1562 
Tht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
December  29,  1923 
The  Rural  New-Yorker  Saves  A  Life 
“ The  Rural  New-Yorker  saved  Mrs.  Rosebotigh’s 
lifer 
IIAT  is  the  statement  ending  a  letter  from 
Frank  Rosebougli  of  Brockport,  N.  Y.  The 
picture  on  this  page,  taken  from  a  photograph,  will 
•show  what  he  means. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Rosebougli  live  near  Brockport,  N. 
Y.,  on  a  farm.  Thanksgiving  Day  they  visited  Mrs. 
Rosebough’s  mother,  returning  in  the  evening.  It 
was  a  dark,  rainy  night,  and  the  evening  was  passed 
about  as  is  commonly  done  in  many  farm  homes.  At 
about  10  o’clock  Mrs.  Rosebougli  sat  reading  The 
Rural  New-Yorker.  A  kerosene  lamp  stood  on  the 
table.  Mr.  Rosebougli  had  just  written  a  letter  at 
the  table,  and  sat  reading  it  to  his  wife.  Mrs.  Rose- 
hougli  sat  in  a  rocking  chair  with  the  paper  held  a 
little  to  one  side  so  as  to  give  better  attention  to  the 
letter  which  her  husband  was  reading. 
We  can  easily  imagine  this  family  group — the 
lighted  lamp,  the  attentive  woman  holding  the  paper 
partly  before  her  face, 
and  the  dark  night, 
with  the  rain  beating 
against  the  window. 
Suddenly  there  was  a 
tremendous  explosion, 
or  rather  two  of  them. 
A  young  man,  or  boy, 
who  had  worked  on  the 
farm  during  the  past 
season,  stood  out  in  the 
dark  and  fired  both  bar¬ 
rels  of  a  shotgun  di¬ 
rectly  into  the  room. 
Mr.  Rosebougli  says  lie 
was  sitting  not  more 
than  four  feet  from  the 
window,  and  it  is  ap¬ 
parent  that  the  would- 
be  assassin  was  only 
about  that  distance  out¬ 
side.  or  within  10  feet 
of  his  intended  victims. 
At  the  instant  Mr.  Rose- 
bough  had  leaned  for¬ 
ward  slightly  to  make 
sure  of  a  word  in  his 
letter,  and  this  slight 
change  in  the  line  of  his 
head  saved  his  life.  The 
charge  of  shot  missed 
his  head  by  a  few 
inches,  and  the  force  of 
it  blew  him  off  the 
chair.  The  lamp  was  blown  off  the  table  and  ex¬ 
tinguished,  and  the  full  charge  struck  the  paper 
which  Mrs.  Rosebougli  was  holding  in  front  of  her 
face.  The  pages  were  evidently  held  loosely  apart, 
and  they  thus  acted  to  deaden  the  force  of  the  shot. 
Mrs.  Rosebougli  thought  the  lamp  had  exploded. 
Though  wounded  and  partly  blinded,  she  showed 
rare  bravery  and  presence  of  mind.  She  went  to 
the  kitchen  and  lighted  another  lamp,  and  was  re¬ 
turning  to  the  sitting-room  with  it  when  her  hus¬ 
band  blew  it  out,  for  he  knew  that  the  light  would 
only  betray  them  and  make  them  a  full  target  for 
the  assassin.  It  was  a  terrible  experience — the  sud¬ 
den  attack  upon  this  peaceful  family,  the  groping 
about  in  the  dark  to  find  some  place  of  safety,  and 
the  woman  suddenly  blinded  and  wounded,  plunged 
without  an  instant's  warning  from  the  most  peaceful 
scene  we  can  imagine  into  the  terror  of  a  deadly 
night  attack.  They  finally  reached  the  telephone 
and  called  their  nearest  neighbor,  who  notified  the 
State  troopers.  They  came  as  soon  as  they  could 
get  there  and  made  a  careful  search  of  the  premises. 
The  farm  hand  who  was  responsible  for  this  terrible 
experience  was  finally  arrested  and  will  be  justly 
dealt  with. 
The  picture  shows  how  Mrs.  Rosebougli  sat  with 
the  paper  in  front  of  her.  She  received  nine  shot  in 
the  face,  one  of  them  lodging  in  the  left  eyeball,  and 
another  going  through  her  fingers  as  they  held  the 
paper.  Happily,  these  wounds  are  slight,  and  Mrs. 
