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Special pages :
Letter to Friedrich Engels, August 18, 1853
| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 18 August 1853 |
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 18 August 1853 28 Dean Street, Soho
Dear Engels,
Lupus will probably obtain a good post in Liverpool. In which case he will go there via Manchester. The snag is that he won't be paid until the end of the quarter. However, he hopes that you and Strohn between you may be able to help him. Has Strohn returned?
Needless to say, that mischief-monger Dronke is writing the most pompous letters to all and sundry, e.g. to Imandt, saying that he has made arrangements for Lupus' emigration to America'.
Entre nous[1] I should say the little shop-assistant, anxious to inflate his own importance at small cost to himself, has given Lupus to understand that it was he rather than you who took the matter in hand. At least I thought I could detect a certain chilliness towards Manchester ON THE PART OF Wolff. Dronke is cancan[2] incarnate, NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT. Experto crede, etc.[3]
You absolutely must at once send Pieper at least sufficient to buy himself a coat and trousers. Shabby as he now is, he cannot possibly take advantage of opportunities that come his way, however favourable. He has become unpresentable. Moreover, you promised him this when [you] left.[4] He's putting a brave face on his misfortunes. But there's a limit to everything.
[I have] been particularly unlucky over money transactions. I now have current bills on America—two of them—amounting to £42 and yet cannot command above 42 farthings, though having to provide means of subsistence not [only] for myself but also for Pieper. The first bill of £24 I gave to Mr Spielmann; he told me to come back in five weeks' time. That was seven weeks ago. Besides, this wretched traipsing to and from the City invariably takes up my Mondays and Thursdays, the very days when I have to be preparing Tuesday's and Friday's articles. Each time Spielmann turns me away with the remark, uttered in Jewishly nasal tones: 'Nah nahtice yet.' In the case of such 'small' amounts, he says, his correspondents write only at their convenience, and, if I had needed the money straight away, I should have said beforehand that I would pay the postage for a special letter, etc., etc. This means daily unpleasantnesses, not only for me but for my wife who, counting on the prompt arrival of the money, had given definite promises to sundry creditors, and now the curs are laying siege to the house. Meanwhile, I am writing away like the devil. It would be fine if you could send me an article or two in between whiles, thus giving me the time to write something better. ¾ of my time is taken up chasing after PENNIES.
Heise is here just now; as a person the fellow's not at all bad. Mr Kossuth is presently making a fool of himself as correspondent of the Daily New-York Times. In the Advertiser[5] 4 letters by D. Urquhart on the eastern question contained much that was interesting, despite quirks and quiddities. WE HAVE BEEN STRIKING against Jones for the past two weeks.
Your
K. M.
- ↑ Between ourselves
- ↑ gossip
- ↑ Experto crede Roberto.—Trust Roberto who has had experience (from a comic poem by Antoine Arena).
- ↑ Engels was in London at the end of July and beginning of August 1853 on the occasion of his mother's visit to England (see this volume, p. 350)
- ↑ D. Urquhart, 'What Means "Protection" of the Greek Church?', 'Time in Diplomacy.—The "European Recognition"', 'The Relative Power of Russia and Great Britain', 'War between England and France', published as letters to the editor in The Morning Advertiser of 11, 12, 15 and 16 August 1853.