MARX TO JENNY MARX *” 

[Brighton,} 25 August 1871 

Dear Jenny, 

I forgot to tell you yesterday* of a curious événement” The 
second day after my arrival here,?” I met a chap in a waiting 
posture at the corner of my street. He was the same man whom I 
had told you about before as having accompanied Engels and 
myself on our way Home on a number of occasions. Engels had 
thought he was a spy and we once gave him a ‘hint’. As you know, 
GENERALLY SPEAKING I am not good at detecting spies. But this fellow 
has obviously and undeniably dogged my every step down here. 
Yesterday, I became fed up with it, so I stopped, turned round 
and stared at him with my notorious eyeglass. WHAT DiD HE Do? He 
doffed his hat very humbly and today he no longer honoured me 
with the pleasure of his company. 

I wrote a detailed letter to Dana today giving him, among other 
things, an extensive account of the adventures in Luchon and 
Spain.” He will certainly be able to use it for his Sun. It is Exactiy 
THAT SORT OF THING THE YANKEES ARE FOND OF. I have of course dealt with 
the matter in terms which can do the children no harm—should 
they stay longer over there. 

No one is so deaf as those who will not hear! And so of Stepney 
IN REGARD TO THE REFUGEES! Jung and I told him the whole story 
without mincing words. Hales sent him subscription lists.© I told 
him of the letter from Davydov,” and lastly I advised him of the 
steps taken here to obtain subsidies. But for all that the old jackass 
has TILL NOW NOT LOOSENED HIS PURSE-STRINGS NOR SEEMS HE AT ALL WILLING TO DO 
so. Yesterday he told me with his eunuch’s voice that he had sent 
subscription lists—to Boston, and he showed me a letter that he 
had written to a local lady, asking for contributions. But he 
himself! Nor ue! 

The fellow is altogether ‘off his head’, as Jung says. Jung came 
here last Saturday‘ and left again on Monday. He brought his two 
boys with him and before his departure he told Stepney that he 

a See Note 17. - > incident - © This refers to the fund for refugee Communards. - 
419 August 

was going to a family he knew of who would look after the boys. 
Stepney went with him and after Jung had serriep everything with 
the Lanpapy, Stepney said: ‘But I want for 8 Days TO TAKE CARE OF THE BOYS 
myself.. And so all was unsettled again. 

On the whole, the weather here has been stormy and rainy, so 
that 1 have not ceased to have colds with accompanying cough. 
But the wonderful air and the bath that I take daily have had a 
very good effect on my GENERAL STATE OF HEALTH. Throughout the 
whole period I have regretted nothing so much as the fact that 
you were not here. Anyhow, you must also—by hook or by 
crook—have, if not a summer trip, at least an autumn one this 
year. 

As for those Swiss oafs, Schneider and Zichlinsky (the ‘tailor’* 
was a highly suspect individual even in Germany), they will soon 
realise that they are not in Germany any more. 

I find that too many Proudhonists are being admitted to the 
General Council, and on my return I shall insist on the admission 
of Martin and Le Moussu as an antidote. 

Brighton—where, incidentally, I am living the life of a hermit 
on the whole—is naturally absorbed IN THE GREAT POISONING CASE, 
obviously a pure outbreak of hysterical boredom on the part of a 
silly, love-sick, 35-year-old spinster in comfortable circumstances. 

The reports by The Daily News’ and The Daily Telegraph Paris 
CORRESPONDENTS on the Versailles trial are truly loathsome, infamous 
products of PENNY-A-LINERS, 

Adio. 

Your 
Karl