The worst comes in the form of judgments passed on the city. Sandburg refers to these judgments, listing them as someone speaking them out loud: "They tell me you are wicked...crooked...brutal." He admits that "they" are in fact correct; he doesn't deny it. Chicago is wicked, crooked and brutal. He describes those traits in more detail:
"painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys...gunman kill to go free and kill again...the marks of wanton hunger" on the "faces of women and children."
So, those traits are the worst of the city. However, despite this, Sandburg also describes much about the city that he loves. The best sides of it is its
"lifted head singing/so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning."
He emphasizes that even in the dire, poverty-stricken misery of the city that people are "strong", "fierce", "laughing", "bragging", and happy to be alive. He emphasizes the strength of the working class of Chicago, and how they are proud to be who they are, and happy in their station, full of vivacity and life. So, Chicago is a lively, strong, intense city, and those are its best traits, mixed right in there with its worst.
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