CLOSING YEARS 315
"William Weitling—An Inventor of Prominence—A Remark
able Career." In it, the writer reviewed the main events in Weitling's career, but the account was marked by many errors and was
embellished with dramatic touches quite at variance with the facts.
The obituary notice pointed out that the deceased had "never
received any benefit" from his inventions and had left an unfin
ished treatise on astronomy, "the fruit of 14 years of mental toil"
which had been "pronounced by competent critics as interesting
and worthy of commendation."For some years after his death, Weitling's widow continued to
hear from old friends of her husband who had known him here
and in Europe. They wrote to ask for a photograph of their old
comrade or to inquire where they might procure copies of his
writings. Several people were interested in issuing a new and de
finitive edition of his works but that objective was never realized.
Karl Heinzen, in his Boston Pionier^3 paid tribute to his old op
ponent as a man of talent, honesty and courage who had proved
far more respectable than Marx, and announced his readiness to
accept contributions for the bereaved family. The New York
Tages Nachrichten^4 commented mainly on Weitling's inventions
and referred to his "highly inventive and keen brain." In far-off
Hamburg, where the deceased had tarried several times during the
European phase of his career, the Reform published an obituary
notice and retold the story of his life.
The tribute by the New Yorker Belletristisches Journal, one of
Weitling's favorite papers, probably was the most accurate and
significant and may well be quoted in closing this biography of the
Utopian tailor. "Wilhelm Weitling," wrote the editor, "is the
name of a forgotten man, one of the many who, after a stormy
career abroad, became lost and were forgotten and found their
last resting place in America, confused by their own theories....
Germany had forgotten him long ago, until Heinrich Heine re
cently directed attention for a fleeting moment to the philosophi-
(^3) Boston Pionier, February 1, 1871.
(^4) New York Tages Nachrichten, January 27, 1871.