AT LE PERREUX 

London, 1 December 1890 

My dear Laura, 

Enfin!* T have got that 70th birthday behind me. On Thursday Be- 
bel, Liebknecht, and Singer arrived. On Friday letters and telegrams 
en masse, the latter from Berlin (3), Vienna (3), Paris (Roumanian 
students and Frankel), Berne (Russische Soztaldemokraten), Leipzig 
Stadt und Land,” Bochum  (Klassenbewusste Bergleute‘— miners), 
Stuttgart (Sozialdemokraten, Württemberg’s), Firth, Hochst (Paulis), 
London (Arbeiterverein“),?° Hamburg. The fraction‘ sent me a splen- 
did album with their 35 portraits, Dietz a book of photos of some ex- 
cellent Munich pictures, the Solingers a knife with inscription, etc., 
etc. Enfin j’étais écrasé.’ Well, in the evening we had the whole lot here, 
embellished by and bye by little Oswald and four delegates from the 
Arbeiterverein (one of whom speechless drunk) and we kept it up ull 
half past three in the morning and drank, besides claret, 16 bottles of 
champaign— the morning we had had 12 dozen oysters. So you see 
I did my best to show that I was still alive and kicking. 

But it’s a good job. One can celebrate one’s 70th birthday only 
once. It will take me a devil of a time to reply to all those letters — 
even those I must reply to personally. That is the prose following upon 
the poetry of life, and to break my fall I begin by writing the only one 
I can write with true pleasure— this one to you. 

Louise Kautsky came on the Tuesday after you left and has since 
then made me extremely comfortable. As to the future, we have not 
yet talked about it. I want her to see how things will settle down be- 
fore asking her to come to a definite resolution. We are getting on 
very well with Pumps; my lecture and a few hints, repeated later on, 
that her position in my house depends very much upon her own be- 
haviour, seem to have had some effect. We'll hope it may last. 

Bebel looks rather delicate and a deal older than when I last saw 
him. Singer too is getting gray, and of course Liebknecht too, though 

d 

* At last!-> town and country-° class-conscious miners-* workers’ society-* the So- 

cial-Democratic group in the German Reichstag-' In a word, I was overwhelmed. 

he looks fat and content de lui-méme*; he complains awfully about the 
few capacities among the younger generation, and the impossibility 
consequently of getting good men for his paper,” but otherwise he is 
very well satisfied with things in general and the Berliners in particu- 
lar. ‘'o-morrow the Reichstag opens, and we had the greatest trouble 
to keep Singer and Bebel here to meet Burns, Cunninghame- 
Graham, Thorne and others at Tussy’s. And now we fave kept them 
here, a damnable fog is setting in (2 p.m.) which even prevents me 
from writing and may, if not dispersed in time, nullify the whole in- 
tended international conference.°° 

Interrupted by fog — forbidden to write by the gaslight —- donc,° con- 
clusion. 

Ever yours, 
F. Engels 

Dites &@ Mémé que mon nase se porte parfaitement a Pextérieur mais qua Pin- 
térieur il y a un rhume de cerveau.*