RIGHT TO KEEP GHOSTS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 6, 8 January 1930, Page 14

RIGHT TO KEEP GHOSTS

STRANGE COURT CASE

The interesting question of whether a residential tenant has the legal right to keep family ghosts came before the Civil Courts in Berlin recently, writes a correspondent in the "Daily Telegraph." For some time past psychological research has taken a keen interest in the phenomena which form the subject of the suit, and have received considerable attention in the^Press.

The ghost « that of an uncle of a girl of 11 years named Luzie Eegulski. His appearances are heralded by a noise which (ills the whole flat. There are scratchings and knockings on walls and doors, and the tables and chairs jump about the room. On one occasion the departed uncle wrote his initials on a slate beneath Lizzie's bed. More than once the Para-Psychological Society visited the flat, perceived the phenomena, and retired in a hurry. Meanwhile the house acquired the reputation of being haunted, and this, its owner believes, will be prejudicial to its market value. Accordingly, he is suing for an order of eviction against the Eegulskis. He puts forward alternative picas. The first of these, apparently, repressents his conviction that the whole ghostly business is a fraud, carried out- by the Regulski's for ulterior purposes of their own, and. he-proposes to call witnesses to prove the truth of this view. Should.however, the Court find that the tumult in the flat is really the work of the deceased uncle, he will advance the alternative plea—viz., that tenants accompanied by family ghosts should make the fact known to their landlord before signing their leases. In short, he urges that the lease was obtained by false pretences constituted by the suppression of. the fact of the Regulskis' ghostly affinities, and should, consequently, be annulled. For this plea he offers evidence that the spiritualistic phenomena did not commence in his house, but were already made manifest through Luzie's grandmother many years ago, and consequently must have been familiar to all the family. The hearing was adjourned to allow witnesses to be called. Among others who will give evidence is a pastor who has known the Regulskis for many years, and to whom it is said they applied for comfort and advice when the dead uncle's perturbing visits first began. The papers express the hope that, the case will result in a decision by a German' Court of the vexed question whether ghosts exist or not. One is left to infer for oneself whether such a decision is expected to settle the problem for good and all.