J. MALCOLM FORBES AND FORBES FARM 



John Malcolm Forbes was born in Milton, Mass., 

 February 2, 1847, an ^ he was a partner in the well- 

 known firm of J. M. Forbes & Co., founded by 

 his father. He was a man of large affairs in every 

 sense of the word, and his influence added to the 

 prestige of the trotting turf. A gap was created 

 in the ranks of the clean and loyal sportsmen of 

 America when he died at his home in Milton, Feb- 

 ruary 19, 1904. 



Mr. Forbes once said to me that the man who paid 

 a very long price for a stallion imposed something 

 of a handicap upon himself. People expected more 

 of the horse than he could accomplish in the stud, 

 and were disposed to criticise him when he did not 

 rise to their sanguine expectations. Arion has proved 

 himself a sire of extreme speed, and had less money 

 been paid for him the critics would have been more 

 tolerant, because an impossible standard would not 

 have been erected for his measurement. 



I find scores of letters from Mr. Forbes in my 

 filebook, and I shall reproduce two of these to show 

 the bent of his mind. Under date of January 31, 

 1899, he wrote: 



" DEAR MR. BUSBEY: I have yours of the 3Oth, 

 and I think that I saw in your paper an account of 

 my taking an interest in French coachers and hack- 

 neys. I wish to disclaim taking the slightest in- 

 terest in the latter. I have never known a good 

 horseman to say a good word for the hackney. There 

 are many horsey men who talk and think differently, 



277 



