Omaha daily bee., 1915-10-03

Now that the twenty-first year of the
reign OF King Ak-Sar-Ben has about
passed, more and more are the people
marveiling that the organization is still
growing, and now fairly at a galloping
pace rather than beginning to decline.
Men who took important parts in the
Den shows the first years OF the organ
ization are retired men now who never
30 to me Den any more. Their sons are
taxing lSaonig parts now. Men are taking
leading PARTS there now that were babies
when tDe lirst few shows were held.
Men aIe taking parts who were small
boys away oul in the state somewhere
when they first heard of Ak-Sar-Ben, ana
VINO wondered longingly at that time
whether they would ever be SO fortunate
as to be in Omaha during the festivities
or during the Den show.
Governors have come and gone. Seven
of the OLD governors have passed away,
and new timber has taken their place.
The following past governors are now
no longer living: Edgar Allen, Emil
Brandeis f. h. Bryson, T.. J. Moriarty,
William Glass, James NJ. Hendrie and J.
c. Root.
Governors who have been on the board
for some time grew reminiscent this year
when reviewing the hardships of the ear
ner years.
I'VE used to go down and tend the
gates ourselves" said Gould Dietz, long
est term member now on the board CT
governors. Eyes, the governors used to
get in the collar and tend gates and do
the other work around the carnival
grounds for we had no money to hire
anyone to do these things. Now, this Is
all hired help, promptly paid and well
paid for its services.
Not only that, the few bills we lid
incur we had hard time to meet In The
early days. Bill collectors used to DC
after us all the time. We used to have u
dig down in our own pockets and make
up the deficit. Now we have all our debts
paid and the money in the bank and are
coming fine.
Work, why there was no end to tina
work we had to do. One year we wanted
TO pull off an Ak-Sar-Ben stunt up at
Fort Omaha. We got permission to Use
the grounds. but the grass had to bc
moved and the big lawn cleared off Tor
the occasion.
I'VE had no money with which TO hire
this done. So the governors threw Oh
their coats and went to it. All day Sathr
day and Sunday we worked. There was
Jim Martin pushing a lawn mower. TheTe
was Ed Allen sweating over ra"e'
Walt Jardine was swinging scytht'
Vance Lane and Fred Metz were hauling
rubbish. with heavy cart and was
poking at something or other. You Wou'o
have thought we were a lot Of truck
horses. We worked all day Saturday am
sunday to clean that up for the ocea
sion.
''pinner? No, / should say not. We
even had to furnish our own sandwiches
"And as for getting members-why we
used to have to get out and beg fellows
10 join. Now they fall over themselves
to join. We used TO have to labor like
the dickens to pry fellows loose from
their $40. Then to get side subscriptions
that was some job. We had TO Deg and
fight TO get them and didn't get much at
that. Times are certainly different no"
for Ak-Sar- Ben"
Next In order In length of service on
the Board Of Governors IL Charlie Black
''Twenty-one years have gone" said
BLACK, "and It seems almost impossible
Yes. sir. We open the Den show In tbs
summer now with more members on the
very opening night than we used to have
at the close OF the season. The gov
errors used to have to hustle all tbs
members themselves and now we have
an efficient hustling committee that doe
that work.
This year we have completed the bii
adjoining shed TO the Den, where all thu
floats are now built. This was a BIZ
Improvement. fought for that 10
years. Every time the board met
brought up the matter. until they threat
ened to call the police and have M
taken from the meetings. kept ham
mering at It until they saw It my wa!
and I got half OF it built last year sn'
the other half this year.
Before that the floats had TO be bull