Time today for a good old-fashioned This Day In History segment. On this day in 1885, former POTUS (and Civil War general) U. S. Grant died of throat cancer. And little wonder, too, what with his recurrent binge drinking and incessant cigar smoking. Legend has it that he received gifts of over ten thousand boxes of cigars after one particularly bloody Civil War campaign.
But hey, at least his widow was able to “scrape by” on revenue generated by sales of his memoirs which were completed just prior to his death. That’s something, at least, right? Full story of the up-and-down career of the hard-charging man pictured on the U. S. fifty dollar bill is here at History.com .
To generate your own stack of fifties I guess you’ll just have to write your memoirs. (Trust me, you’ll never get rich blogging – this I know for a fact.) But as for ten thousand boxes of cigars? I guess you’ll have to capture two forts in Tennessee. And if you don’t get that obscure Civil War reference, then I guess you’ll just have to click the link and read the story. Otherwise you’ll likely die a penniless pauper with no stack of fifties for your grieving widow. Hey, buddy, you been warned. Better get cracking on the memoir. And lay off the cigars!