Letter to Jenny Marx, August 25, 1871

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 25 August 1871


First published, in German, in Annali, an. 1, Milan, 1958
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


MARX TO JENNY MARX

IN LONDON

[Brighton,] 25 August 1871

Dear Jenny,

I forgot to tell you yesterday[1] of a curious événement[2] The second day after my arrival here,[3] I met a chap in a waiting posture at the corner of my street. He was the same man whom I had told you about before as having accompanied Engels and myself on our way HOME on a number of occasions. Engels had thought he was a spy and we once gave him a 'hint'. As you know, GENERALLY SPEAKING I am not good at detecting spies. But this fellow has obviously and undeniably dogged my every step down here. Yesterday, I became fed up with it, so I stopped, turned round and stared at him with my notorious EYEGLASS. WHAT DID HE DO? He doffed his hat very humbly and today he no longer honoured me with the pleasure of his company.

I wrote a detailed letter to Dana today giving him, among other things, an extensive account of the adventures in Luchon and Spain.[4] He will certainly be able to use it for his Sun. It is EXACTLY THAT SORT OF THING THE YANKEES ARE FOND OF. I have of course dealt with the matter in terms which can do the children no harm—should they stay longer over there.

No one is so deaf as those who will not hear! And so OLD STEPNEY

IN REGARD TO THE REFUGEES! Jung and I told him the whole story without mincing words. Hales sent him subscription lists[5] I told him of the letter from Davydov,[6] and lastly I advised him of the steps taken here to obtain subsidies. But for all that the old jackass has TILL NOW NOT LOOSENED HIS PURSE-STRINGS NOR SEEMS HE AT ALL WILLING TO DO so. Yesterday he told me with his eunuch's voice that he had sent subscription lists—to Boston, and he showed me a letter that he had written to a local lady, asking for contributions. But he himself! NOT HE!

The fellow is altogether 'off his head', as Jung says. Jung came here last Saturday[7] and left again on Monday. He brought his two boys with him and before his departure he told Stepney that he was going to a family he knew of who would look after the boys. Stepney went with him and after Jung had SETTLED everything with the LANDLADY, Stepney said: 'BUT I WANT FOR 8 DAYS TO TAKE CARE OF THE BOYS MYSELF.' And so all was UNSETTLED again.

On the whole, the weather here has been stormy and rainy, so that I have not ceased to have colds with accompanying cough. But the wonderful air and the bath that I take daily have had a very good effect on my GENERAL STATE OF HEALTH. Throughout the whole period I have regretted nothing so much as the fact that you were not here. Anyhow, you must also—by hook or by crook—have, if not a summer trip, at least an autumn one this year.

As for those Swiss oafs, Schneider and Zichlinsky (the 'tailor'[8] was a highly suspect individual even in Germany), they will soon realise that they are not in Germany any more.[9]

I find that too many Proudhonists are being admitted to the General Council, and on my return I shall insist on the admission of Martin and Le Moussu as an antidote.

Brighton—where, incidentally, I am living the life of a hermit on the whole—is naturally ABSORBED IN THE GREAT POISONING CASE, obviously a pure outbreak of hysterical boredom on the part of a SILLY, love-sick, 35-year-old SPINSTER in comfortable circumstances.

The reports by The Daily News[10] and The Daily Telegraph PARIS CORRESPONDENTS on the Versailles trial[11] are truly loathsome, infamous products of PENNY-A-LINERS.

Adio.

Your

Karl

  1. ↑ See Note 17.
  2. ↑ incident
  3. ↑ Between 16 and 29 August 1871 Marx stayed at Brighton where, on his doctor's advice, he received treatment for overstrain.
  4. ↑ Towards the end of April 1871 Marx's daughters Jenny and Eleanor set out for Bordeaux to visit Laura and Paul Lafargue; in June all of them moved to Bagnères-de-Luchon. Early in August, fearful of persecution, Lafargue left for Spain and Laura followed him. Jenny and Eleanor were arrested in Luchon and later expelled from France. On this see K. Marx, 'Letter to the Editor of The Sun, Charles Dana' and Jenny Marx's Letter to the Editor of Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly (present edition, Vol. 22, pp. 396-99, 622).
  5. ↑ This refers to the fund for refugee Communards.
  6. ↑ The letter from the Russian revolutionary A. Davydov of 21 August 1871 was prompted by a request Engels had made to him on 15 August for assistance to Paris Commune refugees. A cheque for £4 was enclosed with Davydov's reply. The text of Engels' letter to Davydov is not extant.
    Marx wrote 'Davyson' instead of Davydov.
  7. ↑ 19 August
  8. ↑ A pun in the original: 'Schneider' means 'tailor' in German.
  9. ↑ The reference is to the Lassallean members of the German Workers' Educational Society (see Letter 122).
  10. ↑ Presumably the item 'Trial of the Communist Prisoners' in The Daily News, Nos. 7899 and 7900, 23 and 24 August 1871.
  11. ↑ This refers to the trial of 15 members of the Paris Commune and 2 members of the Central Committee of the National Guard which began on 7 August 1871 in the Third Court Martial. Following the suppression of the Paris Commune there were altogether 26 courts martial in France. Judicial proceed ings continued until 1877. The number of people shot, sentenced to exile with hard labour or confined to prison amounted to 70,000.