| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 22 March 1894 |
ENGELS TO VICTOR ADLER
IN VIENNA
London, 22 March 1894
Dear Victor,
I wrote to you the day before yesterday, 13 and yesterday Louise wrote to you at the Kopernikusgasse by 'registered' mail.
Your report on the state of affairs over there gave us great pleasure. Less so the prospect of your spending your summer holidays in 'durance vile', 349 concerning which we had already seen something in the Arbeiter- innen-Zeitung (as distinct from the Arbeiter-Zeitung). I wrote to you day before yesterday about conditions over here. 350
But the disappearance of our letters to you is really getting beyond a joke. After Louise had written to you yesterday we tried as best as we could to reconstruct from memory the letters she had written. These were as follows:
1. In the middle of December she sent Adelheid (Dworak) an article on Female Factory Inspectors,[1] along with various notes for the Arbeiter Zeitung—Adelheid has written to say that she never got the letter.
2. Shortly before Christmas Louise wrote to you asking for some infor- mation about the doctor you had recommended to Tussy.
3. In January again to you asking you, amongst other things, to convey my apologies to your wife and saying I was indisposed.
4. Towards the end of January, when Lafargue was here and Burns met him at our house, an account of the latter's visit and conditions in England generally—the letter was from Louise to you.
5. In February she wrote to you urging you to use my article in the Critica Sociale. 334
6 and 7. Two letters from her to you from Eastbourne between 9 February and 1 March.
8. She wrote to Schacherl at the Arbeiter-Zeitung saying she was unable to send the article[2] straight away.
9. On 4 March she wrote asking you to send the Arbeiterinnen-Zeitung to Dr Bonnier, 19 Regent St, Oxford and also gave some information about Jaurès and the Socialist group in the French Chamber.
Some of these letters were sent to you at the editorial office of the Arbeiter-Zeitung, some to your private address and both lots seem to have been disappearing with equal regularity. On the other hand the rest of Louise's letters to Vienna, including those to the gas-workers, have been arriving no less regularly, as have the replies.
Your eight-page letter to Louise has likewise not arrived. So we shall now experiment for a time with registered letters. A cover address in Vienna might perhaps be a good idea.
Herewith what you wanted[3] for the Party Conference. 323
Please give my kindest regards to all comrades including the Berliners. Louise and Freyberger send you their cordial regards, as does
Yours,
F.E.