The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-07-12

Originated in the Early Days of Nine
teenth Century.

If one had time to delve into the why's
and wherefores of some of the things
about us which are most common it would
prove a delightful pastime and full of in
terest. One of the we'll known silk man.
ufacturers of New England has recently
issued pamphlet on its mills outputs,
in which is told the history of one of
the most popular and universally known
designs in fabrics today-the polka dot
why do you call them polka dots?'
Because a Bohemian peasant girl was
good dancer and certain very popu-
lar man was elected President of the Uni
ted States
"And this is how it happened
Back in the early days of the 10Th cen
tury a man named Neruda, a Hungarian
dancing professor, was travelling through
Bohemia, near the Polish border .Alight-
ing from his coach at little obscure town,
Neruda noticed a peasant girl singing and
dancing what to him, was new step.
So he watched her. memorized her dance,
took it back to Prague and introduced
it there under the name of polka, which
by the way, is feminine for Polak or
Pole This was in 1885.
The new dance soon spread to Vienna
NhCiC II was popular DIS early DIS loo9
Celarius, another famous dancing master,
introduced it to Paris at the Odeon in
1910, where it took the public by storm
And now comes the most interesting
part of the story. In 1914, two years
after the polka reached London, James
X. Polk was running for the presidency
of the United States. and it was during
his campaign that the polka was intro
duced into the United States Polk and
Polka the two together, made an in
slant appeal to the American magma
ton and the dance became Immediately
popular its likeness to the name of the
incoming President rendered it probably
more popular than it would have been
otherwise and the new dance swept the
country
| Realizing the trade possibilities offered
| by the connection of the Presidents name
with this novel and popular dance, mer.
chants, manufacturers and designers be-
gan Immediately to, trade on the coinci.
dence.
so in the early issues of 'Godey's La.
dy's Book we find Polka hats, Polka
shoes, Polka gauze and THE newest de
sign in fabrics for conference.-the
Polka dot
| 'Godey's T.ady's Book was an Amer
lean magazine and talked real United
i States English, in contrast to which We
find our British. cousins calling what We
term polka dots spotted designs OF
simply spots while the French have al
ways known them as 'quinconce
Thus you see polka dot is purely al
American name, having its origin in
| popular fad and national poltics-typiea
isn't it?
But back Of this seemingly trivial incl
dent lies something of more than ordi
| nary interest to those who make or sci
} slken fabrics For, all the various arti
4 cles and designs that our grandmothe
: knew as Polka but one has survived
! the polka dot
j, "And this is because the polka dot i
/ founded upon a basically correct princi
e ple-the pleasing design effect of spot
Y imposed at proper intervals unon back
n ground of contrasting color The shape o
t the spots and their eolors have no par
a in it. As matter of fact, although W
!, have come to associate polka dots wit
n round spots it is the artistic principl
n involved in the spacing and contrast tina
:, determines their attractiveness.
|, Indeed, if other shapes in design ha
e been in vogue in those days the origini
/ polka dots might have been square, tr
!, angular, hexagonal or entirely irregula
p in outline, instead of round. and sti
have been called polka dots, and the
would have been Just as lastingly popula
d because they follow the same basic pril
d ciple of artistic design. Newark New