Do you wish you had been born in a castle?  Carl Schurz was.  But he left it all behind to come to America.  Schurz was born in Germany in 1829.  His bright career as a student and public speaker began at the University of Bonn when he was only nineteen.  But he soon found himself on the wrong side of a revolution.  He landed in a German prison.  He escaped to England, and from there he immigrated to the United States in 1852.  Schurz knew very little English, but in three years he not only learned a new language, but also studied law.  By 1855, he became a lawyer in Wisconsin.  Schurz had many friends in Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri, who had also emigrated from Germany.  He entered politics to help his German American friends and to speak out against slavery.  In 1860, Schurz helped Abraham Lincoln win the presidency.  Lincoln appointed him minister to Spain.  When he heard about the Union Army's defeat at Bull Run, and when he listened to jokes in Spain about the Union losing the war, Schurz wanted to return home to America.  Lincoln agreed and made him a brigadier general.  During the war, Schurz led his troop's through many major battles.  He rose to the rank of major general.  Schurz returned to his political career after the war ended.  In 1869, he became a United States senator from Missouri.  President Hayes appointed him secretary of the interior in 1876.  Carl Schurz worked as a journalist to the end of his life in 1906.  His articles and speeches had a powerful influence for the good in politics and on social issues.  He gained the respect of the country he adopted and served so well. New York City built a park in his honor, which includes a statue of Schurz.  https://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/web08/features/bio/B05.html

Margarethe Meyer was born on August 27, 1832, in Hamburg, Germany, the youngest of four children in a prominent family that encouraged her to pursue the arts and education.  Her mother died at her birth.  Her father, Heinrich Meyer, a prosperous, socially liberal Jewish merchant, opened his home to artists and intellectuals.  As a teenager, Margarethe was exposed to the teachings of kindergarten founder Friedrich Froebel.  Carl Schurz married Margarethe Meyer on July 5, 1852.  In August of that year, they immigrated to the United States, settling in Philadelphia, where their first child, Agatha, was born in 1853.  The Schurzes had a total of four more children:  Marianne, Emma, Carl Lincoln, and Herbert.  While in Philadelphia, Schurz studied English intensively.  He visited Washington, DC, in 1854 and met with several senators and President Franklin Pierce, and they advised him of political opportunities in the Midwest.  Margarethe, troubled by a lung ailment, returned to England with Agatha in 1855 for a water cure.  Carl rejoined his family at the end of the year, taking them to Switzerland, where a second daughter, Marianne, was born.  After returning to America, the family moved to Watertown, Wisconsin, in August 1856, where Carl's parents, sisters, several other Schurz relatives, and many German immigrants had settled.  The Schurz family home in Watertown was known as Karlshuegel (Carl's Hill).  Margarethe began a kindergarten class there, the first in the United States, in the fall of 1856.  She employed Froebel's philosophy while caring for the children, leading them in games, songs, and group activities that channeled their energy while also preparing them for school.  Like most of the early kindergartens, it was conducted in the German language.  http://civilwarwomenblog.com/margarethe-schurz/

Romano beans are also called Italian flat beans or runner beans.  This snap bean variety looks like a wide, flat green bean.  You can substitute an equal amount of regular green beans in a recipe for Romano Bean Salad at http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/romano-bean-salad

An encrypted 3,300 page eye-witness account of life in Restoration England has been cracked by a team of academics.  The diary, written by 17th Century Cambridge alumnus Roger Morrice, was published for the first time in August, 2016.  Spanning the years from 1677 to 1691, the diary covers the reigns of Charles II and James II, and the events of the “Glorious Revolution” which heralded the start of English parliamentary government.  The diary, titled “Entring”, is now being considered as a rival to writings of Samuel Pepys as an account of life during Restoration Period.  But despite the text’s obvious importance it has lain nearly forgotten in London’s Dr Williams library for almost 300 years.  All previous attempts to use Morrice’s work have been thwarted by the fact that he coded 40,000 of his words in an attempt to protect himself.   The transcription has taken seven years, and the team, led by Cambridge historian Mark Goldie, had to recruit an expert on 17th century shorthand to help decipher the text.  It is hoped that the diary will enhance our understanding of the period, as Morrice’s account of 17th century life contrasts starkly with Pepys’.  Pepys was optimistic after the restoration of the English monarchy while Morrice felt that life under Charles II lacked the morals of the previous Cromwellian regime and feared a Catholic counter-reformation.  But Dr Goldie claims the book’s appeal lies in more than its potential to illuminate 17th century political history.  “It also covers publishing, plays, business, military and religious matters.  We hear about foreign affairs, public opinion, London life, gossip and rumour, plays and coffee houses, books and censorship.”  https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/610

Leslie Poles Hartley (1895-1972), known as L. P. Hartley, was a British novelist and short story writer. His best-known novels are the Eustace and Hilda trilogy (1947) and The Go-Between (1953).  The latter  was made into a 1971 film, directed by Joseph Losey with a star cast, in an adaptation by Harold Pinter.  Its opening sentence, "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there", has become almost proverbial.  His 1957 novel The Hireling was made into a critically acclaimed film of the same title in 1973.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._P._Hartley

Bibliomania:  the strange history of compulsive book buying--An essayist looks into the curious past of pathological collectors--and considers her own lifelong urge to hoard ever more volumes by Lorraine Berry  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/26/bibliomania-the-strange-history-of-compulsive-book-buying

Middlegrounds, located in downtown Toledo, includes a half-mile of river frontage that begins at the Anthony Wayne Bridge and extends southwest of Martin Luther King Plaza.  The urban, 28-acre greenspace offers a 1.5-mile meandering walk/bike path and tranquil views of the Maumee River.  The transformation of the land began with the removal of 8,000 tons of debris, and features of the park were built with sustainability in mind.  Visitors will love the beautiful decking made of ipe wood, and the river will benefit from a natural system that captures and cleans water runoff from the adjacent bridge.  The purchase price and other costs associated with developing the park were reimbursed to the park district from a grant through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Estuarine Land Conservation Program.  The grant was designated for the project by U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur in February 2005.  https://metroparkstoledo.com/explore-your-parks/middlegrounds/  

           

Middlegrounds at 111 Ottawa Street in Toledo takes the name of the property (the "middle ground" between the Maumee River and Swan Creek).  Wood decking made of ipe (EE-pay) also known as Brazilian walnut is one of the densest hardwoods available and resistant to insect damage, mold and decay.  The Maumee River is the heart of a large drainage system fed by streams that flow through 17 counties in Ohio and parts of Indiana and Michigan.  The Maumee empties into Lake Erie, and then the Niagara River, over Niagara Falls and into Lake Ontario.  The 83,00-square-mile watershed is the largest on all the Great Lakes.  Metroparks Magazine  Winter 2017

Non Sequitur comic strip March 3, 2017 shows an information hut with two choices:  inquire about facts--or schmacts.  See where the customers are at http://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1671  March 3, 2017  On this date in 1913, thousands of women marched in a suffrage parade in Washington, D.C.  On this date in 1931, the United States adopted The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem.