The cities of that period, with their unsewered and unpaved streets, their dingy, flickering gaslights, their ambling horse-cars, and their hideous slums, seemed appropriate settings for the unformed social life and the rough-and-ready political methods of American democracy.

那个时期的城市，有没有下水道和没有铺砌的街道，有昏暗闪烁的煤气灯，有缓缓行驶的马车，还有丑陋的贫民窟，这些城市似乎适合美国民主制度未成形的社会生活和粗野的政治方法.