London, 9 November 1882 

Dear Sorge, 

I have paid for The Labour Standard up till 3 December, 4/5d., and 
advised Shipton to send all future accounts to me.*?! Should you 
wish to cancel the subscription, perhaps you would let me have 
prompt notification. 

Marx was here for 3 weeks, very much better; all he needs now is 
decent air and careful treatment. His minor ailments have been van- 
quished to the extent that he will certainly be rid of them next sum- 
mer. The main thing is to get him through the winter without a re- 
currence of pleurisy, and for that reason he has gone to Ventnor in the 
Iste or Wight *'! whence I have just received a line or two from him.? 
So far as circumstances permit, the 3rd edition» will now be taken vig- 
orously in hand there and won’t, I trust, occupy too much time. For 
the rest he was very cheerful and sprightly and, if all goes well until 
next autumn, he will be stronger than he has been for years. 

My thanks with regard to Lilienthal. I now know the man as well 
as if we had been at school together. 

I’m glad to hear that your Adolph‘ is getting on well; I trust he will 

@ See this volume, pp. 364-67.-° 3rd German edition of Vol. I of Capital-* Adolph 
Sorge jun. 

soon find a Line that will give him the opportunity he wants of getting 
on quickly. His letters have arrived but, like many others, unfortu- 
nately still remain unanswered. 

Hepner is a proper Schlemihl *%?; moreover his campaigns, like the 
one he is waging against Schewitsch, are too much concerned with 
hair-splitting. Who, after all, is going to wax so enthusiastic about 
‘German culture’! He really ought to familiarise himself with Ameri- 
can culture first. But that is typically German. Here we have someone 
arriving from a small town in the depths of Germany who cannot 
wait to enlighten America. However America will sreax him 1 all 
right and, since he has talent, and at one time also possessed a great 
deal of gumption, he may yet prove very useful. 

16 November 

That shows you what things are like here. Having had to break off 
a week ago I have only today got round to continuing this and, 
I trust, finishing it off. 

Lafargue has been in Paris ever since the spring; his wife * followed 
later, during the summer; she spent a month with Marx in Vevey.*’+* 
For Marx had first been in Algiers,? then in Monte Carlo (Mona- 
co) 31° and in both places had suffered a recurrence of preurisy. After 
that he stayed with the Longuets in Argenteuil °?7 where he availed 
himself of the sulphur springs at nearby Enghien for his chronic bron- 
chitis. Then to Vevey and finally back here. 

You might like to know that Lafargue (with a great deal of assis- 
tance from me, since he had absolutely no intention of learning Ger- 
man from his wife) has published in French 3 chapters from my Anti- 
Dihring (introduction and the two first chapters of Part III ‘Social- 
ism’) under the title Socialisme utopique et soctalisme scientifique.2° It 
made a tremendous impression in France. Most people are too lazy to 
read stout tomes such as Capital and hence a slim little pamphlet like 
this has a much more rapid effect. I shall now publish the thing in 
German —- with insertions calculated to give it a strong popular ap- 
peal; the ms. is already in Zurich and the first sheet has been print- 
ed.37° T shall send it to you as soon as it is ready. Meanwhile you 
have, of course, in Dr Stiebeling a purveyor of popular knowledge to 

* Laura Lafargue 

America in utrague lingua.* He is a well-meaning man but no theorist 
and accordingly he is somewhat muddle-headed. 

The Egalité is now appearing daily and weekly. Whether the daily 
edition (in place of the Citoyen which our people were chucked out of 
thanks to a financial coup’) can keep going depends upon negotiations 
with a man of means. The Sozialdemokrat is being much too weak- 
kneed in regard to the split between our people and Malon, but the 
smooth, cunning, rascally Malon (one of the 17 founders of Bakunin’s 
secret ‘Alliance’) has so ingratiated himself with the Germans in 
Paris and our people have made a number of such colossal blunders 
that the Paris people are doing their utmost to bring pressure to bear 
on Zurich. What’s more, Liebknecht also intrigued with Malon when 
passing through Paris on his way home from here. If, however, 
Lafargue and Guesde commit some altogether too extravagant follies, 
1 shall talk the Sozialdemokrat round, never fear. 

Your 
F. E. 
Regards to Adolph.