New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-06-17
THE TALE OF A TUB.
HOW PLUCKY WOMAN TRTUMPHED
OVER MANY DIFFICULTIES.

Struggle for livelihood in this great metropolis is
not confined as might be inferred from current
fiction, to the East Side. Behind the marble front
Of many skyscraper from the Battery to Harlem.
and in the very heart of Fifth-ave daily waged
unrecorded battles for bread.
When discouraged and the game doesn't seem
worth the CANDLE" said a successful breadwinner
to a coterie Of fellow workers discussing what
makes for success failure. IT recall the tale of
a tub. not Dean Swft's of classic memory but
that modern contrivance fashioned by workaday
woman-the portable bathtub that relief ships
carried to Manila and Santiago. and which were
such godsend to the suffering soldiers at Montauk
In recognizing a want. then doggedly fighting OBJ
stacles set to thwart her in supplying it. the in
ventor Of that tub says to every faltering heart
What have done you do. If youn put your
shoulder TO the wheel and keep a-gong, keep a
going! All! there's the rub! It's hard to keep
a-going'"
As the hall bedroom is reputed the ultimate stage
of the lodger's downward progress in New-York, a
Fffth-ave. shop would the acme Of business
prosperity. In a curious little in the avenue
works alone from morning to night the heroine OF
this modern tale Of a tub The walls Of the room
are fanked with wooden frames, and on a table
like that upon which paper hanger cuts his strips
heaps Of fine white rubber squares and bobbins
Of daintily colored baby ribbons. of pow
erful physique, with voice to soothe and eye
command, is Sarah Catharine Neal. When she has
fashioned with needle, tack and hammer the Off
springs Of her brain, they shipped to the fur
thest point Of the compass It's only within the
last few years that tickle fortune has deigned to
tarry with the tub maker.
Some twenty years ago she landed at Castle Gar
den. Subsequently she entered the Nurses Train
Ing School. then just opened by Mayor Wickham
at the Charity Hospital the island. So unmis-
taxable was her gift for nursing that she won the
first prize offered at the Charity Hospital Out OF
a class OF twenty she the only Of foreign
birth. On quitting the hospital she followed the
life of professional nurse. Into the world and
through infantile crises she has skfuly brought
many children of the Oldest and most eminent fam
lilies Of New-York. IT while lighting for the
life OF the heir OF millions that the turning
point in the career of this self-made woman. A
Few months after birth the child developed water
on the brain. and its life hung in the balance The
doctor ordered hot baths six and seven times a
day. Only when IN water at 100 degrees did relief
come to the little sufferer who is to-day Iusty fig
ure in Wall Street. 1t old fashioned nursery,
and leaning over the bowl OF steaming water, often
ten minutes al time eXhausting. How to re-
heve the strain was the question. One day while
the child slept the nurse had occasion TO go TO the
parlor. housemad washing the windows
and to protect the carpet she had spread a rubber
cloth. It tripped the nurse who impatiently
snatching it up threw 1t across a buffers tray
that stood near the wall The rubber fell down
between the arms of the outstretched frame max
Ing deep receptacle. In a flash the mind trained
to observe perceived the possibilities
Borrowing buffers tray. she got a square of rub
Il
was great success. The family rejoiced and the
baby mended rapidly. The tub, they maintained,
saved It's life In the years that followed wherever
the nurse went similar tub was constructed,
which she left with the household on quitting it,
To add to the comfort of the child, to relieve the
labor OF mother her only thoughts
Chance at length brought her to the Windsor Ho-
tel to care for the infant of Scottish nobIewoman
At the hotel the child born, and as the nurse
proceeded as had become her won't to make a tub
the young mother much interested. When
her fathers physician who has since been knight.
ed by the Queen, called she took him to the nursery
and showed him the tub. and told how the nurse
had made It.
Woman" said he ITS as clever a contrfvapca
as have ever seen. Have you patented it?' The
idea convulsed her with laughter
No Jest said he. There's in that tub enough
to make you easy for life. 1 advise you to see a
patent attorney"
The doctor took tub with him back to Eng
land. and the noblewoman wrote that it created a
Digger sensation than her heir to title. Through
thelr efforts the tub was patented in England. as
When l got the patent" said the inventor re-
calling these early struggles Il didn't know what
had been absorbed In nursing l was now Wearv
of work, and lOnged for a home in the country /
had saved my earnings, and one day l gave up
nursing, and through real estate agent purchased
two adjoining farms. When l was about to take
possession of the property it discovered that
everything. After years of labor l was worse of
than at the outset. Back to nursing I went. and
set aside my savings until l had about $500
which l deposited a May morning in one of the
August the bank failed. Again 1 penniless. /
wrote to a relative, amply able to assist me- for
the loan Of enough money to launch the tub