[Boston—Monday, 24 February 1868]
Monday Feb 24th We enjoyed a delightful dinner here last night. I only hope our guests liked the good time half as well. We sat 4 hours—Dickens, Agassiz and his wife, & Miss Felton, Dr Hayes, Prof & Mrs Rogers, Mrs Whipple & Mr. Dolby were our guests. Dickens read a short extract from an English journal the deposition of a child 3 years of age, against Mother Jaggers, a secreter and killer of babies—the child called itself, the baby-ganger whose duty it was to sit up in the middle of the bed with 7 babies and give them the bottle when they cried. Deponent saw Mother Jaggers one day “take a drop of gin” when by some means the “ganger” fell into the fire and no one being there to extract it has been disabled for life. Dear C.D. is going to hunt the case up as soon as he returns.
