202 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



from you, which would expel the feeling of uncertainty 

 as to the personal welfare of every one of my loved ones 

 at home. 



I have openly to confess my great disappointment at 

 the strange fact of not receiving a single letter from you 

 upon landing here and cannot deny that it has depressed 

 and discouraged me for many an hour, and to a great 

 extent emphasized my disappointment at not obtaining 

 employment. Please make up for it by writing long let- 

 ters and real often. It will be advisable to direct the 

 outer envelope as follows: 



Messrs. Gent, Schott, Boettcher & Co., 



San Francisco, 

 Upper California. 



And then put the closed letter into it. The mail will 

 thus receive quicker attention at the post-office than if it 

 were directed to me in care of Boettcher. Please give 

 my very best regards and many thousand greetings to all 

 the loved ones. Do not worry if you do not hear from 

 me within the next few months, but write diligently that 

 I may have plenty to read. I embrace and kiss you all. 

 God be with vou! 



FRANZ LECOUVREUR. 



Translator's note: 



The following pages contain a few timely quotations 

 and thoughts, which the young author enclosed in the 

 above letter, but which had been written on the eve of 

 his departure from Bartenstein. His well-known ad- 

 miration for the exiled poet Heine, who was slowly dying 

 on his mattress-grave, while our friend set foot on Amer- 

 ican soil, led to the first quotation, which refers to the 

 unexpected marriage of the poet's fiancee, Amalie, 

 daughter of Solomon Heine, his multi-millionaire uncle, 

 a fact which the great lyric bemourned in many songs, 

 of which the following is one of the shortest: 



