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Title: A Letter
Author: Emma Goldman
Date: June 1906
Language: en
Topics: letter, Libertarian Labyrinth, Mother Earth
Source: Retrieved on 25th April 2021 from http://wiki.libertarian-labyrinth.org/index.php?title=A_Letter
Notes: Published in Mother Earth 1, no. 4 (June 1906): 13–14.

Emma Goldman

A Letter

Chicago, June 2^(nd), 1906.

Dear Editor:—I hope you have not been trying to relieve your feelings by

using language dangerous to your soul’s salvation. I can sympathize with

you, though. However, it was impossible for me to send the promised

article for “M. E.” Who, indeed, could expect a bride of two weeks to

waste time upon magazine articles?! I hope you have read the reports of

my marriage, though your silence would indicate that you have either

neglected to read the important news, or that your usual lack of faith

in the truth and honesty of the press has not permitted you to credit

the story.

It is high time, dear friend, that you get rid of your German

skepticism; you know, I esteem your judgment, but when it comes to

doubting anything the newspapers say, I draw the line. What reporters do

not know about Anarchists, and especially about your publisher, is not

worth knowing. According to their great wisdom I not only incited men to

remove the crowned heads of various countries, but I have done worse—I

have incited them to marry me, and when they proved unwilling to love,

honor and obey the order of our secret societies to blow up all sacred

institutions, I sent them about their business.

Much as I realize the importance of my articles for Mother Earth, you

cannot expect me to sacrifice my wifely duty to my lord and master for

Earth’s sake.

I have always held to the opinion that there must be absolute confidence

between publisher and editor on all matters except the receipts;

therefore I have to confess that my newly-wedded husband, who has just

graduated from the University of the Western Penitentiary—the curriculum

of which is lots of liberty, leisure and enjoyment—objects to the

drudgery of an agitator and publisher. In justice to him, I dare not do

more than write letters all day, address meetings every evening, and

enjoy the love and kindness of the comrades till early morning hours.

Where, then, shall I find time to write articles for “Mother Earth?”

But to be in keeping with the serious and dignified tone of our valuable

magazine, and especially with you[14] dear Editor, I want to say that my

meetings were very successful, and that Mother Earth is being received

with great favor in every city. Nearly 500 copies were sold here.

After reading the brilliant reports in the Chicago papers and seeing the

handsome, refined policemen at the various meetings, I am not surprised

that our magazine is being appreciated. Apropos of the Chicago police,

just fancy, I have actually forced them out of their uniforms. I hope

this will not conjure up the horrible picture of Chicago’s finest

parading the city in Adam’s costume. Not that! Only, Chief of Police

Collins was so outraged over my gentle criticism of his dear little boys

at one of the woodworkers’ meetings, that he gave strict orders, “No

officer should again appear at a public meeting in uniform where that

awful Emma Goldman is humiliating and degrading the emblem of authority

and law.”

After this, I hope you will never again doubt the importance of public

meetings and the great and far-reaching influence of my speaking.

I shall soon be with you, if I survive my tour, the police, and the

press. I shall then try to make up for my sins, in the July number of

Mother Earth, provided you will let me recuperate in your editorial care

and affection.

Emma Goldman.