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Keep In Touch · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
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  Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to the cabinet of curiosities. When it comes to the
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  Speaker 1: invention of the telegraph, one name stands above the rest,
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  Speaker 1: Giulielmo Marconi. Marconi was an inventor who revolutionized the wireless
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  Speaker 1: telegraph and laid the foundation for the phones we hold
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  Speaker 1: in our hands today. But another man had caught a
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  Speaker 1: glimpse of the telegraph system long before Marconi, about three
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  Speaker 1: thousand years before him. In fact, James Campbell Besley was
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  Speaker 1: in shorts and explorer. However, one look at his accomplishments
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  Speaker 1: and he starts to sound more like a myth than
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  Speaker 1: a man. And yet he and his exploits seemed to
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  Speaker 1: have faded into obscure rity. Bestley was born in London
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy four. At least that's what he liked
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  Speaker 1: to tell people. He actually had been born in Australia.
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  Speaker 1: But that was the thing about James Bestley. He enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: a good story. He traveled to London later in life
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  Speaker 1: to receive an Ivy League education, in metallurgy, but he
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  Speaker 1: didn't finish, opting instead to travel the world and make
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  Speaker 1: a little money along the way. By nineteen or three, however,
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  Speaker 1: the only thing he'd seen was the inside of a cell.
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  Speaker 1: He was arrested twice in the Yukon on several charges
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  Speaker 1: of money fraud. He didn't let that keep him down, though.
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  Speaker 1: He soon ventured to South Africa and Australia, where he
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  Speaker 1: tried and failed to start several small businesses. Eventually, Bestly
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  Speaker 1: made his fortune in mining for gold down Under before
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  Speaker 1: packing up for Alaska and joining the military. After serving
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  Speaker 1: in the Boer War in Africa, Bestly headed to Mexico
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  Speaker 1: to mine for silver and copper when polo tournaments, and
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  Speaker 1: run a massive cattle ranch. For anyone else, that would
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  Speaker 1: have been quite a life, but Bestley still felt that
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  Speaker 1: there was much more to do and more places to see,
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  Speaker 1: so he booked a trip to Peru. He and eleven
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  Speaker 1: other scientists and photographers fought disease and deadly wildlife, only
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  Speaker 1: to uncover three Incan cities once thought lust and while
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  Speaker 1: doing so, they used a relatively new technology called motion
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  Speaker 1: pictures to capture the first footage of Machu Picchu After
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  Speaker 1: his jaunt through the Amazon, Bestley and his team traveled
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  Speaker 1: to New York, where the footage they shot was stolen.
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  Speaker 1: Apparently someone had broken into the trunk where five thousand
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  Speaker 1: feet of film was being stored for later review. He
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  Speaker 1: couldn't rest knowing that all he'd worked for had suddenly
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  Speaker 1: been ripped away from him, so Bestley took another trip
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  Speaker 1: down south to reshoot his films and do something more.
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  Speaker 1: That was when he realized something strange about his trip
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  Speaker 1: through the Amazon. No matter how far or how quickly
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  Speaker 1: he traveled, the native people in the next location always
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  Speaker 1: knew that he'd be coming. Over the course of five months,
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  Speaker 1: Bestley traveled from Lima to the Amazon River Delta. Every
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  Speaker 1: time he came to a village, he realized that he
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  Speaker 1: had been expected. When he asked how they knew about
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  Speaker 1: his impending arrival, they pointed to a contraption made for
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  Speaker 1: the purpose of letting neighboring villages know of incoming threats
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  Speaker 1: or visitors. The transmitter was comprised of a hollow tree
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  Speaker 1: trunk hung just above the ground. According to Besley, inside
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  Speaker 1: the trunk had been arranged very much like our violins,
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  Speaker 1: presumably with strings fashioned out of the innards from a
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  Speaker 1: jungle cat. When someone hit the trunk with a small mallet,
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  Speaker 1: the vibration would carry for miles to a receiver in
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  Speaker 1: a neighboring village. That receiver was also made of a
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  Speaker 1: hollowed out tree trunk, but instead of being suspended in
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  Speaker 1: the air, it was mounted on a wooden platform. The
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  Speaker 1: vibrations from the transmitter would result in a mild ringing
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  Speaker 1: sound in the receiver. Vibrations of varying lengths would let
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  Speaker 1: others know all sorts of news, similar to the dots
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  Speaker 1: and dashes of Marconi's telegraph system. It was ancient and
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  Speaker 1: revolutionary all at the same time. Besley's expedition proves something
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  Speaker 1: that we're not always willing to admit. When a new
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  Speaker 1: invention is unleashed on the world, that rarely are those
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  Speaker 1: of us from so called civilized countries first to do anything.
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  Speaker 1: Cultures of all kinds have been finding new and inventive
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  Speaker 1: ways of communicating for millennia. Our communication devices are telegraphs
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  Speaker 1: and telephones, and even our online chat applications have all
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  Speaker 1: been based, whether consciously or not, on systems that existed
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  Speaker 1: for thousands of years. We just hadn't heard about them yet.
