| Paris, Mars 17/1866
33, Rue des trois Couronnes, du TempleDears, all of you
It was surely the most brilliant idea, Karl Marx.
Schließen father
Mohr ever had,
when he got good Jenny Marx (Tochter).
Schließen Jenny to make me have those long expected and often thought of,
portraits. I now, without the slightest hesitation—boldly I say: you are the
most pathetical wordkeepers, this wretched world has
ever borne. Indeed, I was so thoroughly pleased, when I saw your dear little
heads dive out of Der Brief konnte nicht ermittelt
werden.
Schließen your letter, that—what do you think? that I could not help heartily
kissing them, without exception, and—niether of you even plushed. Should
however, any one of you feel vexed, at so much of a stranger’s daring, there
will be no other way, of taking revenge, at this my criminal action, but to do
the same to mine, if it should happen to be found still in that rich collection,
among the number of your friends; do it with as angry looks as possibly you
may—and never tell me of it (!)
Seit Ende Januar litt Marx
an Furunkulose.
Schließen I was very deeply affected to hear, that you had
sickness and sorrow again reigning in your house, and even more so as you did have before. I
know, that poor Mohr has not the time now to be ill and keep his sheets. How
much this very critical position, he of needs must have found himself to be
surprised by this new “fléau” in, must have contributed to give you number of
anxieties, I fully can appreciate. Mohr is, I often had occasion to convince me
of, by nature of an exellent disposition and of a most brillant humour, as long
as he is passably well, and able to smoke his pipe in peace, but like the rest
of us, being ill, he is likely to have his days, when he gets awful out of time.
If one, like him, has all his lifetime struggled and made sail for one thing,
has, with all his work and toil, at last reached close his end—the land in
sight, he drops his anchor—and finds his tackle short and going back to sea
again, he can not well help knitting his brows, and growing damned wild. Gemeint ist hier Karl Marx: Das Kapital; siehe
Erl. zu
Marx an J. Ph. Becker, zw. 9. u. 15.1.1866.
Schließen His work,
so eagerly expected by all his friends, that will have cost him so many nights
rests, and which, to my believe, in a great measure is
the cause of his continued ake and lingering health, by depriving him of all
necessary rest and distraction, I hope, as earnestly as one can hope, that is
fully aware of its importance, and bears his friendship streight at heart—will
find its completion, with natur’s resurrection—the all invigorating spring! I am
convinced that this weight, once off his mind, he will become another man, he
will be merry as he was before, and joy and happiness will enter streight at all
your doors again. If then, you careful keep the windows shut, you will find your
rooms too small, to hold it all, and Mohr will be obliged to take the sails and
come over to me, to Paris, and spend a happy month with me. If my rustic
habitation, will then be good enough, he shall be heartily welcome.
We had a most wretched winter here. The weather was as changeable and unhealthy as ever I had seen in London. Raining, hot and cold were dayly changing twice and more than twice. The number of ills is greater as ever has been seen before, the hospitals are crowded and burrial undertaking is the best business out. Combined with that, things have been generally very dull here, and living has attained a higher price, as I knew it to have been at London, at the time I left.
I for my own part, have still kept very well, and the numberless complaints, I was subjected to, in foggy London, are all gone by. I think if I had stood another year or two on Englands smoky shores, I should have kicked the bucket like a man. I think one ought not to do so any sooner than he can help.
| Our business goes on now, as well as can be expected under such unfavorable
circumstances, as than we had had to begin in. We have plenty of work, even so
much, that we are almost smothered with it. The only great misfortune in the
matter is, that we have not sufficiently tin to make it
go and role, and make it worth our’s while. As things are now, we have about 35
or 40,000 Fr. in the concern. If we wanted to go on, any way favourably, we
ought now at least to have another 800 or 1000 £(?) to put in to it. As it were, we are dependent of a
multitude of unfavourable circumstances, of different individuals etc. we might
all free ourselfs without delay. There has been offerd to us, for example, the
execution of censoring(?) the
whole materials of a large manufactury—a work amounting to more than 100,000 Fr.
There might be 25,000 Fr. got out of it in considerably less than a year, and
the work we have, carried on at the same time. But as we are almost pennyless—the whole of what little we have, all laid out, and
not by far enough—there is not to be thought of such an undertaking, the job
will pass our noses clean, although the preference would have been given to us,
had we been able to execute it without the help of any one. It will fall to the
lot of one that has got tin enough. However I do not complain, as I know it
would be of no use. Es handelt sich um eine bekannte Anekdote. Gemeint sind hier
vermutlich, auch wegen des im Brief genannten österreichischen Militärs
Ludwig Freiherr von
Gablenz, die Wiener
Rothschilds, somit entweder Anselm Salomon Freiherr von Rothschild oder noch sein
Vater, Salomon Meyer Freiherr von
Rothschild.
