Life, 1913-08-21 · page 7 of 40
Life — August 21, 1913 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
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.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE SEASONS No New Principle Here A SOORDING to the Boston papers a painter named Joseph Knowles has plunged this summer into the wilderness of Northern Maine without clothing, food, matches or firearms and proposes to live there for three months in order to demonstrate that a man can support himself under these conditions, But in reality, is Mr. Knowles doing anything new? Is he not in effect living off his surroundings, taking all those things which are close at hand and making them serve his purpose? In doing this is he doing anything more than certain ladies who are living successfully in New York; who plunged into the Metropolitan wilderness without clothing, food or firearms and who arc now being hand- somely supported by denizens? AND LISTEN comicbooks.com