London, 29 January 1886 

Dear Sorge, 

At last I have some time to spare and hence shall hasten to write to 
you before anything else comes to claim it. 

I hope your Adolf* has made a success of his new business. For he 
understands it and is a hard worker; besides, it’s not a particularly 
speculative business—a great danger, in America as here—so 
I don’t see why all should not be well. I therefore wish him every suc- 
cess. 

IT should greatly like to have Marx’s comments re an English trans- 
lation. 57° At last I have with me, here under my roof, the complete 
ms. of the English translation upon which J shall set to work next 
week. As soon as I know approximately how long the revision is going 
to take, and can thus determine the date when printing may begin, 
I shall make definite arrangements with the publisher. You will have 
seen (in To-Day) how Mr Hyndman, alias Broadhouse, endeavoured 
to put a spoke in my wheel. °*7 This has forced me to get a move-on 
so as not further to impair my position vis-a-vis the publisher, but 
otherwise no harm has been done. 

An American woman? has translated my book on the working 

@ Adolf Sorge jun. - > Florence Kelley-Wischnewetzky 

class * into English, and has also sent me the ms. for revision — parts 
of which will be very time-consuming. Its publication in America is 
assured, but what this lady sees in the old thing I cannot imagine. 

I further have in hand—to mention only revisions: 1) The Exght- 
eenth Brumaire,” French— about '/, already done. 2) Wage Labour and 
Capital by Marx—-Italian. 3) The Origin of the Family— Danish. 
4) Mamifesto and Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, etc., Danish; these two 
already in print but stiff with mistakes. 5) The Origin of the Family, 
French. *°° 6) Soctalism: Utopian and Scientific, English. °? Prenty 
MORE LOOMING IN THE DISTANCE. As you can see, I’m turning into a mere 
schoolmaster correcting exercise-books. It’s lucky that my knowledge 
of languages is not more extensive, for if it were, they’d be piling Rus- 
sian, Polish, Swedish, etc., stuff on to me as well. But it is work of 
which one easily tires — in any case all these nice little bits and pieces 
(at any rate Nos. 2 to 5) will have to give way before Volume III of 
Capital which I have finished dictating from the ms., though the 
editing of some of the most important chapters will involve a great 
deal of work, these consisting in little more than an assemblage of 
building blocks. That is the only task to which I look forward. 

I have not yet had the New Yorker Volkszeitung. I shall, if possible, 
send off To-Day, September, by the same post as this. You’ve no idea 
how difficult these things are to get hold of here — the slovenliness of 
the publishers is quite disgraceful. 

If you haven’t yet seen it, get Dietzgen to give you Hubert Bland’s 
piece on Hyndman’s simultaneous machinations with the Tories and 
Liberals over the elections. It is absolutely true. After this, and 
provided it doesn’t disintegrate, the Socta, Democratic Federation 3°° 
will be morally defunct. Hyndman must be mad to act as he does. 
You will have read all about his insane attack on Aveling, and will 
also have seen the relevant documents in Justice and Commonweal.°°? 
Unfortunately, none of the other leaders of the Federation are 
worth much more than he, being literati and political speculators. 
Indeed, the movement in this country has hitherto been quite 
bogus, but should it prove possible to educate within the Sociatist 
Leacue **° a nucleus with an understanding of theoretical matters, 
considerable progress will have been made towards the eruption, 
which cannot be long in coming, of a genuine mass movement. 

2 F. Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, - » K.Marx, The 
Etghteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. -‘ K.Marx and F. Engels, Manifesto of the Com- 
munist Party. 

Give my regards to Dietzgen. It’s uphill work for him, but he’ll 
manage all right.°?° Arter att, the movement in America has made 
tremendous strides. True, the Anglo-Americans want to do things 
their own way with a total disregard for reason and science, nor could 
one expect anything else, yet they are drawing closer and will end up 
by coming all the way. Over there capitalist centralisation is going 
ahead like a house on fire — unlike here. 

I trust your health is completely restored. I’m pretty well on the 
whole, otherwise I should never get through my work. 

I’ve been working on Bebel with a view to his visiting the States 
with Liebknecht.* Tussy and Aveling might go too. But that remains 
to be decided. 

My kindest regards to Adolf. 

Your 
F. Engels