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pity and sympathy. A man beating his wife … he could have ordered to be beaten to death. By his impulsive character on such occasions he not unfrequently brought himself and us into a ' fix' . . . . It is necessary to have seen Marx with his children in order to understand fully the deep mind and the childlike heart of this hero of science, In his spare minutes or on his walks he carried them around, played with them the wildest, merriest games—in short, was a child among children … When his own children were grown up his grandchildren took their place. … Jean or Johnny Longuet, his first daughter, Jenny's, eldest son, was grandpa's pet. He could do whatever he pleased with him, and Johnny knew it." Once Johnny "conceived the ingenious thought of transforming 'Mohr' into an omnibus, on the driver's seat of which, i.e., Marx's shoulders, he seated himself, while Engels and myself were to be the omnibus horses. Having been hitched up, there was a wild chase. … And Marx had to trot until the sweat poured down his forehead, and when Engels or I tried to slacken our pace down came the whip of the cruel driver, 'You naughty horse. En avant,' and so forth, until Marx could stand it no longer: then, by negotiation with Johnny, a halt was called."
Liebknecht further throws some interesting sidelights on Marx's character. For instance, his ability at times to to play mad, boyish pranks; his love of chess—how he was capable of playing till late at night and the whole of the next day, and when he lost a game he would at the same time lose his temper, and even be most disagreeable at home. On this account Mrs. Marx and Lenchen (Helen Demuth) begged Liebknecht not to play chess with "Mohr" in the evening.
Marx was a wonderfully clear and efficient teacher. He was stern in that he demanded the thoroughness which he himself practised; at the same time, he was kind, patient, ever ready to help. As for popularity, he cared nothing for it. He knew that the vast masses could not for the time being understand him, and a favourite saying of his was: "Follow your course and let others talk."
Marx's eldest boy, Edgar, a very gifted child, but weakly from his birth, died in London when about 8 years
