Letter to Karl Marx, November 7, 1864

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To Marx in London

Manchester, 7 November 1864[edit source]

Dear Moor,

Your Frisian solution is quite right, but for one word. In North Frisian, Kimmang means: look, or eye; these North Frisians are of a speculative disposition and have substituted the inward horizon for the outward one, rather as Wagener is now calling for an ‘inward Düppel’. It is an old sailors’ saying.

The Herwegh and Hatzfeldt papers returned enclosed. What was the further provocation you refer to which Lassalle inflicted on the Walachian and was suppressed by Emma? Lassalle’s fatal error was obviously that he did not throw the hussy [Helene von Donniges] straight on the bed in the boarding house and deal with her appropriately, it was not his fine mind but his Jew’s pizzle she was interested in. It is yet another of these affairs that only Lassalle could get involved in. That it was he, who forced the Wallachian into the duel, is doubly crazy.

Old Hatzfeldt’s idea that you should write an apotheosis of the latterday Redeemer [Lassalle] is really priceless.

The letter from the Solingen worker was not enclosed.

I cannot wait to see the Address to the Workers, it must be a real masterpiece, to judge by what you tell me of the people involved. But it is good that we are again making contact with people who do at least represent their class, which is what really matters ultimately. The effect on the Italians will be particularly good, as there is some chance that this will at last put an end to this Dio e popolo among the workers — it will come as quite a surprise to the worthy Giuseppe. Incidentally, I suspect that there will very soon be a split in this new association between those who are bourgeois in their thinking and those who are proletarian, the moment the issues become a little more specific.

Concerning Lupus’ legacy, we had a meeting with the lawyer this morning. The sum still owing to you will amount to a little over £200; as soon as I have the money, I shall send most of it to you. There are still some details we do not know exactly, so we cannot finally calculate yet. The tax authorities want a list of all the books, and the exact value, of the clock Lupus left. Please send me something itemising all the larger works and at the end just: so many pamphlets etc., everything in one clump.

I must close now, as I have to go to a Directors’ meeting of the Schiller Institute, of which I am chairman, as you know, to Mr Borchardt’s annoyance. Happily, beer has been introduced.

Kind regards to your wife and the girls.

Your
F. E.