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Cousin Here, However, Anxious to Help Little Stowaways Who Ar Noe Detained in Ellis Island, if Way to Assist Them Can be Found.
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"Carl Benson of Providence," the uncle upon whom Bertha and John Benson, two child stowaways now detained by the immigration authorities at Ellis Island, are relying to get them back into the America they love, died last June.
He left a widow, who is an invalid, and four children, only one of whom is old enough to work. This one Ernest A., who is 19, would like to help his cousins, and provide a home for them. "But what can I do." He asked last night. "The load is heavy enough, as it is."
The stowaways have other relatives in Providence, however. An uncle, Aaron Calin, lives at 241 Ohio avenue. He did not want to discuss the future of his nephew and niece last night. Mrs. Calin did, however.
"Nothing doing," she said, when asked if she was going to take the children into her home. "I can't be bothered with them."
Mrs. Calin explained that she wasn't responsible for their plight, and said that her husband was only a half-uncle to the children, any way, having been a half-brother of their father.
Ernest, however, is determined that his cousins shall be cared for here, if any possible means can be found. He will not be able to help them himself, he says, as he is the sole support of his sister, two brothers and invalid mother, but he will urge Mr. Calin to take the children into his home. "I shall talk the matter over to-morrow with my uncle, and if he isn't willing to help them, I'll try to find somebody who is."
Carl Benson had been a painter here many years, and was a member of the Swedish Workingmen's Association. He died June 18. Ernest, who supports the family at 86 Corinth street, is clerk in a broker's office here.
The two children now being held by the immigration authorities at Ellis Island arrived in New York last Friday on the France and Canada Line freight steamer Shortsville, from Gothenburg, Sweden. They declared they wanted to return to their old home in Worcester, and insisted that their uncle, Carl Benson of Providence, would help them. They did not know that he had died, as they left this country with their mother early last spring.
The Evening Bulleting, Wednesday, December 24, 1919, Providence, RI, page 4