“What do you call a ghost at a hotel?”/“An inn spectre.”

An old hotel pun goes:
 
Q:What do you call a ghost at a hotel?
A: An inn spectre.
 
“Why is a Hotel Ghost like a policeman? Because it is an Inn-spectre” was told in the humor magazine Punch, or the London Charivari in 1866. Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) told the “inn-spectre” joke in 1869.
 
     
Google Books
1 December 1866, Punch, or the London Charivari, pg. 226, col. 2:
Why is a Hotel Ghost like a policeman? Because it is an Inn-spectre.
 
1 December 1866, The Commonwealth (London), pg. 3, col. 5:
Why is an hotel ghost like a policeman? Because it is an inn-spectre.
 
12 January 1867, Warren (PA) Mail, pg. 1, col. 7:
Why is a hotel ghost like a policeman?—Because it is an inn-spectre.
 
Chronicling America
3 April 1867, The Daily Phoenix (Columbia, SC), pg. 4, col. 2:
Why is a hotel ghost like a State constable? because it is an inn-spectre.
 
Chronicling America
7 November 1867, The Daily Phoenix (Columbia, SC), pg. 2, col. 4:
Why is a hotel ghost like a policeman? Because it is an inn-spectre.
 
Google Books
Phantasmagoria and Other Poems
By Lewis Carroll
London” Macmillan and Company
1869
Pg. 21:
And as the inns, where it is found,
Are his especial hunting–ground,
We call him the ‘Inn-Spectre.’
 
Chronicling America
16 May 1876, New Orleans (LA) Republican, pg. 2, col. 1:
A hotel ghost comes under the official head of inn spectres.
 
Twitter
PuterPrsn
‏@PuterPrsn
Last #pun for the night:  Since there was a ghost at the hotel,  they called for an inn spectre.
11:09 PM - 25 Apr 2009
 
Twitter
The Crystal Jon(s)
‏@jonsinger
There was a ghost at the hotel, so they called for an inn spectre. #badjokemonday
9:54 AM - 27 Apr 2009
 
Google Books
The Mammoth Book of One-Liners
By Geoff Tibballs
London: Constable & Robinson Ltd.
2012
Pg. ?:
What do you call a ghost at a hotel?
An inn spectre.
 
Twitter
JuicyCanvas
‏@JuicyCanvas
Q. What do you call a ghost at a hotel?
A. An inn spectre. #puns
2:31 PM - 31 Jul 2013