| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 23 October 1886 |
ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE
IN PARIS
London, 23 October 1886
My dear Laura,
To-day I have a bit of a holiday that is to say no proof-sheets,[1] and the prefaces are as good as done. So I profit of it to write to you. Proofs are now up to sheet 40, or p. 644 of German 3rd edition. But there is a hitch again, otherwise I should be busy to-day at them again. It's awful work, every sheet 3 proofs, and a good many altera- tions to make in the text; the latter part of the manuscript was any- thing but ausgefeilt,[2] when we had to cede to pressure and hand it in to the printer. Sam Moore, in the polishing of the text, is invaluable to me, he has a capital eye for these things and a very ready hand. But I shall be glad when it's done, as it is I cannot take anything else in hand and there are about 5 jobs awaiting in my desk.
I certainly do hope that you will not again put off your journey till some other time which may be less foggy meteorologically but which after all would leave us both in a fog of fresh uncertainty. As to Schor- lemmer he arrived here quite knocked up, had been laid up at home for a week with indigestion (it was the Vaterland I suppose he could not digest) and was in an awfully down-in-the-mouth mood here all the time — since then I have not heard a word from him.
I send you herewith two more letters from our transatlantic travel- lers,[3] please keep the lot for me until you come over, unless you re- turn them before. They were yesterday in Providence (Rhode Island) and are now on the road from New England to the Great Lakes, stop- ping half way to-morrow at Albany and Troy (New York State) on the Hudson.[4] The press in the New England manufacturing districts has been almost cordial in its reception, thus showing not only its own dependence upon the working people, but also an evident sym- pathetic feeling towards socialism on the part of the latter. I am very glad of this and also of the favourable effect they have made on the bourgeois press generally, more particularly on account of their im- pending arrival in Chicago where the bourgeois, six weeks ago, seemed inclined to get up police rows on their arrival. But they will hardly attempt anything of the kind in the face of the decided change in public opinion down East.
The Vienna anarchist plot is a pure police affair.[5] The best proof is in the self-inflaming bottles the poor fools were told to put in timber yards to set them on fire. A bottle with nitric acid, stopped with cot- ton impregnated with sulphuric acid. This latter was to percolate and on reaching the nitric acid, was expected to cause an explosion and fire!! Thus the same police which excited the anarchist jackasses to this plot, took damned good care that the fire bottles were perfectly harmless. But the present anti-proletarian jurisprudence will there as everywhere find means to convict them of arson.
Yesterday I had a card from an unknown place in Canada 'Rolan- drie, P. O. Whitewood': ''Verehelicht:[6] Dr R. Meyer, Mathilda Meyer, geb.[7] Trautow.' This must be a cousin of his whom he left on his farm last winter to mind it. On the back a few words in French from a Comte Ives de Rossignac or Prossignac that Meyer has had an accident and cannot use his right hand for a short time, and therefore cannot write himself. That is the end of another of your adorers. The grapes being sour, people take to crab-apples.
The successful issue of the Lyons Congress I read in the Cri,[8] but nevertheless Paul's comments and details were very welcome to me. Things seem everywhere ripe for us and we have only to gather in the fruit; all old-fashioned forms of socialism are exploded while nothing can touch our theory, and so the working people need only stirring up — whenever they get into movement, no matter how, they are sure to come round to us.
Altogether things are going on bravely in France. Vierzon continues Decazeville,[9] and rightly so. The government must be taught to respect their own laws and to get used to strikes. And on the other hand the discipline of a strike is most useful to the French work- ing men; a movement in which strict legality is the first condition of success, and where all revolutionary brag and explosion necessarily brings on defeat. This discipline is the first condition of successful and lasting organisation, and the thing most feared by the bourgeoisie. And as it has brought on one ministerial crisis,[10] it may bring on more. As matters stand, it looks as if the present Chamber would soon become impossible and have to be dissolved. I believe it will be very necessary to prepare for that event, for in the next general election the Socialists ought to force the Radicals to place at least 20 of our people on the list for Paris; and the next Chamber ought to abolish scrutin de liste. Paul ought to get into Parliament next time, he has effaced himself a good deal in favour of Guesde, Deville and others, taken the hard anonymous work upon himself and left to the others not only all the pay but also the greater part of the credit. I think the time is approaching when he ought to assert himself a little more. He is decidedly the best writer amongst the lot — now that he has once found his happy vein and sticks to it — and also the most studious. And he is far more than all the rest in constant touch with the in- ternational movement. He and Guesde at the very least ought to get in next time and shape for it from now. Guesde may be more flashy as an orator but Paul would be far better in bringing out facts.
However by next spring we may have a European war which up- sets all our calculations being incalculable in its results. About that I shall write Paul[11] as soon as I find time. Now I must conclude, hav- ing just time enough left to send a few words to Tussy by to-day's mail.
Nim is very jolly and sends her love.
Yours affectionately,
F.E.
Liebknecht's wine-revolution is not very formidable, considering that he finds the most horrid wine ''famos'.[12]