Young newspaper sellers express in song their ambitions in an industrializing, urbanizing America. Some of their desires are for ordinary objects.

Crowds gather and fire brigades compete in a crowded New York City neighborhood. This is an accurate representation of how fire brigades operated in New York City at the time due to there not being a legally recognized fire department.

Charlie, a factory worker, struggles to keep up with the production line at a factory, showing how monotonous factory work can be. He then starts to behave unprofessionally, creating problems for the other workers.

This clip gives a glimpse into the life of a family living in an urban slum in Brooklyn during the Industrial Revolution. Francie and Neely, along with the other kids in the area, bring junk to sell to Carney in order to earn a few extra cents. The family uses as a bank a milk can in one of their closets.

In this humorous and critical take on transportation and development, a monorail salesman sells Springfield on voting for the building of a monorail.