Origin of the Polka.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 16 October 1914, Page 2

Origin of the Polka.

Probably few readers, though they may, indeed, be enthusiastic dancers, are acquainted with the origin of the polka. Somewhere about the year 1831, a young peasant girl, who was in the service of a ci'.ixen of Elbeteinitz, in Bohemia, performed a dance of her own invention one Sunday afternoon, for her own special delectation, and sang a suitable tune to it.

The schoolmaster, Joseph Neruda. Who happened to be present, wrote down the melody, and the new dance was soon after publicly performed for the first time in Elbeteinitz. About 1835 it made its entrance into Prague, and then obtained zhe name of polka, from the Bohemian word pulka, or half, from the halfstep prevalent in it. I'""our yeard later, it was carried to Vienna \v a Prague band. In 1840 a dancing master of Prague danced The polka, with great success, at the Odeon, in Paris, whence it found its way with extraordinary rapidity to every

dancing-room,