Wearing next to nothing

It’s true that the Mormon trail is loaded with accounts of trials and dotted with gravesites. The trail was a risk, no questions about it, but at the same time there was humor to be found, and plenty of it. Why did Brother Stratton and a friend only have a coat on, and nothing else as they passed by numerous pioneers on the trail? 

 

a.      Their clothes were stolen while swimming in the South Platte

b.      They took off their clothes to herd cattle across the South Platte

c.       They failed to pay their laundry fee and the laundress stole their clothes while they were sleeping

d.      The natives traded for them. Their clothes for a authentic tomahawk and bow

 

Yesterday’s answer:

 (D)   Protestant Schools

 

Protestant groups, particularly the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Methodists, failed to defeat Mormonism in outright debate and then sought to undermine it by mission schools. Basic education had been largely the responsibility of LDS wards, which varied widely in quality, as qualified teachers and books were often in short supply. The Protestant schools were of uniformly high quality, with well-trained teachers and abundant educational materials provided by donations from eastern congregations. The strategy behind them was that Mormon parents, seeking the best available education for their children, would be tempted to send them to the Protestant schools, where the teachers would not only educate them but convert them as well. The strategy yielded very few conversions, but it did expose the inadequacies of the ward schools and led to the establishment of the LDS Academy system and an effective public school system in the 1890s.

 Plewe, Brandon S., et. at., Mapping Mormonism (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2012) 112.