The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-26
A Base substitution.

There are various laws state and ma
tional, against substitution. For instance
there is the national law against bogus
butter, and the Georgia law against adul-
terated -four, and sundry laws against the
substitution of drugs, and other articles.
But it appears that none of the laws
reaches to and includes spirits-that is,
the spook kind of spirits. However
Chicago jury has been asked to apply the
law against frauds generallyAto the spe-
ciic case of a fraudulent spook substtu-
ton. The case is somewhat interesting,
and short resume of it may be of inter-
est to legislators who may desire to stin
further INCREASE the sum of our laws re-
strictive Of confidence games.
The plaintiff in the Chicago case was
beautiful and attractive young lady" It
is singular, by the way, that all of the
young ladies who get into the newspaper
columns are beautiful and attractive. The
young lady in question, however, was the
niece of an uncle whom she supposed had
passed into spirit land. She had been par
ticularly fond of this uncle, so that not
long ago, when she attended the seance
of a spirit medium and the medium said
he could materalize any sDook in the list,
she asked that the spirit of her uncle be
materialized and permitted to kiss her.
The medium said it would cost her $40;
but so small "a charge was not to stand
between fond niece and the ghostly salu-
tation of the uncle. The "tenner'' was
produced, and so was the spirit. The me-
dunn averred by the ghost of his honor
that the spook was that of the departed
relative, and the kissing took place. 1t
seems to have been very human sort of
kiss, accompanied by the most material
kind of a hug. But the young woman
liked it; liked it so well, indeed, that she
kept going 10 the medium and paying him
to ma terialize the spirit of her uncle so
that il might kiss and hug her, until she
had bought 500 worth of spirtualstic joy
and paid for it. The labial salutes were
not the least like what the girl had
thought the kisses of a ghost would be;
still she had the assurance of the medium
that the naturalization was genuine, and
for the time was more than pleased. How
ever, even the softest snap must come to
an end some time. Not long ago the
young lady received a letter from Ireland
from this self-same uncle. whose alleged
| ETHEREAL essence she had been osculating
with, at $50 per-" for some months. He
was alive and well; was not even half dead.
| Then the young lady knew she had been
! imposed upon; that some other spook had
| been substituted and hence the law suit
TO recover the 500 paid for the kisses II
! has lately been charged that the spoolx
run in on the young lady in the kissing
act lives in Chicago, drinks beer, chews
tobacco and eats onions. and gets about
| $40 a week, with any odd kisses that may
chance to come eis way, for his services
Clearly the young lady had a good case
| She had paid for spook kisses from her
| uncle. The medium could not furnish
them, but professed that he could, and
| sold her something which, while it may
have been just as good" was not the
real thing, and not what he was paid for.
If there is not now law enough to cover
such cases, some bright legislator ought
to frame a bill making It compulsory for
every spook to be examined for genuine
ness by a government inspector and have
a guarantee blown in the glass.