Schließen Rothchild, they say, was once on
board of one of the Rhin-steamers, when
a pickpocket tried to rob the poor Baron. His friend, who stood by,
seeing it, laid hand on the fellow, and wanted, to have him locked up.
“Never mind” said Rothchild “let the chap loose, we too have begun in so
small a way.”—So so. We are but little thiefs
now, and will have a damned hard pull to get on, but if we but have a little
chance—we may. There is no possibility of getting out of it now! We either must
swimm or drown. The only thing, that grieves me much, is, that before we get out
of the deepest mud—if out we get at all—those few good years, I have still
before me, will have gone by, and things which might have been done perhaps even
now, although it is already late, will be to late for ever.
To another picture! I dare not
neglect, my dear Marx, to tell you of a thing which might perhaps at a very
early period, enter so extensivly into the composure of our present society,
that this our society would cease to resemble itself. The period of steam will
be at its end. A Frenchman, of the name of Rebour, and whose acquaintance
I had the pleasure of making, has lately modified an invention, he has already
tried before a numerous public of scientific men in
1853, in Russia, Amerika and lastly in England, which will be able of
propounding any railway train or doing any kind of work, steam engines are doing
now, without any power, but its own weight as a moteur.
Do not think I am out of mind. In 53 already, the future consequences of such an
invention have been so thoroughly understood in London, at a Banquet given to
M. Rebour at Sablonnière-Hôtel,
Leicester Square, that high placed men thought wise to poison the man, which
they affected by presenting him a slize of cake, where a laurel & a rose
were laid on. However he survived. To day, he is associated with Anselm Salomon Freiherr von
Rothschild.
Schließen Baron Rothchild, General von Gablenz and the devil knows who all. The
enormous capital has been voted, and in a few months his waggon will go from
Paris to Marseille and back at a rate of 40 miles an hour, without steam or any
other motive power but the waggons own weight. His
invention applicated on the fly-wheel of an ordinary steam engine, gives 80%
economy in power. A steam engine of 4 horse for example,
he can make by an application of his invention to make
20 horse without a pennyworth more coals. However
this is nothing, as the steamengines will be done away with all together. Up to
now: augmentation of weight, was augmentation of
friction. He upsets all and prooves, in spite of all the proud Chorophees of
Knowledge that, if things are in the right condition: augmentation of weight is
impossible without diminution of friction. This is the
great basis on which his invention reposes. The good man has great difficulties
to fight with. He finds bad will every where. A thing which must cause such an
enormous “deplacement de richesse” is not likely to find many friend. I could
write much more about it. If you will believe me, that I
am not out of mind, and you feel interested in it, I shall write more about the
progress of it. I consider the man a great genius, and those that will lend
hands to bring it to life, as very useful members of society. He finds the
greatest opposition in the “haute bourgeoisie”. Diese Stelle erwähnt Marx im Brief an Engels vom
2. April 1866
.
Schließen The
same M. Rebour, assures me—but
the matter shall not yet be talked of, as he has since the London
affairs some reason to be careful—that he is able to separate hydrogene
from oxigene in a way that costs 2 sous par jour for a fire to melt iron
with. I think the man to be of also sound mind, honest and very
intelligent as much as I know now of him.
I think in such a baffling case as this, this testimonial is not
superfluous. I may be wrong, as so many mortals
have been wrong before, but I doubt it strongly. I am not entousiaste. I pray
you—dont believe a word of all that, I dont like people
that believe before they see and understand. Let me hear soon something of you.
Ch. Kaub
Zeugenbeschreibung und Überlieferung
Dieser Brief wird hier erstmals veröffentlicht.
Zeugenbeschreibung
Der Brief besteht aus einem Bogen dünnem, weißem Papier im Format 412 × 266 mm. Kaub hat die erste und dritte Seite vollständig beschrieben, die zweite und vierte Seite sind leer. Schreibmaterial: schwarze Tinte.
Von unbekannter Hand: Nummerierung des Briefes: „2“ mit Bleistift auf der ersten Seite oben in der Mitte; Vermerk mit schwarzer Tinte „Mars 17/66“, auf der vierten Seite unten rechts quer geschrieben.
Die Schreibweise wurde zurückhaltend korrigiert, die Eingriffe sind ausgewiesen.
Anmerkungen zum Brief
Kaub beantwortet, wie aus dem Brief zu ersehen ist, einen nicht überlieferten Brief, vermutlich von Jenny Marx, geschrieben vor dem 17. März 1866 (J. Marx an K. Kaub, vor 17.3.1866).
Zitiervorschlag
Karl Kaub an Familie Marx in London. Paris, Samstag, 17. März 1866. In: Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe digital. Hg. von der Internationalen Marx-Engels-Stiftung. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin. URL: http://megadigital.bbaw.de/briefe/detail.xql?id=M0000069. Abgerufen am 28.03.2024.