Letter to Ida Pauli, August 27, 1876

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 27 August 1876


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow 1935
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


ENGELS TO IDA PAULI

IN RHEINAU

Ramsgate, 27 August 1876
11 Camden Square

Dear Mrs Pauli,

The midges must indeed have been hard at it if you have felt obliged to follow in the footsteps of the emancipated Russian ladies and smoke cigarettes. I hope, however, that like us, you have had cooler weather for the past three or four days and hence freedom from midges. Here, we've been positively frozen and have had to have the windows shut, while my wife has been hankering for fur jackets. On Friday night in London it was only 6 degrees Reaumur, and in Liverpool the melons have been positively frozen hard.

Mrs Marx has been staying with us since Tuesday.[1] She has made a fairly good recovery, but will probably have to leave before Tuesday as she is expecting a niece[2] from the Cape of Good Hope by then.

Despite the weather, we are persevering with our bathing as the sea is still warm and, with this wind, the breakers get better and better and keep one warm; it's precisely these cold sea-baths that have the most invigorating effect, and my wife's health has improved wonderfully since she's been going into the water. On Friday we repack our bags and shall then, I hope, at last settle down again. We are now both heartily sick of lounging about; my wife longs for her kitchen and I for my writing-desk and both of us for our big, roomy bed.

Marx's address in Karlsbad is: Dr. Marx, Germania, Schlossberg, Karlsbad.[3] I heard from him a few days since[4] ; the Karlsbad water was doing both him and his daughter Tussy a great deal of good, but unfortunately it has a tiresome sequel: for months afterwards one may neither tipple nor eat salad or suchlike palatable things. He will stay there until mid-September at least and maybe a week longer, depending on the cure and the effect it has.

At the same time as yours we received a letter from Pumps. I shall reply to her as soon as I get back to London; here, where idleness is an institution, it always requires an effort of will to sit down and write.

What's the position about Pauli's trip to England? He must surely almost have completed his building operations at the factory and, being so fond of rough seas, he shouldn't put it off too long.

Mrs Marx asks me to send her warmest regards and my wife and I send you, Pauli and the children our love. I am sending Pauli a newspaper today. Well, may you all keep well and happy and, whenever the beer is especially good, spare a thought for

Your sincere friend,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ 11 22 August
  2. ↑ Karoline Juta
  3. ↑ Between 15 August and 15 September 1876, Marx, accompanied by his daughter Eleanor (Tussy), was in Karlsbad taking a cure for the third time. Having completed it, he spent a few days with Max Oppenheim in Prague, and then, after brief visits to Kreuznach and Liège, returned to London on 22 September 1876.
  4. ↑ See this volume, pp. 135 37.