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  Speaker 1: Now that's what I call a bad connection. Everyone handles
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  Speaker 1: faith in their own way. Some refuse to believe in
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  Speaker 1: a higher power, while others embraced the notion that our
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  Speaker 1: lives are on a path set in motion something or
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  Speaker 1: someone we cannot see. Catherine Labour seemed drawn to religion
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  Speaker 1: from the moment she and her striking blue eyes came
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  Speaker 1: into the world. Born a Roman Catholic, she took her
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  Speaker 1: baptismal name Zoe from St. Zoe, who was coincidentally celebrated
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  Speaker 1: on Catherine's birthday each year. In eighteen fifteen, when she
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  Speaker 1: was only nine years old, her mother passed away. However,
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  Speaker 1: the young Labour quickly found a replacement when she picked
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  Speaker 1: up a nearby statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and said,
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  Speaker 1: now you will be my mother. Catherine and her sister
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  Speaker 1: Antoinette eventually moved out of their father's home and went
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  Speaker 1: to live with his sister their aunt several miles away.
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  Speaker 1: Her faith only grew stronger after a dream about St.
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  Speaker 1: Vincent de Paul. For example, she joined the nursing order
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  Speaker 1: that he'd founded in the sixteen hundreds. Her brushes with
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  Speaker 1: the supernatural didn't stop there though. There was something special
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  Speaker 1: about Catherine Labour, how the spirit of St. Vincent de
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  Speaker 1: Paul seemed to always find its way to her, almost
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  Speaker 1: as though it had chosen her for something special. When St.
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  Speaker 1: Vincent de Paul's remains were moved to the Vatican Church
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  Speaker 1: in Paris, Catherine experienced another vision, three in fact, all
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  Speaker 1: within the convent chapel. She saw St. Vincent's heart poised
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  Speaker 1: above the bone of his right arm. With each encounter,
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  Speaker 1: the heart's color would change for white, to red, and
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  Speaker 1: finally to black. To Catherine, these colors were messages about
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  Speaker 1: the future of her community, but the chaplain wasn't convinced.
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  Speaker 1: A few months later, Catherine was drawn to the chapel
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  Speaker 1: again by the sound of a child, despite there not
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  Speaker 1: being any children there at the time. She claimed to
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  Speaker 1: have heard the Virgin Mary speak to her upon her arrival,
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  Speaker 1: telling her that God had a plan for her and
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  Speaker 1: that she needed to see it through, even though she
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  Speaker 1: would be met with opposition. But that wouldn't be the
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  Speaker 1: only time the Virgin Mary would speak with her. One night,
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  Speaker 1: Catherine witnessed her appear within an oval picture frame, standing
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  Speaker 1: upon the earth with light shooting out of her hands.
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  Speaker 1: Twelve stars appeared, along with the letter M imposed over
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  Speaker 1: the cross. Beneath it all, she saw the phrases Sacred
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  Speaker 1: Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary before she departed.
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  Speaker 1: Mary then told Catherine to place these images and words
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  Speaker 1: on medallions so that people could wear them and receive
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  Speaker 1: great graces. She said, with the help of her superiors,
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  Speaker 1: the medallions were commissioned and distributed to the congregation. They
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  Speaker 1: are still popular and still worn today. Catherine Labour continued
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  Speaker 1: to work within the church, helping those who needed it
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  Speaker 1: the most. She died on December thirty one of eighteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy six, at the age of seventy. Whether she had
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  Speaker 1: actually spoken to the Virgin Mary isn't for any one
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  Speaker 1: of us to say. She'd believed when others had not,
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  Speaker 1: and she had cared for the most vulnerable among us
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  Speaker 1: and had lived a light of life. Catherine was interred
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  Speaker 1: in the chapel's tomb until nineteen thirty three, when Paris
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  Speaker 1: Cardinal Verdier decided to take a look inside one day,
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  Speaker 1: and he was astounded. Fifty seven years had passed and
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  Speaker 1: Catherine Labour still looked as pristine as the day she
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  Speaker 1: had died. Even the blue of her eyes hadn't faded
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  Speaker 1: after all that time. That very same year, Pope Pious
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  Speaker 1: the eleventh beified her. Fourteen years later, she was canonized
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  Speaker 1: by Pope Pious the twelfth, officially making her a saint.
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  Speaker 1: Catherine's undecomposed body was moved into a glass coffin that
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  Speaker 1: now sits at the altar of the Chapel of Our
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  Speaker 1: Lady of the Miraculous Metal in Paris. Saint Catherine's incorruptibility
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  Speaker 1: is said to have been a product of divine intervention,
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  Speaker 1: where other supposedly incorruptible bodies were mummified or had decomposed
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  Speaker 1: beyond recognition. This two d year old saint looks like
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  Speaker 1: she might wake up at any moment. When she was alive,
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  Speaker 1: she demonstrated the power of her faith by caring for
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  Speaker 1: the elderly and the infirm. Today, she's still inspiring believers,
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  Speaker 1: only this time from behind glass, herself a vision of
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  Speaker 1: beauty and grace. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
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  Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
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  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
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  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore which is a podcast, book series,
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  Speaker 1: and television show and you can learn all about it
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  Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
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  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious, Ye