off, which was done at the rate of one shilling per diem, and the wolf
took his hebdomadary repast at a different ordinary: from this also his
absence was purchased at the same rate as by the first. Speculating on
his gluttony, he levied similar contributions on the proprietors of the
principal ordinaries in the metropolis and environs; and if the fellow
is still living, I have no doubt of his continuing to derive his
subsistence from the sources already described!--Now what think you of
Real Life in London?"{1}

1 The wolf, so cognominated, was less censurable for his
gluttony than the infamous purpose to which he applied it--
otherwise he had a parallel in a man of sublime genius.
Handel one day entered a tavern in the city and ordered six
mackarel, a fowl, and a veal cutlet, to be ready at a
certain hour. True to his appointment, he re-appeared at the
time stipulated, and was shown into an apartment where
covers were laid for four. Handel desired to have another
room, and ordered his repast to be served up immediately.--
"Then you don't wait for the rest of the company, sir?"
said the waiter.--"Companee! vat you tell me of companee?"
exclaimed Handel. "I vant no companee. I order dem two tree
ting for my lonch!" The repast was served up, and honoured
by Handel to the bones. He then drank a bottle of wine, and
afterwards went home to dinner!

During one of the campaigns of Frederick of Prussia, a boor
was brought before him of an appetite so incredibly
ravenous, that he offered to devour a