My wife made our place quite comfortable inside. She was an immaculate housekeeper and she had the knack of knowing how to make our little tent house look like a home. I felt quite contented living there.
The food problem was a difficult one, for all our supplies had to be brought out from Carlsbad. At first my wife did all the cooking for the men, but this job soon became too much for her, especially as the operations at the cave grew and more men joined the force.
Eventually the men had to make other arrangements for their meals. Most of them did their own cooking, or they would divide up into small groups and take turns cooking for the rest. The Mexicans would cook their own meals off by themselves as they seemed to prefer a different menu from the rest of us.
This section of the state was good for cattle grazing and this was quite an industry in itself at the time. There was a man by the name of Simms who had quite a herd near the cave and sometimes during the night we could hear these animals near our camp.
One morning, as the boys were entering the cave to go to work, they discovered that one of the cows had fallen into the cave. In trying to reconstruct what had happened, it looked as though one cow had hooked another, causing one to fall into the cave.
Artist's sketch shows family cabins set up near cave's entrance.
The boys butchered the animal right there, carrying the cow out piece by piece. I have often wondered if Simms ever knew that we were enjoying fresh steaks from one of his herd!
Often on evenings or Sundays the boys would get together and hold what they called a Kangaroo Court, thus helping to pass the time away. First, they would select one of their number to serve as judge.
Then, from the group, one of the fellows would be selected for some misdeed he had committed while on the job that day. After the testimony was heard, his fellow workers, who served as an impromptu jury, would decide the verdict, which was most always "guilty," and the judge would impose the sentence, such as requiring the guilty culprit to take a small pail and a coal oil lantern and go back into the deep recesses of the cave alone and return with the pail full of water.