Letter to Karl Marx, September 5, 1874

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 5 September 1874


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


ENGELS TO MARX[1]

IN KARLSBAD

London, 5 September 1874

Dear Moor,

Arrived back safely last night, or rather at 2 a.m., after a very rough but splendid sea-crossing[2] —waves up to 20 feet high. Jenny rather sea-sick at first, but better after creicrâx'&Eia[3] ; [she spent] the whole time on deck in a warm, very well-sheltered place. Her chief problem is now irregular sleep, the poor girl spends the whole night brooding over her dead baby,[4] and there is nothing that can be done about it.

Last Sunday[5] I wrote to you[6] at Kugelmann's address, enclosing a CROSSED CHEQUE for £30 made out to him. Should you be unable to cash it, telegraph Miss Burns: CHEQUE RETURNED, and then either send or bring the cheque back with you and I shall send notes. This is for the worst eventuality; I couldn't manage things otherwise, but assume that on arrival it will be all right. If the sum is insufficient, as I almost suspect from your letter which was waiting for me here,[7] just drop me a line, and more will follow. At any event you must take the cure for as long as the doctor thinks necessary, and I enclose a further 2 £5 notes which I happen still to have for all eventualities—the first halves now, the second to follow in a few days. PARTICULARS OF NOTES AT FOOT.

Also waiting for me was a letter from Mesa[8] —a very pleasant surprise, very nice of him.

That the cure should begin by making your insomnia worse if anything seems normal to me in view of the inevitably stimulating effect of the waters. If you keep your doctor informed about the progress of this symptom, he will modify his orders accordingly, and make sure that the matter does not become too serious.

Jenny wrote to Tussy this week—I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday, the letter will probably have arrived by now.

Jenny suffered no after-effects from the tour of the caves, so that even a two-hour trip in an open carriage in the rain last Tuesday—the weather came down on us on the way home—went off well. She was in any case well protected with umbrella, WATERPROOF and SHAWL. On the whole, however, we had constant fine weather up to the very last days, while reports are that it has rained mercilessly on the continent.

Jersey has changed significantly since we were last there.[9] A tremendous amount of building, elegant villas, large hotels, dear, almost English prices in them, and at the market, too, everything more expensive; the London market forces prices up even here. The French language is rapidly disappearing, even country children speak almost nothing but English among themselves, and people under 30 almost all speak English without a trace of a French accent. Only the older notables cling to French. There are also two small railways there now on which you never hear a word of French. In the season 5 different entrepreneurs organise excursions around the island every day. We went on one with more than 150 people in 8-9 carriages. The public: philistines, CLERK and VOLUNTEER, and snobs all providing much occasion for amusement and sometimes annoyance. On such trips even in Jersey the TRUE BRITON casts off his laboriously acquired DOMESTICA-TION, but resumes it all the more conscientiously at the table d'hôte.

The growing supply of money among certain up-and-coming individuals—one can scarcely speak of strata—in the lower English middle class, and the SPREAD of luxuries and of the affectation of RESPECTABILITY associated with it, could be seen very clearly in Jersey precisely because Jersey is still counted a cheap and hence unfashionable little island. The RESPECTABILITY STANDARD of travellers to Jersey seems to diminish each year—an observation, incidentally, which we made also in Ramsgate, where no one complained about it more bitterly than the wretched barber who cut our hair so short last April.

Nunc autem domine dimittis[10] —I still have a pile of things to write, and it is time to have this letter registered. Best regards to Tussy, ditto Wenzel.[11]

Your

General[12]

D 67, 77773 and 4, London, 13 July 1874. 2 £5- BANK OF ENGLAND NOTES, 1st halves enc.

  1. ↑ This letter was published in English for the first time, in an abridged form, in: K. Marx, F. Engels, Selected Letters. The Personal Correspondence, 1844-1877. Edited by Fr. J. Raddatz, Boston, Toronto, [1981].
  2. ↑ Jenny Longuet's health was shaken by the death of her first son, Charles, in late July 1874. On 6 August, Marx took her to Ramsgate, where Engels was on holiday at the time. Marx stayed with them until 9 August. In the second half of August, Engels with his family and Jenny Longuet took a trip to Jersey and returned to London on 5 September.
  3. ↑ vomiting
  4. ↑ Charles Longuet
  5. ↑ 30 August
  6. ↑ Engels' letter has not been found.
  7. ↑ See this volume, pp. 33-34.
  8. ↑ Engels is probably referring to José Mesa's letter of 24 August 1874. The latter wrote that despite his enforced move to Paris he still kept in touch with members of the Spanish section of the International Working Men's Association in Madrid, on which Engels could rely, and supplied a number of addresses.
  9. ↑ Engels spent the time between 28 July and 8 November 1857 at seaside resorts, including St Hélier in Jersey, where Marx visited him in early October.
  10. ↑ But now, O Lord, dismiss me (cf. Luke 2:29).
  11. ↑ Ludwig Kugelmann
  12. ↑ jocular name for Engels