Rosebougli  will  not  lose  the  sight  of  her  eye.  as  was 
feared  at  one  time.  As  for  The  R.  N.-Y.,  we  may  see 
from  the  picture  that  it  came  out  of  the  fray  a  well- 
marked  veteran.  The  paper  was  evidently  held  at 
an  oblique  angle,  with  the  pages  loose,  so  that  air 
pads  formed  between  them  and  thus  deadened  the 
force  of  the  shot.  It  seems  evident  that  but  for  the 
protection  given  by  the  paper  Mrs.  Rosebougli  would 
have  been  instantly  killed.  It  was  an  awful  ex¬ 
perience  for  this  worthy  couple.  The  ordinary  mind 
can  hardly  realize  what  it  must  have  meant  to  have 
this  great  volley  of  shot  fired  by  a  maniac  into  this 
peaceful  home.  We  have  tried  to  show  in  times  past 
that  The  It.  N.-Y.  protects  its  readers.  Here  is  evi¬ 
dence  that  it  does  so  in  the  most  practical  meaning 
of  the  word. 
It  Helped  Her  Back  to  Health 
MY  daughter,  a  former  secretary  of  a  banking 
house,  expects  to  become  a  high  school  teacher 
very  shortly.  After  taking  her  school  examinations 
June  22  she  came  home  to  spend  her  vacation  with 
us,  as  we  had  not  seen  her  since  January  1.  1923. 
Two  days  after  her  arrival  she  became  dangerously 
ill  with  acute  indigestion.  Under  her  doctor’s  orders 
she  was  rushed  to  the  Middlesex  Hospital  at  Mid¬ 
dletown,  Conn.  After  two  weeks  of  great  sufferings 
she  pulled  through  and  was  pronounced -out  of  dan¬ 
ger.  When  she  was  slightly  better  she  asked  for 
some  reading  matter,  and  all  were  only  too  happy  to 
bring  her  what  they  could.  But  owing  to  her  great 
hunger  nothing  in  the  reading  line  appealed  to  her, 
books  or  papers.  Her  only  appeal  was  for  something 
else  to  read,  or  something  to  eat,  or  else  she  would 
go  out  of  tier  mind.  It  certainly  was  heart-breaking 
to  see  her  suffer  so.  I  visited  her  daily,  although 
11  ^  miles  from  home.  One  eventful  Friday.  July  13, 
on  going  to  visit  her  I  took  my  mail,  as  was  my 
daily  custom.  I  received  The  R.  N.-Y.,  which  I  gave 
her,  with  other  reading  matter.  When  I  next  saw 
her,  Monday,  the  16th,  and  her  lovely  smile  greeted 
me,  I  almost  fell  over  her  bed  for  joy.  Her  first 
words  to  me  were:  “Mamma,  The  R.  N.-Y.  saved 
my  life.  Its  contents  were  so  interesting,  from  be¬ 
ginning  to  end,  that  I  read  and  re-read  it  several 
time,  and  my  mind  was  so  absorbed  in  it  that  I 
have  forgotten  all  my  troubles  and  pains  and  feel 
like  a  new-born  babe.  Mamma,  hereafter  when 
through  reading  The  R.  N.-Y.  please  send  it  to  me, 
as  I  feel  that  I  owe  my  life  and  your  happiness  to 
this  little  R.  N.-Y.  Should  I  become  the  President’s 
secretary  I  will  not  be  without  it.” 
And  so  a  whole  lot  of  blessings  for  The  R.  N.-Y., 
for  I  feel  that  my  home  will  not  be  complete  without 
your  paper,  sending  it  to  her;  therefore  I  have  sub¬ 
scribed  for  her  as  a  very  pleasant  reminder  what  it 
did  for  her  in  less  than  48  hours.  May  your  paper 
do  to  every  unhappy  home  what  it  did  to  mine;  it 
changed  from  gloom  to  sunshine.  mrs.  e.  rapke. 
Connecticut. 
The  Culture  of  Soy  Beans 
EN  YEARS’  EXPERIENCE.— We  have  been 
growing  Soy  beans  for  seed  since  1913.  We 
started  out  with  three  acres  the  first,  year,  and  did 
not  get  a  bean,  as  we  had  Mammoth  Yellow,  a 
Southern  variety  that  "would  not  mature  in  our  lati¬ 
tude.  That  year  we  secured  our  first  County  Agent, 
and  he  advised  us  what  was  wrong.  Since  then  we 
have  gradually  increased  our  acreage  till  we  grow 
70  to  .SO  acres  on  160-acre  farm.  As  we  see  the 
outlook  for  this  comparative  new  crop,  they  are 
nearly  in  their  infancy.  Every  year  there  has  been 
a  large  increase  produced  and  each  year  there  has 
not  been  an  over-supply.  Not  many  years  hence 
they  will  be  grown  as  a  grain  crop  and  elevators 
will  handle  them  the  same  as  oats  and  wheat.  Of 
course  everyone  then  will  not  be  able  to  sell  their 
crop  for  seed.  We  never  recommended  Soy  beans 
for  hay  when  Alfalfa  or  Sweet  clover  will  grow. 
