The suburban citizen., 1900-03-31
CAVES OF WILD HONEY.
THE BEES HAVE A REMARKABLE
STOREHoUSE IN TEXAS.

Gathered Tons OF Their Product Far
Away From Civllization-Strange Ex-
perienCe of a Man Who Tried tn Put
1t on the Market.
TTHERE is enough honey in the
brakes of DEVILS River, near
Del Rio, Texas, to make any
e man rich who will get it TO
market. There are tons of it; in
clefts IN the rocks, in hollow trees, in
caves and in the famous Devils
Punch Bowl, which is a great sink in
the Devil Valley aud out of which
bees swarm always in clouds so thick
that at a distance of three miles it has
the appearance of agreat signal smoke,
Several years ago a hunting party
made mp of Kansas City men went
into that country on trip after big
game, for there is plenty of deer in
there even now and at that time bears
were numerous. When they got up
into the honey country they began
figuring upon the fortunes to be made
out of it, and having heard of the
Devils Punch Bowl, locally known as
"Devil's Sink Hole" they decided to
go in and see it aud if possible devise
some scheme whereby they might OBJ
tam the tons OF honey it contained.
DEVILS PUNCH BOWL.
When they reached it, like every
one else seeing it for the first time,
they were amazed at the proportions
of the wonder; hole forty feet in
diameter yawning open in the middle
of q wide valley, with perfect tor
rent of bees rushing up from it like
dirt blown from some mighty blast
and all the while roaring loud as that
OF a great cataract; looking down into
the abyss, for the hole widens imme-
diately below the surface, they saw
the festoons of honey hanging there
which the bees had strung along the
sides of their mammoth hive after
they had filed the hidden grottoes;
and looked in through the upward
swarms and saw the CLEANS of combs
built no doubt many years before.
The sight of all that honey was too
much for those X. G. gentlemen, aud
they decided they would form a COM
pany for the express purpose of put
ting it on the market. They calcu-
lated that by thus saving all the
sweetness to the world they would
not only be doing the public great
favor, but would enrich themselves to
the extent OF something like Sl00, 900
apiece. There was one man in the
the party named Ouden, who was
looked upon by the rest as capable of
handling big affairs, and to him was
intrusted the work of managing the
enterprise. AS soon as the company
had been formed he was given his
credentials and went back to Del Rio,
from which place he was to make
trip to the Bowl for the purpose of
getting a better understanding Of the
work required. He made the trip all
right, but when he came back he re-
ported to his friends that it would be
impossible to do anything with the
honey and that if they wanted to 20
any further they had best hire new
manager. SO the company idea was
abandoned and no application was
made to the Texas Legislature for ar
ticles of Incorporation or for the pur-
chase of the valley in which the
Bowl" lies.
Then Ouden, who was more of
manager than his friends imagined,
slipped out and bought the land, rugged
up big derrick and, with about forty
Mexicans and 100 pack mules, started
for the great honey cave. 1t was his
plan to wrap q Mexican up in several
hundred yards of mosquito netting,
let him down into the hole by means
of rope ladder suspended from the
derrick, and let him fill the boxes with
honey, which would be drawn out by
means of a pulley. He expected
good profit on this trial trip, though,
which, derrick, Mexicans and mules
stood him at about $1,000.
When they reached the "Bowl" he
learned to his sorrow that the legs of
the derrick were away too short, but
by letting them out TO their fullest
spread he made them reach across the
mouth of the hole, tied the feet securely
" bLdhoo uIlN0u ub0p lulO Jub BIOuuu
and then ordered one of the Mexicans
to wrap himself in the mosquito net
ting and go down. All this time the
bees had paid no attentian to the in
truders, but the Mexican was afraid
and refused to obey.
DOWN AMONG THE BEES.
In vain Ouden explained and wheo-
died, the Mexicans didn't "sabe" and
as the bees began to swarm up a little
they all got away frown the "Bowl."
Finally, when he saw that there was
no other way out of it, he resolved to
make the first descent himself He
wrapped himself up in the netting and
ordered the Mexicans to attach the
rope ladder to the derrick head. The
one who tried it got stuug in hun
dred places before he got halfway out
to the place where he was to attach
the ladder and came back in a hurry,
dropping the ladder into the hole as
he stepped Off the derrick. Then, as
there was nothing else to go down on,