| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 5 August 1890 |
ENGELS TO KARL KAUTSKY
IN STUTTGART
London, 5 August 1890
Dear Kautsky,
Your letter of 3 July lay here neglected while Schorlemmer and I were away gallivanting in Norway — much to the benefit of our health, be it said.
Since I don't know where to write to, I am sending this to Dietz without sealing it, so that the prospectus for the Neue Zeit, which Ede[1] showed me on Sunday,[2] can be altered accordingly, should it be thought desirable.
You may promise yourself an article by me entitled Von den letzten Dingen and I in turn promise that you shall have it. I also intend to keep my promise — indeed I have partially done so already, since a good half of the article is finished. As to when it will be completely finished, however, that could be either very soon or not for a long time to come, depending on circumstances — let's say in time for the first of next year's issues.5
If Bebel's review of the week is as well done as his articles to date in Victor's[3] Arbeiter-Leitung, you may certainly congratulate yourselves. Here, of course, I am thinking first and foremost of Germany.
Sorge's address is: F. A. Sorge, Hoboken, N.J. (i.e. New Jersey), U. S. America. He's the best man for you people. I shall also write to him about it.[4] Obviously you must pay him exceptionally well— otherwise he'd prefer to give music lessons. He is also unlikely to submit regular reports and indeed it is better that he should not. Sometimes months may go by without anything of real importance happening, sometimes he may send you a crucial piece of news every week.
During our voyage of discovery we pressed on as far as North Cape where we ate COD caught by ourselves. For five days on end there was no night, or rather only dusk; to make up for it we saw all kinds of Laplanders, funny little chaps, obviously of very mixed RACE, with brown, black or even very fair hair — features Mongoloid on the whole but with variations ranging from the American Indian (except that it would take six of them to make one Indian) to the Teuton. These little chaps, who are still three-quarters in the Stone Age, are most interesting. Many regards.
Your
F. E.