Life — August 21, 1913 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "No New Principle Here" — Life Magazine Satire This page mocks a Boston painter named Joseph Knowles who proposed living three months in the Northern wilderness with minimal supplies to prove self-sufficiency. The article questions whether this is genuinely novel, noting wealthy New York women already live similarly—taking resources "close at hand" without "handsome support by citizens." The top illustration shows fashionable people lounging while fishing, suggesting idle leisure. The three photographs below labeled "STOP," "LOOK," and "AND LISTEN" depict wilderness survival scenes (campfire, hunting, gathering), contrasting the women's urban "wilderness living" with actual survival activities. The satire suggests Knowles's stunt merely mimics what privileged women already practice—living off their surroundings without acknowledged dependence on others' support.