MARX TO ENGELS” 

London, 13 February 1856 
28 Dean Street, Soho 

Dear Fred, 

According to a letter I’ve had from Imandt, Heise is gradually 
approaching extinction as a result of the undue amount of ‘oil’ he 
has been pouring on the lamp of life.“ Imandt himself grumbles 
a great deal about the Scots, with whom it is impossible to 
have more than 12 lessons to teach them German, whatever 

a penniless - > dear brother (Edgar Bauer) - ¢ In his letter to Marx of 6 February 
1856 Imandt wrote that Heise, ill with tuberculosis, was drinking too much whisky. 

ruses he adopts. The fellows are keen on “grasping” out of 
avarice. 

But the great event, the event which has caused me to send this 
second epistle following hard on the heels of the first, is the Seiler 
event. You will recall what the auspices for this Sebastian 
Sheetanchor* looked like when last you were here. The old 
GREENGROCER proved rather adamant, and Seiler himself, with the 
happy instinct characteristic of the man, soon discovered that it 
would be altogether foolish to lay out some £200 on amortising 
the past rather than greasing the wheels of the future. So he 
takes the heroic decision to advise his father-in-law mot to pay 
one single creditor, but rather look on unconcernedly should he 
be locked up. His intention, then, was to pass through the courr 
oF insolvency and, thus purged, start a new career with the old 
man’s help. This seemed very practical to the old man. Seiler 
for his part was tempted by the prospect—once initiated into 
the crapuleuse’ company of the Queen’s Bench?'—of keeping 
open board thanks to generous supplies from wife and 
mother-in-law and, incidentally, of completing his immortal 
work on Alexander I1—consisting of extracts from the Augsburg 
Allgemeine Zeitung, upon which he has spread an equivocal syrup. 
The matter was at once put in hand. There began a golden 
era of farniente’ and ‘business errands’ into town. But what was 
particularly embarrassing was that, despite the warrants taken 
out against him and despite the  osrenrarious EXHIBITION of 
his worthy person in the streets of London, not a single 
creditor took steps to have Sebastian arrested. The old 
GREENGROCER, Whose faith in the ‘personality’ of his son-in-law was in 
no way reinforced by the latter’s inviolability, told him the time 
had come to vacate the house and withdraw with his wife to a 
distant corrace. During the actual removal some of the effects were 
confiscated by vigilant creditors, among them 7 pairs of boots 
belonging to Sebastian. Sebastian himself took care that there 
should be no secret about the corrace either, since a quiet and 
secluded existence with his cabbage of a wife had no place 
whatsoever in his plans. In short, to such good effect did he 
intrigue with the cabbage, the mother-in-law and the GRreENcrRocrr, 
that it has been decided to despatch him to the ‘New World’— 
New York, or courss—whither his spouse is to follow him once he 
has secured a ‘position’. The matter now turns—he is expected to 

a An ironical allusion to Sebaidus Nothanker (literally: Sheetanchor), the hero of Ch. 
Fr. Nicolai’s novel Das Leben und die Meinungen des Herrn Magister Sebaldus 
Nothanker. - > lewd - ¢ doing nothing 

leave this week—on the number of £s he is to take with him for 
his travelling expenses. He is asking for £60. The GReENGROcER 
reckons that half as much will suffice. Sebastian plans, once in 
America, to extract one 5 pound note after the other from his 
dear spouse, to pamper his belly, to publish his Kaspar Hauser and 
Alexander II, and, as a grass widower, never to forego the 
sweet melancholy of separation from his cabbage. It would be 
interesting if a creditor did catch him after all. At all events he has 
succeeded in leaving England too as a ‘financial’ fugitive, only 
in more respectable circumstances than those attending his depar- 
ture from Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. His ‘plan was 
that Pieper should go with him as companion. Pieper had only 
pretended to fall in with this plan so as to get a share of the 
7 pairs of boots, but in the event he was forestalled by the 
BROKERS. 

Pieper was here one evening not long ago giving lessons to the 
children when the postman knocked at the door downstairs. A letter 
for Pieper in a female hand. Invitation to a rendezvous. Since he 
was unfamiliar with the hand and equally with the signature, he 
gave himself over to great expectations and passed the letter to my 
wife to read. From the signature she at once recognised our 
ex-nurse, the fat old Irish slattern, who cannot write herself and 
therefore had the letter written by a third hand. You can imagine 
how we teased Fridolin? with our laughter. But he kept his 
rendezvous with the cow. Such, then, are his apventures. O King 
Visvamitra, what an ox you are! 

Don’t forget the Pan-Slavism."’ 

Salut. 

Your 
K. M. 

Printed i he original