Sandburg's three paintings paint a picture of this era by describing three different people each suffering from harsh labor conditions. In "Mill Doors" for example, Sandburg mentions a person who does not make much money but works even though the person works "day by day" and has "sleepy eyes and fingers". It is evident how workers at this time had to work very hard for low wages because they needed it to survive. "Child of the Romans" takes this a step further by bringing up an Italian immigrant who was "eating a noon meal of bread and bologna" during a "ten-hour day's work" while upper class Americans were on a train eating "steaks running with brown gravy". This demonstrates how immigrants especially struggled to make a living for themselves
