MARX TO LAURA LAFARGUE ”? 

Ventnor, 4 January 1882 
1 St Boniface Gardens 

Dear Laurachen, 

Today is our first sunny and tolerable day in Ventnor. The 
weather is said to have been excellent — up till the time of our arri- 
val.?3* Thereafter GaLEs EVERY DAY, wind raging and howling through- 
out the night, in the morning THE sky OVERCAST, LEADEN, LONDONLIKE. Tem- 
perature significantly lower than in London and, on top of that, and 
most tiresome of all, a great deal of rain. (The air itself was of course 
‘purer’ than in London.) 

In the circumstances it was only natural that my cough, in fact my 
bronchial catarrh, should have got worse rather than better. But for 
all that I have progressed to the extent that for part of the night 
I sleep naturally, without opium, etc. However my general condition 
is not such as to render me fit for work. Today, about the end of the 
first week of our stay, it looks as though a change is setting in. Given 
warmer weather this would certainly be a splendid health resort for 
convalescents of my description. 

My companion’ (this strictly between ourselves) eats practically noth- 
ing; suffers badly from nervous tics; reads and writes all day long, 
when not engaged in buying the necessary provisions or taking short 
walks. She is very taciturn and, ipgEp, seemingly endures stay- 
ing with me simply out of a sense of duty, as a self-sacrificing martyr. 

Has there been no more news from Jenny about the arrival of the 
Curistmas Box’? I’m worried about the thing. 

* Eleanor Marx -* See this volume, p. 164. 

You will understand, dear child, if I have nothing positive to report 
to you from here, my experiences hitherto having been purely nega- 
tive, unless it be the great discovery that local literature here is repre- 
sented by 3 newspapers, and that there is even a school oF ART and scI- 
ENCE INSTITUTION where a big lecture is to be given next Monday even- 
ing ON THE CASTES AND ‘METIERS’ OF India. 

Today I received a letter from Reinhardt in Paris in which he 
speaks of our sad bereavement? in the mosr sincere and Most SYMPA- 
THETIC manner. The vehemence with which the bourgeois papers in 
Germany have announced either my demise, or at any rate the in- 
evitable imminence thereof, has tickled me hugely, and the ‘man at 
odds with the world’ will have to get fit for action again, if only to 
oblige them. 

Willard Brown has written to Tussy from New York; he has entrust- 
ed the business of your house to a very intimate and competent 
friend of his in new Orleans ?°°; the latter has written to say that 
AT FIRST SIGHT there has been a great deal of underhand work but that 
he must first make further investigations in order to obtain actual 
proof. 

I enclose, as a curiosity for Paul, a cutting from the mower arrictein 
The Times (29 December 1881) which was obviously inserted by 
Messrs Say and Rothschild.‘(Regards to Paul and Helen.*) 

Adio, MY DEAR CHILD, write soon. 

Your 

Old Nick