"No more debates!" Street said in a half-whisper loud enough to be picked up by his microphone.

Katz smiled and said after a moment, "I have enjoyed it."

Thus ended the last televised debate between the two major-party candidates for mayor, held last night in the Mandell Theater at Drexel University.

In the hour-long TV engagement - the third of the campaign - neither man showed the readiness to attack that had been apparent in earlier meetings this week. With polls showing the race neck-and-neck five days before the election, neither was willing to risk alienating a single voter.

They spouted familiar themes, spoke in modulated tones and, above all, tried to appear mayoral - to display that hard-to-define quality that conveys dignity and gravitas.

Both wanted to make the final image a positive one.

Street, in his closing commentary, told viewers on WPVI-TV (Channel 6): "As the campaign comes to an end, I want to thank the many citizens of this city for their warmth and their hospitality."

He grabbed one last opportunity to get in a message for undecided voters. In weeks of debates and community forums, Katz had talked about reducing taxes and streamlining government as a way to stem Philadelphia's loss of population and jobs. Street had said he was for that, too - but not if it would deprive the city of money for neighborhood development.

"You want us to continue to reduce taxes," he said. "You want us to create jobs. You want us to be a more efficient government. But you also want us to invest in neighborhoods. You want us to deal more effectively with the problem of crime, blight, drugs and deterioration in neighborhoods. . . . "

Katz, in his closing, called it "a privilege and an honor" to run for mayor and said, "This campaign has been clean and informative, and I have been welcomed in every neighborhood."

The feel-good message continued with a nod to Street: "My opponent is a good and decent man who has given a lot to our city. . . . Thank you, Philadelphia. And thank you, John Street."

When the red light went out, it marked the close of an extraordinary road show in which Street and Katz traveled to forums and debates all over Philadelphia to talk, one on one, about issues. Never in the city's modern history have two mayoral candidates given voters so many opportunities to size them up personally.

Now come the sound and fury of the endgame. With five days remaining and a chance to become the first Philadelphia Democrat to lose City Hall in 52 years, Street must drum up a large Democratic turnout, particularly among African American voters.

That effort begins in earnest today with a rally at La Salle University featuring President Clinton and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a Democratic icon.

About 4,000 people are expected to cram into Tom Gola Arena, with the rest of the city able to watch on live TV. Throughout the weekend, the Street campaign plans street-corner rallies, motorcades and roving sound trucks.

Katz, whose party is outnumbered in the city by a 4-1 ratio in voter registration, will have less going on in public. He doesn't want to stir up a Democratic electorate. But the GOP will be working selectively in Republican neighborhoods of the Northeast and the river wards to get out a Katz vote Tuesday.

For Street and Katz themselves, the work is almost done.

Each was asked last night what impact race will have on the outcome. The polls - and Philadelphia election history - indicate that most white voters will cast ballots for Katz and most blacks for Street.

Katz said he believed that one-third of voters were either committed to crossing racial lines or at least were "open-minded" on the subject.

He said that neither he nor Street had made either overt or covert appeals to voters on a racial basis.

Said Street: "I am enormously proud of the campaign I have run."

He said he was pleased with the cross-over votes he got in the May Democratic primary and noted that many unions with large numbers of white members were supporting him in this election.

The debate, sponsored by the League of Women Voters, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and other groups, was polite, low-key, even flat at times.

The candidates, responding to questions from a panel of journalists, went down a well-beaten path on their different ideas for funding public education.

Street said that Republican leaders in Harrisburg must be willing to cough up more money for city schools. He opposes vouchers as a raid on the necessary funds.

Katz said that while he favors vouchers as a means of giving students an alternative to a failing school, he said he would insist that any voucher program passed in the legislature not take a dime of funding away from the schools.

"My personal support for vouchers . . . will be secondary to my responsibility as the mayor of Philadelphia," he said.

Katz repeated his often-stated position that School Superintendent David Hornbeck must go. He said that Hornbeck was "not an effective leader" and had "scapegoated teachers" for many problems.