compelling, convincing and at times intimidating. In his home life, in his independence, in his church going propensity and in his aggressiveness and strenuosity, he has been compared with President Roosevelt.
Mr. Littlefield's opportunities for acquiring a place among the men of mark of the nation, were not superior to those enjoyed by hundreds of Maine boys of his time. By taking advantage of his slender opportunities, and making good use of a mind capable of absorbing, storing and using the information that constantly came within his reach during his youthful days, his power grew with his growth and strengthened with added years. His ancestry did not differ from that of other boys of his state and his time. All had sprung from Puritan stock who had sought release from the religious bigotry of England in the freer atmosphere of the American colonies. His father had been a mechanic and by the exercise of the talents he possessed had become a preacher of the Gospel. His own education had been limited to the training received at the district school and village academy. His ambition evidently had not been fired in his youth, as he was content to learn the trade of carpenter and to work at it until he was twenty-three years old. Then he caught sight of the possibilities presented even to one of his rather limited attainments, and began the study of law. His progress was rapid and in two years he was admitted to practice. While his success at the bar was beyond his most sanguine expectations, he allowed none of the allurements of public life in the political field to draw him for a moment from the duties of his profession until he had given the law twelve years of undivided allegiance. When he reached the mature age of thirty-seven years, he accepted the nomination of the Republican party for the office of representative in the state legislature; and he was a member of the lower house for two terms, during the last term serving as speaker. His next four years were given to the state as attorney-general. He took part in national politics as chairman of the Maine delegation in the Republican national conventions of 1892 and 1896; and in 1899 he was sent from his congressional i district to the United States congress as representative. His course in congress was marked by his ability and his willingness to rise above party and to make principle and constitutional law his guide. His thorough independence and his careful investigation of all questions before congress, both on the floor of the house and in the committee
