Long, befuddled looks, the occasional hiss, some profanity, angry stares, indifferent service, and even some spit. That’s what six reporters encountered when The New York Sun sent them out to walk Manhattan’s notoriously Democratic streets wearing Bush/Cheney campaign gear.

The experiment was not without some risk. As the long, bitterly contested presidential election enters its final days, stories of politically motivated violence and vandalism have become commonplace. Campaign signs for both candidates have been vandalized, and canvassers for both parties have been verbally abused.

It seems to be getting uglier. In Knoxville, Tenn., two weeks ago a Republican campaign headquarters was shot up in the middle of the day. In Florida Wednesday a man was arrested for aggravated assault after he allegedly tried to run over Rep. Katherine Harris, the Florida secretary of state in 2000 who refused to extend the ballot counting deadline.

The Sun’s interest in the matter was piqued by an October 22 article in the online magazine Slate. The writer, Richard Rushfield, spent several days in lopsidedly Republican or heavily Democratic areas, wearing a campaign T-shirt from the opposing party. He found that people in Republican-voting areas were vastly more tolerant and understanding of his “Elect John Kerry” shirt than people in Democratic-leaning precincts were of his shirt supporting President Bush.

For the Sun, it wasn’t the easiest assignment to get going on, as just finding the campaign gear – buttons and, in one case, an unusually garish “elephant” tie – in Manhattan took some legwork.

One reporter, Maura Yates, browsing at a street vendor at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, couldn’t find a pro-Republican button in the sea of anti-Bush and pro-Kerry offerings. After walking away, the vendor called her back and pulled a lone Bush/Cheney button from his jeans pocket. For $2, she got the button – and an extended analysis of the president’s shortcomings.

The vendor was friendlier to Ms. Yates than a competitor on 46th Street and Broadway, however. When asked if he stocked any Bush/Cheney buttons or stickers, that salesman bellowed at her, “We only carry Kerry buttons and shirts!” Then, wielding a red marker, he tried to erase the “W” emblazoned on a button on the lapel of her coat.

This reporter had less luck. On the corner of Canal Street and West Broadway, a merchant laughed uproariously when asked if he sold Bush/Cheney buttons or stickers. A few seconds later, realizing it wasn’t a joke, he turned his back and said, “You gotta be kidding me!”

Sometimes, ingenuity was called for. Sun reporter Adam Piore searched fruitlessly for a Bush/Cheney button near the Staten Island Ferry and eventually settled on an anti-Bush model, artfully using blue tape to conceal its true sentiment.

The real fun started when the reporters fanned out across Manhattan.

Walking across Prince Street, a French woman passing a Sun reporter, Kolby Yarnell, called out, “Are you in this century?” Apparently unsatisfied with Mr. Yarnell’s response, she threw up her arms and walked away.

Sometimes, an entire family got to express themselves. Another reporter, Eric Wolff, strolling along West 4th Street, was hissed at by a family of four.

Ms. Yates, walking around Columbus Circle, received a more personal greeting from a fellow pedestrian: He walked up and stuck his middle finger in her face.

A woman walking out of the “W” hotel at Union Square made her feelings perfectly clear when she ran into this reporter, with his garish Republican tie, festooned with elephants. Lighting a cigarette, she spat on the ground at his feet and proceeded to deliver a lecture on alleged Republican fascism and “blood for oil.” Walking across Park Avenue South toward Broadway, she declined to elaborate.

Some of the more interesting encounters took place in stores and cafes, where an “Unwelcome” mat seemed to be rolled out for the reporters.

The Sun’s Pia Catton, wearing a large “W” button in the center of a red, white, and blue scarf, went shopping for compact discs at Joe’s CD’s at St. Mark’s Place. As she walked downstairs to the reggae section with Mr. Yarnell, several of the staff pointed at them and laughed out loud.

All the reporters found numerous instances where their buttons drew angry stares. This reporter, after being glared at on the uptown 6 train by an unblinking young woman, asked her if there was anything she wanted to say. The woman didn’t answer and walked up to the next car.

There was also tenderness, however. Ms. Yates encountered a middle-aged man on a bench in Central Park, who approached her in a hushed tone and confided that he, too, was a Republican. After telling her she would fit in better “Down in Texas,” he said goodbye, with the wish that she not be beaten up.

And there was a woman on Lafayette Street who, after encountering Mr. Yarnell, felt confident enough to call out, “At least someone is voting for the right candidate!”

Moreover, the woman on lower Broadway who sold this reporter the garish Republican elephant tie did so with the comment, “President Bush is so nice to his parents. You be good to yours.” And besides the advice, she gave a discount, charging only $4 for what was clearly at least a $5 tie.