| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 16 March 1866 |
MARX TO HIS DAUGHTER JENNY
IN LONDON
Margate, 16th March, 1866 5 Lansell's Place
My dear Child,
I arrived here yesterday evening, 3/4 past seven. According to your instructions I left my luggage behind me in the cloakroom and was then landed by the omnibus at a small inn called the 'King's Arms'. Having ordered a rump steak, and being shown to the coffee room, which was rather dimly illuminated, I took rather fright (you know my anxious temper) at a lean, long, stiff sort of man, midway between parson and commis-voyageur, solitarily and motionlessly seated before the chimney. From the vagueness of his glanceless eye, I thought him a blind man. I was confirmed in that notion by some long, scarf-like, narrow white thing spread over his legs, with regular holes in it. I fancied it to be paper outcut by the blind man to serve as a catchpenny from the frequenters of the inn. When my supper arrived the man began somewhat to wave, quietly took off his boots and warmed his elephantine feet at the fire. What with this agreeable spectacle, and his supposed blindness, and what with a rump steak, which seemed, in its natural state, to have belonged to a deceased cow, I passed the first Margate evening anything but comfortably. But, in compensa- tion, the bedroom was snug, the bed clean and elastic and the sleep sound. When at the breakfast table, who should step in but the man of the evening. He turned out to be deaf and not blind. What had so much vexed me—I mean the thing on his knees—was a pocket handkerchief of singular fashion, with a greyish ground interspersed by black eyes which I had mistaken lor holes. Feeling shy of the man, I settled my bill as soon as possible and, after some erratic course, hit upon my present lodging, in front of the sea, a large sitting room and a bedroom, 10/- per week. When striking my bargain the additional clause was agreed upon that, on your arrival, you will get your bedroom for nothing.
The first thing I did was to take a warm sea-bathe. It was delicious, so is the air here. It is a wonderful air.
As to boarding houses, they are about empty now, and, as I understood the librarian, hardly yet prepared for the reception of guests. As to dining-rooms, there was some difficulty to get at a proper one, but by the by this obstacle will be overcome.
And now, with my best compliments to all, by-bye.
Yours
Mohr
I have already walked five hours to-day.