MARX TO JENNY MARX*” 

Trier, 15 December 1863, 
Wednesday 
Gasthof von Venedig 

Dear sweet darling jenny, 

I arrived here exactly a week ago today. Tomorrow I am going 
to Frankfurt to see Aunt Esther‘ (NB: the lady, who was in Trier, 
was formerly in Algiers, and lives with my aunt, is also my father’s 
sister, also an aunt, is called Babette, familiarly ‘Babchen’, is rich). 
From Frankfurt I shall go to Bommel,° as I wrote my uncle” 
yesterday, probably to his dismay. 

4 Letter to the editor of The Times signed ‘A German who is fond of facts’, The Times, 
No. 24733, 4 December 1863. - Lion Philips - © Esther Kosel - 4 Babette Blum - 
¢ Zalt-Bommel 

If I have been so long in writing to you, this was certainly not 
out of forgetfulness. Quite the reverse. I have made a daily 
pilgrimage to the old Westphalen home (in the Neustrasse), which 
interested me more than any Roman antiquities’ because it 
reminded me of the happiest days of my youth and _ had 
harboured my greatest treasure. Moreover, every day and on 
every side I am asked about the quondam* ‘most beautiful girl in 
Trier’ and the ‘queen of the ball’. Its damned pleasant for a man, 
when his wife lives on like this as an ‘enchanted princess’ in the 
imagination of a whole town. 

The reason I didn’t write was that every day I hoped to have 
something definite to say, but up to this moment don’t yet know 
of anything definite. For this is how matters stand. On my arrival 
I naturally found everything under seal save for such furniture as 
was in daily use. My mother, with her usual mania for assuming 
‘supreme command’, had told Conradi not to bother about 
anything; she had so arranged matters that Uncle would see to 
‘everything’. What she gave Conradi was a notarial copy of a sort 
of will, which contained nothing but the following terms: 1. She 
left all the furniture and linen to Emilie” with the exception of the 
gold- and silverware; 2. To her son Carl she leaves the 1,100 talers, 
etc.; 3. To Sophie,* father’s portrait. That’s all there is to the will. 
(NB: Sophie has 1,000 talers a year, for the most part given her by 
the Philipses. So, after all, you see, my relations are decent ‘folk’.) 

Apart from this scrap of paper, my mother had lodged another 
(now invalid) legally attested will. This was of an earlier date and 
was nullified by the more recent will. It had been drawn up before 
Emilie’s marriage. In it she had made Emilie the beneficiary of 
everything of which she was entitled to dispose. In addition, she 
had appointed Uncle Martin and Uncle Philips her executors. 
She—or rather her bibulous notary Zell (deceased)—forgot to 
repeat this clause relating to executors in the scrap of paper which 
now alone is valid and which I have described above, so that if 
Uncle is the executor, it is only thanks to our bonne grace.“ (For 
which I, of course, have my own ‘reasons’.) As yet, I know nothing 
about the actual value of the estate, because all the papers are in 
the sealed cupboard. The seals have not yet been removed because 
of the time-consuming formalities that have to be gone through 
before the Dutch powers of attorney (for Juta’ and Sophie) can 
arrive here. So far as I am concerned this will take too long. I am 

4 sometime - > Emilie Conradi - © Sophie Schmalhausen - ¢ Martin Presburg - 
© good graces - | Louise Juta