Washington finally emerged and made a careful call for unity. "Those of you who have opposed this election--I assure you I understand your needs and desires," he said. "I want to reach out my hand in fellowship and friendship to every living soul in this city."

"The whole nation is watching us," Washington added, saying his vote total represented "a new Democratic coalition."

But whether that coalition will eventually include white "Democrats for Epton" is unclear. Few of them made it to the Epton campaign' party in an elegant hotel ballroom. For these traditional Daley Democrats, to vote with the Republicans doesn't mean you should associate with them.

But after the harshness of their campaign attacks it is hard to imagine them associating with Washington supporters either. They were blunt enough in sounding Epton's campaign slogan "Before it's too late." And on Election Day, some Epton workers in the 35th Ward, including Orlando Munoz, were even spreading the rumour that Washington was a child molester.

Opponents called Washington a "criminal" and a "felon" because of his 1972 conviction for not filing tax returns Washington himself had made vague allegations about Epton's story of psychological treatment. The bitterness did not end with the voting. Epton refused to attend Washington's Wednesday "unity lunch" with city leaders claiming he was invited too late to change prior travel plans.

And there seems little chance of reconciliation, with an Epton supporter commenting after the polls closed. "Now the Blacks'll get real cocky. There's gonna be trouble for sure."

Yet for all the obvious racism. Chicago, home of the biggest and most notorious modern-day political machine, is hardly the city for a political morality play. With patronage, personal connections and city contract money at stake, there is little that is black and white about Chicago mayoral politics. Chicago is the only big city without a non-political civil service. The stakes here are jobs and power, not abstract principles. Victory means gravy, while defeat means unemployment.

The Democratic Party keeps peace--and power--by promising fair shakes to competing interests, which are mostly Chicago's fractions ethnic enclaves.

But as Blacks have found strength as a formidable voting bloc, they have demanded attention from a city budget that has traditionally ignored their neighborhoods and their workforce.

For this reason, the election has politicized and polarized the entire city. Tuesday's 82 percent turnout, the highest percentage since 1944 and the highest raw number in Chicago's history, shows the direct importance of this city's politics to its residents.

"Washington wants to tear down the system," said Greg Smith, while handing out Epton buttons. "He thinks patronage is bad Patronage has kept this city running efficiently for five generations."

Washington has pledged to tame the machine and to reform its "patronage army" of city workers. But the long-excluded Blacks of Chicago's slum-ridden South Side who showed up 15,000 strong at his victory party, didn't discuss the merit system.

"Jobs," many were saving to each other. "A piece of the pie, man, a piece of the pie we did it."

Still, if he wants to hold his own in City Council. Washington acknowledges he must yield to the beleaguered Democratic machine. On Wednesday he repeated a pledge that there will be "no shakeup to disturb people" in city government.

Reaching out to white machine Democrats, keeping his promises to reform Chicago, and satisfying the yearnings of his needy constituency--they all may prove contradictory goals for the 61-year-old mayor-elect, an aide agreed on Wednesday.