ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY-WISCHNEWETZKY”™ 

London, 12 January 1889 

Dear Mrs Wischnewetzky, 

No doubt you feel disappointed at my having left America”*! without 
coming to see you at your sea-side retreat. But I was really too unwell, 
while in New York, to attempt an excursion of any kind—as you are aware 
I arrived with a severe cold which Dr Wischnewetzky declared to be bron- 
chitis. This got worse, instead of better, and moreover I got a severe indi- 
gestion which made me feel on shore the sea sickness I had not had on the 
ocean. Under these circumstances, and with a long journey over unknown 
ground before me, I felt bound to get cured at once and to subordinate 
everything else to this consideration—I therefore placed myself under the 
motherly care of Mrs Sorge, did not leave Hoboken for days together, and 
at last got right again—about the time when we had to leave New York. 
Had it not been for this, I should certainly have come to pass a day with 
you; as it was, I had to choose between perfect rest at Hoboken, and an 
excursion which was almost sure to have upset me for the whole of the 
journey and maybe laid me up somewhere far out in the country. 

The 500 copies* from Lee and Shepard have arrived—but too late to 
be sent out before the Christmas holidays, when nothing but holiday 
literature is noticed—I have therefore kept them back until now. On 
Monday the copies to the press will go out and the rest be handed to 
Reeves. As the boycott of the London Socialists against Marx and myself 
(exactly like that of English prehistoric old fogies against Morgan)" 
seems still in force, I am curious what the effect will be. 

With best wishes for the New Year. 

Yours faithfully 
F. Engels