On September 27th the _Journal_ sent out an army of reporters, with instructions to interview all the citizens whom they met in the course of the day in certain well-defined districts, in order to ascertain their preference as between General Tracy and Seth Low. The voters were approached indiscriminately, and represented all sorts and conditions of men, from hod-carriers to bankers. The result was that 9,102 citizens were interviewed, 4,835 of whom preferred Seth Low, and 4,267 voted for Tracy. This poll suggested the holding of a much more comprehensive census of opinion. An attempt was made to interrogate a whole vast constituency. Three hundred reporters were sent out with the following ticket:-- +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | _NEW YORK JOURNAL._ | | | | VAN WYCK. TRACY. | | GEORGE. LOW. | | | |As between B. F. Tracy, the Republican candidate; Seth Low,| |the Citizens’ Union candidate; R. A. Van Wyck, the regular | |Democratic candidate; and Henry George, the Independent | |Democratic candidate, whom do you prefer for Mayor of the | |Greater New York? | | | | NAME OF CANDIDATE.................................... | | YOUR SIGNATURE..................................... | | YOUR ADDRESS..................................... | | BOROUGH OF..................................... | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ _Sign this Ballot and send it to the Journal._ The town was marked out into districts, and the canvassers proceeded systematically from house to house. Never before had there been so extended a canvass introduced of what they call a straw ballot in any constituency. It was, of course, not a ballot in the sense of secret voting at all, for all the citizens signed their papers, which were then taken to the central office and carefully examined. The census began on the 4th of October and was continued for a week. It was closed with the following result:-- Each elector was required to sign his name and address upon a voting card supplied by the canvasser. When the poll was closed the _Journal_ had obtained signed declarations from no fewer than 277,871. The voting was divided as follows:-- Total _Journal_ Poll. Van Wyck 89,056 George 85,050 Low 59,764 Tracy 44,001 ------- Total 277,871