This  is  not  because  Soy  hay  is  inferior  to  the  other 
varieties,  but  it  is  harder  to  cu-re.  and  farmers  are 
apt  to  let  it  get  too  mature  before  cutting.  These 
beans  for  hay  should  be  cut  when  pods  are  well 
formed,  but  do  not  wait  for  the  beans  all  to  form. 
More  tonnage  will  be  secured  by  the  later  cutting 
but  the  quality  of  hay 
will  more  than  offset 
the  increased  tonnage. 
Of  course  where  clover 
has  failed  or  winter- 
killed  Soy  beans  for 
hay  is  the  best  “bet.” 
On  the  acid  soils  as  a 
hay  crop  they  are  a  boon 
'for  the  farmer.  We 
never  could  fathom 
why  we  have  not  sold 
more  beans  East,  be¬ 
cause  the  eastern  farm¬ 
er  is  losing  money  by 
not  taking  advantage  r>f 
this  opportunity. 
IN  THE  SILO.— Soy 
beans  planted  with 
corn  for  silage  make 
another  go VI on  oppor¬ 
tunity.  The  farmer  will 
get  not  only  one-tliird 
more  tonnage  per  acre 
but  a  better  grade  of 
silage.  We  believe  that 
one  of  the  reasons  the 
eastern  farmer  has  not 
used  this  combination 
is  not  having  a  corn 
binder  to  cut  the  corn 
and  beans  that  grow  to¬ 
gether.  We  have  never 
used  Soy  beans  for  pas¬ 
ture ;  our  soil  grows  Alfalfa  that  we  think  is  more 
profitable. 
FEEDING  MEAL. — We  feed  Soy  bean  meal  in  our 
mash  to  poultry  with  good  results,  also  to  our  cows. 
This  takes  the  place  of  meat  scraps  for  the  chickens 
and  cottonseed  for  the  cows.  It  probably  would  not 
pay  every  farmer  to  grow  his  own  protein,  but  if 
he  uses  three  tons  or  over  of  cottonseed  we  believe 
it  would  pay  him  to  plant  five  or  six  acres  and 
thrash  the  seed.  If  he  intends  to  feed  the  seed  it 
would  not  be  necessary  to  change  the  speed  of  the 
cylinder  of  the  ordinary  grain  separator,  as  split 
beans  would  not  be  a  detriment.  He  can  grow  his 
own  protein  as  a  rule  cheaper  than  he  can  buy  it. 
The  Extension  Service  and  the  large  Soy  growers 
are  doing  wonders  in  standardizing  to  a  few  varie¬ 
ties.  This  eliminates  confusion  and  the  purchaser 
is  more  apt  to  get  a  suitable  variety. 
A  SOIL  BUILDER. — We  had  quite  a  striking  il¬ 
lustration  of  the  soil  building  of  Soy  beans  this 
year.  One  field  had  Alfalfa  in  1921  and  1922,  the 
adjoining  field  Soy  beans  in  1921-1922,  both  fields 
being  planted  to  corn  in  1923.  The  Alfalfa  field 
wras  planted  a  day  earlier  than  the'  Soy  bean  field. 
The  middle  of  June  the  corn  in  the  Soy  bean  field 
was  8  in.  higher  than  in  the  Alfalfa  field.  This 
Fall  the  corn  is  much  better  in  the  Soy  bean  field 
than  the  Alfalfa  field.  Whether  this  is  just  a  co¬ 
incidence  or  not  we  do  not  know,  but  we  are  per¬ 
fectly  satisfied  with  the  queen  of  all  crops  as  a  soil- 
builder,  corn  being  king.  There  are  three  things 
that  should  be  emphasized.  Plant  shallow,  inoculate 
and  get  a  variety  suitable  to  the  individual  needs. 
Most  farmers  shy  off  when  you  mention  inocula¬ 
tion,  because  they  do  not  know  how  simple  it  is. 
Merely  moisten  the  seed  slightly,  sprinkle  about  one 
quart  of  well-saturated  bacteria  soil  to  the  bushel 
of  seed.  c.  b.  newton. 
Bowling  Green,  Ohio. 
Photo  by  Rochester  Tiines-Union  Staff  Photographer. 
How  Mrs.  Rosebougli  Was  Saved  from  Death 
