Brother and sister

Typhus: “What is it, darling sister, are you going away?”
Cholera: “Brother, I did not expect such a reception: no one was afraid of me, and they are even dogging me at every step. You can’t show your face anywhere: either I’ll run up against vitriol, or the Zhdanov brothers [purveyors of a sulphuric deodorant concoction since the 1840s; “Zhdanov liquid” was indeed tested for its effects on cholera and typhus in 1893]. But there was a time when I wasn’t greeted like this: I was given lots of leeway.”
Typhus: “And as for me, they don’t pay attention, sister: I have taken root here!”
(Razvlechenie, Moscow, 1866)