It's too cramped, dark and crowded in this tenement. I'm living in an apartment with 20 people. At least there is a water closet. It's one of those new iron ones, because the English have the patent for porcelain toilets. Here it’s way better than the place I’ve lived in before, I can tell you! That was worse: in the fourth backyard without a connection to the sewage system. The toilets had no flush. There was a ghastly smell. The chamber pots stood next to tables and beds. And everyone poured their contents into the street or the river Spree. Sometimes the sewage contaminated a whole district. Many people died of cholera and typhoid fever, I’ve lost part of my family. Hopefully, the new sewage system will put an end to that. Thanks to the new toilets the sewage is gone immediately.