ve him with his myrmidons
fleeing to his ships, was unknown to fame. Wars with Indians were
frequent. Massacres by Indians were common. The prow of a steamboat had
never cut the waters of a Western river. Railroads were unknown in the
world. There were but two avenues by which Kentucky could be reached
from the East. One was the water-way, furnished by the Ohio River. The
other was the "Wilderness Road," "blazed" by Daniel Boone. The former
was covered in keel-boats, flat-boats, and canoes. The latter was
traveled on horseback or on foot. No wheel had broken it or been broken
by it. The fathers of the subjects of this narrative followed this road
after crossing the Alleghanies. They were a clear-eyed, a bold, an
adventurous people. They wrested the land from the savage, made it
secure by their arms, and by the toil of their hands fitted it for its
present civilization. Among these, and such as these, these heroes in
the bloody exploits of surgery were reared. From such ancestors they
drew that dauntless courage which was so often tried in their
achievements--achievements the fame of which will not lapse with the
lapse of time. Boone had opened the way to the wilderness around them.
He "blazed" a path through its unbroken depths, along which the stream
of civilization quickly flowed. They blazed a path through the
unexplored regions of their art along which surgeons continue to tread.
His name is written in the history of his adopted State and embalmed in
the traditions of its people. Their names are written in the chronicles
of their beloved calling and upon the hearts of myriads of sufferers
whom their beneficent labors have relieved. They may or may not have
felt that their work was durable. But durable it is, and it hands down
to posterity a _monumentum aere perennius_, the absolute worth of which
passes computation. No present or future modification of this work can
rob its authors of that glory which crowns the head of the original
workman.

Like their kinsmen in genius, these toilers devised measures and dealt
with issues in advance of their time. Like them they enjoyed but scant
recompense for labors the far-reaching significance of which they did
not comprehend. Let us who are reaping in the harvest which they sowed
forget not how much we are beholden to these immortal husbandmen. And as
we contemplate the shining record of their deeds, let it counsel us to
"bend ourselves to a better future." Not that we may ho