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Special pages :
Letter to Friedrich Engels, about January 17, 1870
| Author(s) | Jenny von Westphalen |
|---|---|
| Written | 17 January 1870 |
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43
JENNY MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London, about 17 January 1870]
Dear Mr Engels,
Seldom can a HAMPER have arrived so à propos as that of yesterday. The crate had just been unpacked, and the 50 slim fellows were standing in rank and file in the kitchen when Dr Allen and his PARTNER, a young Scots doctor, arrived to operate on poor Moor, so that, immediately after the operation, Moor, and his two Aesculapii could refresh themselves with the delicious Braunenberger. The business was very bad this time. For 8 days we had applied all the remedies, compresses, basilicum etc., etc., that have so often been of help: but all in vain. The abscess steadily grew, the pain became unbearable, and no opening or discharge could be induced. It had to be lanced, so Moor finally decided to take the unavoidable step of calling in a doctor. Immediately after the very deep incision he felt great relief, and although he was not yet free of pain this morning, he is on the whole much much better, and will, we hope, have recovered in a few days. But now I must go into action against him with a whole register of sins. Since returning from Germany, and particularly since the Hanoverian campaign,[1] he has been unwell, coughed continually, and instead of looking after himself, began to study Russian hammer and tongs, went out seldom, ate infrequently, and only showed the CARBUNCLE under his arm when it was already very swollen and had hardened. Dear Mr Engels, how often in the past years have I wished that you had been here!! Some things would have been different. Now I hope that he will take this latest experience as a warning. Please, dear Mr Engels, don't make any remarks to him in your letters about this. He is very irritable at the moment, and would be very cross with me. But it has been a great relief to pour out my heart to you, since I am quite incapable of changing his lifestyle in any way. Perhaps it would be possible to speak to him seriously through Gumpert, when he comes to Manchester once again. He is the only doctor in whom he still has confidence. Dominant in our house at present is a general disdain for all medicine and all doctors; but they are still a necessary evil; you can't get along without them.
What do you say to the second New Year present with which Laura has presented us[2]? I hope that the rapid pace will soon come to an end; otherwise we could sing
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...
1 0 LITTLE NIGGER[3] BOYS!
- ↑ Marx and his daughter Jenny left for a visit to Ludwig Kugelmann in Germany around 10 September 1869 (see this volume, p. 353), and stayed in Hanover until 7 October. On the way back, they stopped over in Hamburg (8 and 9 October), where Marx had an appointment with Otto Meissner. On 11 October, Marx returned to London.
- ↑ The reference is to the birth of the Lafargues' daughter (see this volume, p. 552).
- ↑ See p. XXXVIII of the Preface.— Ed.