Produced by Chuck Greif (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive) WHY I BELIEVE IN POVERTY * * * * * The Riverside Uplift Series WHY I BELIEVE IN POVERTY. By EDWARD BOK, THE AMATEUR SPIRIT, By BLISS PERRY. THE GLORY OF THE IMPERFECT, By GEORGE H, PALMER. SELF-CULTIVATION IN ENGLISH. By GEORGE H. PALMER. TRADES AND PROFESSIONS. By GEORGE H. PALMER. THE CULTIVATED MAN. By CHARLES W. ELIOT. WHITHER? ANONYMOUS. CALM YOURSELF. By GEORGE L. WALTON. Each, 50 cents, net. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON AND NEW YORK * * * * * WHY I BELIEVE IN POVERTY AS THE RICHEST EXPERIENCE THAT CAN COME TO A BOY BY EDWARD BOK BOSTON AND HEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY MDCCCCXV COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY EDWARD BOK ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1915 A FOREWORD THE article in this little book was published in _The Ladies' Home Journal_ for April, 1915. Much to the surprise of the author, the call for copies was so insistent as to exhaust the edition of the magazine containing it. As the demand did not appear to be supplied, the article is now reprinted in this form. It is sent out with the hope of the author that it may still further fulfill its mission of giving the stimulant of encouragement wherever it is needed. E. B. _October Nineteen hundred and fifteen_ WHY I BELIEVE IN POVERTY AS THE RICHEST EXPERIENCE THAT CAN COME TO A BOY I MAKE my living trying to edit the "Ladies' Home Journal." And because the public has been most generous in its acceptance of that periodical, a share of that success has logically come to me. Hence a number of my very good readers cherish an opinion that often I have been tempted to correct, a temptation to which I now yield. My correspondents express the conviction variously, but this extract from a letter is a fair sample:--