Preface

Despite the thrilling nature of the story of which this book is designed to be an accurate record, no attempt has been made to embellish it with sensational statements. It is a plain recital of fact. Annie Edson Taylor is the only human being who has ever gone over the Falls of Niagara and lived to tell the story of her experience. Even in its plain way, this little book has the distinguishing feature of being a story thoroughly original; a story which no other one of the million of people on this earth can truthfully tell as Annie Edson Taylor has told it.

In the face of her wonderful accomplishment of having conquered the greatest waterfall in existence, Mrs. Taylor is not unmindful of the history of Niagara, and so it is her wish that this book be dedicated to the memory of the Indian maidens whose lives were sacrificed, as the legends of old tell us, in the days gone by, when it was the custom of the tribes to offer up their fairest daughters to the Great Spirit. As the world has progressed science and invention have demonstrated where mistakes were made in many fields, and it remained for Mrs. Taylor to show that the mistake of the Indian maidens was in trying to conquer Niagara in birch bark canoes instead of in barrels of Kentucky oak. We live to learn.