The San Francisco call., 1898-12-05
SENTIMENT IN
 LIEU OF LAW
 IN ALAMEDA Mrs. Mentel's Fate Is Food for Guessers. THE FALLMER PRECEDENT LOS ANGELES USED TO CLUB oAKLAND'S SILURIANS. Local Ordinances Enforced by Turns. No Chinese Lottery This Week, but Plenty of
 Cigarettes.
LOS ANGELES USED TO CLUB
 OAKLAND'S SILURIANS.
Oakland Office San Francisco Call.

dereSS will be in the county Jall, and Oakland is guessing as to what extent the first case will be taken as precedent for the second. Both crimes were the same-each girl shot her lover dead on a sidewalk in Alameda. It being always admissible to apply pre- cedents to current issues, the public can not be blamed for doing so in the inter- esting cases of Mrs. Mentel and Miss Fall mer.
 A close comparison of these two cases would seem to justify the Judge at the preliminary examination at once discharg- ing Mrs. Mentel. Up to this time nothing has been said about her character to prejudice it, but everything concerning her reputation is such as to make 1t ap- pear that she is a model young woman. Clara Palmer did not have such favorable testimony before the jury. She did have a Chinese lover from whom she borrowed the gun with which she killed poor La- due. But she. was young and pretty, and it was Christmas eve when the jury went into its room to consider its verdict. And who could be supposed to follow the law on Christmas eve?
 From present indications it will be about Christmas eve when Mrs. Mentels case is submitted to the Judge afterEher prelim- mary examination. Judges, as a rule, are not as sentimental as jurors because, be- ing lawyers. they set a professional value on the arguments of professional men.
 
 the average Alameda County jury in the past few months, it would actually seem advisable for Mrs. Mentel to be set free at once and not to supJect her 10 iohg good advertisement for her should she af- terward go on the stage or write book. Until after the trial the details or the case may not be discussed. But their pos sible effect on a jury is subject for specu- lation.
 If all that has been said by the parents x@f al he tyiin a foundation has been knocked from under the system of training young people that has hitherto been supposed to be eminent ly proper. Anna, we are told. was never away from home in her life after o'clock, and was always safely tucked away in bed before g, unless in company with her father, her mother or her younger sister, she went to theater: This beautifully puritanical method of living was practiced unbroken until just one month. ago, on which occasion Anna went to visit a lady friend in Berkeley for three days, so she told her mother. It now appears that a portion of those three days Anna was in San Jose getting married to the man she has murdered. If all this be true it is revelation that in one month such a girl could develop into a deceiver of her parents, secret wife cruel thought. If Anna were deceptive for one month, why not for year or years?
 This is an entirely original view of local 5uries, for recently the Enquirer thus complimented men who convicted hu- man beast:
 ''In view of the reputation Alameda County juries have for rendering verdicts not in accord with public sentiment, 1t is but due to the twelve talesmen in this case that their names be published. Hero is the list: D. W. Pratt, William Bliss, fhaTes Rro%S ToSk N Hiram T 6oEe BseN M RiEs RRGiTEea Peru, J. Tyson, Henry Hanschildt, H. w. Brunson. John Harrington"
 The execution of the local ordinances in Oakland resembles a checker-board- sometimes black square, sometimes a white one. \ month ago the City Council during spasm of virtue passed an ordI- nance making it misdemanor to sell cig- arettes in the city of Oakland. It went further. It made it a crime to give one away within the city limits, and also place. This ordinance went into effect and for a few hours afterward not a ciga- rette could be bought in Oakland. It was well known, however, that nearly every cigar store and many quiet basements harbored a Chinese lottery joint, but these had been unmolested for couple of years, and not until the racing season commenced did the police with a flourish of trumpets swoop down on the Chinese gamblers One might almost think that the bookmakers had prayed for the raid on the Chinese at that particular time.
 For two weeks no one has been able to buy a Chinese lottery ticket, but all over town cigarettes can now be bought in any quantity. When cigarettes will be again suppressed and Chinese lotteries ply their trade unseen Is query or supreme inter- est to many people lon the street" in this city.
 At a gathering of prominent gentlemen a few nights to discuss park sites some very bitter things were said of Oak land and some very warm compliments were paid Los Angeles. So plainly was the contrast drawn between the two cities that an idea almost new took possession of the gathering It was that if Oakland is to be stirred to doing anything in the way of improving itself, 1t must be done largely by educating its people to the contrast between their city and the south ern metropolis. Rev. pr. Mclean rather surprised his friends by stating that he had just borrowed money to pay his taxes and he would willingly borrow more for the same purpose if he were being taxed to. pay for permanent improve ments. The reverend doctor made one sig nificant remark. Doubtless the early his tory of Oakland was passing through the doctors mind when he said: 'It may be unfortunate that that beautiful point to the north of Lake Merritt beIoneed to a family of the name of Adams. but the city should not be prejudiced by that fact. If the name be unpleasant, then let us buy the property and give 1t some other name. so that we shall not hear the name of its present owner quite so much. :"
 Mir. Marshall told some very painful truths when he said: "The wealthy people of Los Angeles have contracted the habit of giving something to their city before they die. The wealthy men of Oakland have not yet contracted the habit of giv- ing anything while they live or of leav- ing anything when they die'' Unfortu- nately this is true, for outside of the Chabot Observatory and the clock in the City Hall tower presented by Dr. Merritt nearly generation ago, what is there in the municipality to commemorate the vast wealth made here by the Carpenters. Adamses, Moons, Merritts, Delgers and the other millionaires who have passed away?
 Alameda is not greedy politically; she is merely ambitious. She wants her people to be prominent in every department of State government and in other places where people are constantly in the public eye This remark is suggested by the fact that at this time she has man "men- toned for each of the following places: Recorder Spear for San Francisco Harbor Commissioner, Councilman Pringle and