The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1910-09-23
Enchanting Festival Of the North
Attracts Wide Attention.
STORY OF ITS ORGANIZATION.
Sixteen Years Provo Value OF King
Ak-Sar-een to Trans-Missouri Coun.
try-Writer In Hearst'e Papers Gives
State Big Boost for Its Enterprise.
BY Will A. Campbell.

gears ago that no such an enchant
ing festival as the MardiGras of New
Orleans could live in the practical
north any longer than it could live in
London, one season-the distinguished
journalist did not know what kind Of
men and women the future citizens of
the middle-west would be; did not i'm
agine that foundation of business
fraternalism would continue a great
festival in the north just as surely as
the love of romance would sustain
such a festival in the south.
On the practical foundation of bust.
ness. Ak-Sar-Ben has been built and
has tiourished. The festival is about
to open in Omaha for the sixteenth
year and for the first time membership
has been limited because of the grow
ing popularity Of the enterprise.
Void of all those things which set
the world in love with dreams and
phantoms; without sham grandeurs,
gauds and chivalries, Ak-Sar-Ben is
really big boosters organization
which has done more to put Nebraska
on the map and renew the confidence
of her people. than any other force in
the trans-Missouri country.
This festival has everything which
Mardi-Gras has and more. The ro-
nance is present: there are kings and
knights: big sounding titles go thun-
dering along after the names of it's
officers, but the soul of Ak-Sar-Ben is
the cooperative spirit of the people OF
the middle-west the eternal effort of
the business fraternity to boost for
each other and for the trans-Missouri
empire always.
Ak-Sar-Ben is more than a relic of
the French and Spanish occupation
with the religious features knocked
OFT. 1t is more than a tawdry mas
querade Of knights and mobiles clothed
in silken and Paris.made gorgeousness.
Ak-Sar-Ben has reason ana has had
since its inception back in thoce hard
days when Nebraska and Kansas were
thought to be blizzard cursed western
waste in the winter; sun baked prair-
ies-the harbors Of cyclones and grass
hoppers in the summer.
I'VE must do something" said the
men of Nebraska in 1895 when the
veins of commerce had become so
sluggish that the state had lost con-
fldence and lay bankrupt at the feet
OF the national government. What to
do was a mystery. Eastern insurance
and trust companies became possessed
by foreclosing of the most valuable
real estate, some owning from fifty to
one hundred pieces of property wide
ly separated. Out in the towns and
cities Of the state homes of men were
being moved to the ranches to house
cattle and sheep in the winter that the
more comfortable quarters might take
the place Of nourishing food.
Thus the Ak-Sar-Ben festival was
born in poverty; planned with the be
lief that 1t would bring the people OF
the state closer together; keep their
money at home and working. AS they
Joined hands to hold this festival six
teen years ago, confidence began to re
turn: an opportunity has been giver
each fall for taking an inventory O
the resources Of the middle-west ant
. graphic lesson in the advantages O
cooperation has been driven home t.
the people.
There was something about the Sc
lection of the name which increased
this business fraternalism. True, tn,
name IL Nebraska reversed. but 1t Il
more than that. "Ak" Is Syrian In IT.
origtn and IL said to mean head Of