| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 31 August 1893 |
ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE
AT LE PERREUX
Zürich, 31 August 1893
My dear Löhr,
Thanks for your letter and the papers which came to hand yesterday. I had been for 6 days in the Berner Oberland with August and St. Mendelson— fine weather and splendid scenery. 189 The Jungfrau had put on an extra clean white night-dress for us. Jungfrau, Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa are the three finest massifs of the whole Alps.
Yesterday we were on the Uetliberg, a hill close to Zurich, with a fine though rather distant view of the snowy chain. When, after 1870, old Thiers was here with his lot, he at once explained the whole to them; pointing at the Glärnisch (due South-East of the Uetli) he said that was the Mont Blanc. The landlord of the hôtel at the top, a perfect connoisseur of the whole range, ventured to suggest that this was the Glärnisch, and that the Mont Blanc was in a nearly opposite direction, and invisible from that point—but the little man replied: Monsieur, je suis Adolphe Thiers, et je dois savoir cela! C'est bien là le Mont Blanc![1]
I am glad you consider the result of the elections of the 20th a victory. Let us hope this will be confirmed next Sunday by the return of Paul and Delcluze besides some others. Otherwise I am afraid our party will not be able to play the part in the Palais Bourbon 156 which I and many others wish it to play. If we have 8-10 men there, they will form a nucleus strong enough to force the Blanquists, 20 Possibilists 30 and Independent Socialists to group themselves around it and thus to prepare a united party. But if we are only 3 or 4, the other fractions will each be about as strong, and unification will not only be more difficult, but also have more of the character of a compromise. Therefore I hope we may enter the Palais Bourbon in full force.
I hope the Socialiste will not bring Guesde's letter to his electors.[2]
Whatever may be thought of it in France, outside the border it would sound simply grotesque. To declare his election a revolution, by which socialism fait son entrée au Palais Bourbon,[3] and from which a new era dates for the world in general, is coming it rather too strong for ordinary mortals.
I enclose a German five mark note, to enable you to telegraph to us the result of the poll next Sunday. 208 August and I are leaving here on Monday morning[4] for Munich and shall stay there over Tuesday. Now by Monday evening or Tuesday morning at latest we suppose you will have all the results as far as they interest us. As soon as you can, but not later than Tuesday afternoon, please telegraph the names of our men and the places for which they have been returned, and if the money goes so far, any further information of interest. The telegram to be addressed in German:
Bebel, Hotel Deutscher Kaisert Munich: but the rest had perhaps better be in French, so as to secure correct sending off.
On Tuesday evening or Wednesday we shall go on to Salzburg, thence to Vienna where we stay for a few days, and then to Berlin. If you will be good enough to send some further information by letter to Vienna (where it can be used for the Arbeiterzeitung) please address to Frau L. Kautsky, Hirschengasse 46, Oberöbling, Vienna, Austria. (An inner cover is unnecessary as she will know it is for me.)
And now good luck to all our candidates and to Paul especially! I put little trust in the promises of opportunists, 87 but I hope that in his case they may turn out true for once. 252
What benefit has the Millerand-Jaurès alliance 169 brought to us in this campaign? I am utterly unable here to form a judgment.
Love from yours ever,
F.E.