Rene Cheruy gave a lecture on “Le Rire” at 847 Asylum Avenue

Refreshments were served after the lecture.

1. The house was described as “the home of Miss Grace Plimpton,” which likely means she was the host of the event.
2. The reporter quoted the lecture in English, the implication being that the reporter could speak French or had a translator.

The next lecture will be on April 24, 1913, at the home of Mary Bulkeley, 924 Asylum Avenue.

From the lecture:

• “Man is an animal who causes laughter. In the theory of the French scholar Bergson, who just delivered a series of lectures at Columbia University, laughter is only human.  Tragedy is conscious while laughter is unconscious.”
• “Moliere, the great French writer, may well be called the king of laughter. Most of his comedy was delivered from the situation.”
• “Laugher is the most spontaneous of the human emotions and a good laugh is more readily appreciated than anything else. It is appreciated by rich and poor.”

Unattributed.  “Monsieur Rene Cheruy tells of laughter,” Hartford Courant, April 18, 1913, page 7.