By Monday the steamship company had given up looking for the children’s uncle, and Bertha and John were handed over to the immigration officials at Ellis Island.
Transcription
The text is copied as printed. Words in [square brackets] are my corrections of printer’s errors.
CHILDREN STOWAWAYS INSIST UNCLE LIVES IN PROVIDENCE
Young Adventurers in Charge of Ellis Island Officials.[Special to The Evening Bulletin]
New York, Dec. 22.—Bertha and John Benson, two children stowaways, who arrived here last Friday on the France and Canada Line freight steamer Shortsville from Gothenburg, Sweden, and who insist they have an uncle, Carl Benson, in Providence have been turned over to the Ellis Island authorities.
All efforts by officials of the steamship company to locate relatives of the young adventurers have proved futile. According to their story, they lived in Worcester until a few months ago, when their mother took them to Sweden, where she is now ill in an asylum. They say that their father, Peter Benson, who was a painter, died four years ago.
The Evening Bulletin, Tuesday, December 23, 1919, page 2
Notes
Ellis Island was the immigration station for the port of New York. Children who arrived without a parent were not let go until someone came forward to take charge of them.