On Monday the Evening Bulletin ran a large photograph of Bertha and John, taken by the news photographers Underwood & Underwood in New York. It is the clearest picture of the two children from that winter.
Transcription
The text is copied as printed. Words in [square brackets] are my corrections of printer’s errors.
BERTHA AND JOHN BENSON, STOWAWAYS ON FREIGHTER, CLAIM TO HAVE RELATIVES IN RHODE ISLAND
On the France and Canada Line freight steamer Shortsville, which docked at New York on Frday [Friday], were two children, giving their names as Bertha Benson, aged 15, and her brother, John Benson, two years younger, who had stowed away on the vessel at Gothenburg, Sweden. Although they claim to have an uncle, Carl Benson, in Providence, they are unable to give any definite information whereby he can be found. According to the story told by the young stowaways, they previously lived at Worcester, where their father, Peter Benson, a painter, died about four years ago. Some months ago their mother took them to Sweden, where she expected to find relatives. Failing in this, the mother was taken ill and placed in an asylum, but the children decided to return to their childhood home in Worcester. They claim to have gone aboard the Shortsville at Gothenburg and hidden themselves until the steamer was far enough out from land to make it impossible for the captain to turn back. Upon arrival in New York, the little wanderers were presented their passage fee by the steamship agent, and efforts are being made to find relatives of the pair. For the present, they are at Ellis Island, where they are being detained until relatives claim them.
The Evening Bulletin, Monday, December 22, 1919, page 3
Notes
Bertha is wearing a dark hat and a long fringed scarf. The captain of the Shortsville had bought her new clothes in England; the Boston Post later described them as a blue smock, a plaid skirt and spats.
This story gives their father’s name as Peter Benson, a painter, and says he died about four years earlier. That is right: his death certificate shows that John Peter Benson died at Worcester on February 26, 1915.