Page 194 - Reading Mercury

“Illustrated Polka Lesson-book,” in which we find the best account of the dance we
have met with, and a complete code of instruction for dancing it, the different
positions being shown by well executed engravings. So necessary an accomplishment
has dancing the Polka become, that we may anticipate every attendant of the ball-
room will find Mr. C. Mitchell’s “Guide” indispensable. The Polka was originally a
war-dance. “Polk” or “Pulk,” we are told, in a well-written account of the origin of the
Polka, prefixed to the “Lesson-book,” is the name of a regiment of Cossacks, and is
an old Scythian word, originally applied to a tribe. It, therefore included both the male
and female members of a nomadic horde. This derivation accounts therefore for those
remarkable features of the Polka, which distinguish it from every other dance. The
spurs, the tapping of the ground with the heel, flourishing a battle-axe in the air, and
other gestures of a warlike nature, are all the accompaniments of the Polka, when
danced by the Servians, among whom it was first observed; though, subsequently,
enquiries have found it equally practised in Hungary and Bohemia. It is also danced in
Russia, and all parts of Germany; and by its introduction to the ball-room, having
been divested of its ruder and more boisterous characteristics, but retaining all its
original spirit, activity, variety, and grace, no wonder that it has become so popular. It
has every prospect of maintaining that popularity, and we recommend “The Guide” to
all our readers who wish to learn it. The work forms a perfect compendium of the
etiquette of dancing, with the Figures of all the Quadrilles, Gallopades, Mazourkas,
Polonaises, Polkas, &c. &c.

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Sat 26 Oct (BC)
GENERAL POST OFFICE
Caution against illegally sending, collecting, conveying, or delivering Letters.
st
By the Act of the 1 VICTORIA, c.36, sec. 2, every person who despatches or
sends, or causes to be sent, or tenders or delivers in order to be sent otherwise than by
Post, a Letter not exempted from the exclusive privilege of the Postmaster General,
forfeits for every Letter Five Pounds.
Every person who receives, takes up, or collects any Letter not exempted from the
exclusive privilege of the Postmaster General, forfeits for every Letter Five Pounds.
Every person who conveys, otherwise than by Post, or delivers l letter not exempted
from the exclusive privilege of the Postmaster General, forfeits for every Letter Five
Pounds.
Every person who makes a collection of exempted Letters for the purpose of
conveying or sending them otherwise than by Post, or even by the Post, forfeits for
every Letter Five Pounds.
And every person who is in the practice of committing any of the above mentioned
acts, forfeits for every week during the practice is continued One hundred Pounds
th
By the 18 section, pecuniary penalties incurred under the Post Office Acts, not
exceeding £20 may be recovered in a summary way before a Justice of the Peace, by
any person who will sue for the same; one moiety whereof will belong to the Crown,
and the other moiety with full costs of suit, to the Person who informs and prosecutes.
Magistrates, Clerks of the Peace, and Town Clerks, are to pay over and remit the
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Crown’s share of the penalties in strict conformity to the directions of the 16 section.
The following letters are exempted from the exclusive privilege of the Postmaster
General, viz.:
Letters sent by a private Friend in his way, journey, journey or travel, if delivered by
such Friend to the party to whom they shall be directed;

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