Iditarod pioneer., 1915-02-06
CAPTAIN" BEASLEY AGAIN
lJuneau Empirel

"Jm" Beasley, fugitive in Alaska-but Hon. Captain J. Campbell Beasley, poloist, social pet clubman, phlanthropist and what not in New York, Philadelphia and Boston.
 Yep, Jim has bobbed up again. The last heard of the captain" was in San Fran cisco, when his engagement with the wealthy Miss Wood, an heiress of Los An geles, was unceremoniously cancelled by Miss Wood when it was learned the "captain," who had cut some swath at Burllngame and Carmel by the-Sea, had failed to secure divorce from his wife at Nome Prior to that publicity, James was given a few col umns when Charles F. Heron of Alaska, acting as deputy marshal, chased him all over the world Heron finally nabbed Beas ley, but the latter got out of the trouble after trial in the North.
 This time Jim is giving expert testimony on wireless, as fused by the South Amerl- can Indians for more than 5000 years.' Here it is fresh from the New York Sun :
 "That a system of wireless telegraph ex isted more than 5000 years ago among the savage tribes of South America was the information brought home by Captain J.. Campbell Beasley, adventurer and explorer, who arrived here recently with his party after more than year of exploring in the wilds of the Amazon valley.
 Captain Bea.ley started through South America from Lima, Peru, and made his way across the continent from the source to the delta of the Amazon river in five months He believes that his party Is the cnly one that has ever accomplished this feat
 It was in the JUamara region that we first learned of this wireless system,' said Captain Bcasley. We were met at the en- trance of village by a number of natives. They had evidently been expecting us, and when we asked how they knew that we were coming they pointed to a crude looking ar rangement suspended between two tree stumps on a horizontal bar. Through our Indian interpreter we learned that 1t was a wireless apparatus for sending and recclv- | ing wireless messages from the various l tribes throughout the Amazon valley. The | little transmitt2r was the hollow trunk of a tree suspended from the pole so that the | base was slightly off the ground. Inside it had been arranged very much like our violins. It was explained that when the l ne, rument was smartly struck with q small
  that carried for miles over the hills. The receiver Is very similar to the transmitter, except that it is placed on hardwood plat form. the mase of the beloved tree be ing grounded on the rlatform When the message Is struck in the npighborhOod vii | lare sometimes thirty miles distant, this receiver catches the vibrations, causing 2 jerky singing sound. I understand that thl: l sound system con be read by the members of the tribe and that in this ways news of victories and other happenings are told l throughout the countryside
 In this way the Indians all along oul route hersIded our approach, and We were met by the inhabitants all through the Put amayo, Nappo, Beni, Madri de Dios and lower Eucolaya valleys, the tr'bn aries f. the great Amazon We learned also from the Maratos and the Haumbalsus Indian. that this method of telegraphy has been used by the various tribes in that district ! for thousands of year.''