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.