Omaha daily bee., 1911-10-01

III ~ mas Deen kept Win SuCn jealous care
01gpTzzEETH that not any of the valiant knights
NSRNGSSV and true have ever suspected the
WnS&IID truth
A woman runs Ak-Sar-Ben's af-
fairs. Woman has always been most potent fac
tor in the affairs of man. especially those of the
royal kind. From the Garden of Eden down to the
present her influence has been more less effec-
tive and apparent at all times but the Knights of
Ak-Sar-Ben glory be! thought they could manage
their little fun without any help from petticoat.
No woman has ever the inside of the castle
hall while the mysteries were under way; it is one
of the strict and nviolable rules of the order that
nothing of the inner workings of the order shall
ever be communicated to
All these years the knights have been under
Hhe impression that they had something that
woman didn't have anything to do with, save to
grace with her lovely presence the formal ball, at
which time the queen is crowned For you couldn't
have much OF ball without the ladies fair,
although it might be managed, but queen--well,
you are simply compelled to have fair maiden if
you want a queen in Ak-Sar-Ben. Geisha girls and
Paprika Schnitzels may be arranged for, but it isn't
record that any of them wore skirts outside
the Den
And now comes the disclosure that during all
This time the cocky knights have been plumng
themselves on having something the women folk
didn't cut in on woman, mighty clever woman,
time it has been a woman's hand that has held the
strings and kept them from being tangled that has
kept the business of Al1-Sar- Ben in appepie order
just she would have kept house if she had turned
her bent in that direction.
And she comes from Lincoln, too! No great
surprise at that, for a lot of clever people have
come from Lincoln; most of them do. She at
the University of Nebraska some years ago-no
matter how many--when the Board of Governors
war; for tO no and
engaged for the responsible position she has
since filled so well.
From the day of the advent of Miss Katherine
Hughes, the assistant secretary, into the Kingdom,
down to the present time the king and Board of
Governors have congratulated themselves upon
their find. They appreciate her worth more
pecially at the time of the big annual autumn
niva aud coronation ceremony and ball. OF all
times in the year. that is the time of greatest stress
upon everyones temper, from the king down to
the heralds and stewards is in a state of infamma-
BILE uncertainty,
But Miss Hughes is s~eady and serene amid
all the rush and turmoil of getting ready for the
big event a seasoned sailor a rough sea. I'm
ruf1ed and undisturbed, she rides the whirlwind
and directs the storm" She lets herself be
worried nor hurried Hurried
She admits that sometimes, when six or seven
stenographers surround her desk all asking for
instructions at the same time, when the printers
are bowling for copy and when the Lord High
Chamberlain Is rampaging for plans of this and
that--she. does get just the least little bit per-
turbed inside. But would guess it
from the calm and smiling exterior.
And in tact, no one in the realm can equal her.
She is mistress of the art of rubbing people the
right way and of smoothing them down until they
fairly purr Her very voice is soft and low and has
a quieting effect upon all around her.
So much more marvellous this seems when one
considers the veXations which come up in conncc-
ton with the details of the great ball. Sometimes
the wife of of the most trusted knights of the
kingdom is left off the list of ladies in waiting