Letter to Friedrich Engels, August 9, 1865

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Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 9 August 1865


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 3, Berlin, 1930
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42
Keywords : Letter, Friedrich Engels


MARX TO ENGELS[1]

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 9 August 1865

DEAR FRED, Letter from Mr Siebold enclosed.[2] You need not send it back. Secondly, I am sending you the Hatzfeldt rubbish.[3] Do not send it back, but store it. Don't show it to anyone either. Fortunately, this rubbish has left no trace in the German press. The only thing relating to it which appeared publicly in the press was a statement by Metzner (ex-authorised representative of the Berlin branch[4]) and Vogt[5] (STILL its treasurer), countersigned W. Liebknecht, in which they stated:

1. that Schilling had falsified the report, suppressed some resolutions and made others their direct opposite;

2. that that old girl Hatzfeldt could have spared her comments SINCE the Association had forbidden her to interfere in any way.

That appeared in Reform[6] and Volks-Zeitung

I have been medicating myself for a couple of days now and am feeling utterly rotten, quite incapable of working. But Allen tells me that I shall be up and about again in a few days. It's the bilious trouble and a consequence of the 'bitter' labour of thinking in the HOT WEATHER. Officially I'm now away from home on account of the INTERNATIONAL'. Edgar[7] is vegetating. In his hermit-like existence he has become accustomed to the narrowest kind of egotism, pondering the needs of his stomach from morn till night. But as he is a good-natured sort, his egotism is that of a KIND-NATURED CAT or a friendly dog. To the devil with hermit-life. He has even lost all interest in women, and his sex-urge has gone to his belly, too. At the same time, he is constantly anxious about his precious health, that same lad who was, on the other hand, used to feeling 'safe' amongst snakes, tigers, wolves, and leopards.

He now wishes he was back in Texas again. But there is no escape from the confrontation with his cher frère.[8]

You can tell what his back-to-nature thinking is like from the fact that his present ideal is to set up a STORE—a cigar or wine STORE—obviously secretly hoping that this will be the surest way to apply oneself to the cigars and wine.

He likes to pretend to be an OLD GENTLEMAN who has settled his accounts with life, has nothing more to do and is only living 'for his health's sake'.

Besides, he is preoccupied with his attire as well, and the 'OLD GENTLEMEN' in Rotten Row[9] make him very sad because he cannot keep up with them. Queer cove! Laura, who HAS a small CARBUNCLE on her left cheek JUST NOW, SAYS THAT HER MOTHER'S BROTHER IS AN EXCEEDINGLY BRIGHT FELLAH! Tussy[10] THAT SHE LIKES HIM, BECAUSE HE IS SO FUNNY and little Jenny that Lina Schöler and he can congratulate each other 'TO HAVE SAFELY GOT RID OF EACH OTHER'. WELL, THEY ARE A BAD LOT. The girls have also SEVERELY CROSS-EXAMINED me AS TO THE 'MRS Burns'.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in K. Marx, On History and People, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1977.
  2. ↑ On 4 August 1865 Siebold wrote to tell Marx that there was a Workers' Association in Copenhagen led by an MP, C. V. Rimestad. He advised him to establish ties with the association but warned that Rimestad was a Bonapartist. At the same time Siebold made it clear that he regretted Marx's quarrel with Karl Blind.
  3. ↑ C. Schilling, Die Ausstossung des Präsidenten Bernhard Becker aus dem Allgemeinen Deutschen Arbeiter-Verein und der 'Social-Demokrat'.
  4. ↑ of the General Association of German Workers
  5. ↑ August Vogt
  6. ↑ Berliner Reform
  7. ↑ Edgar von Westphalen
  8. ↑ dear brother (Ferdinand von Westphalen)
  9. ↑ 240
  10. ↑ Eleanor Marx
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