Poker: Huge Fortunes to Win—or Lose Mah-Jongg, it is said; has been played in China since the days of Confucius and is so much the national game of China that its only equal in a national pastime would be an American combination of poker and baseball. It is a kind of poker. game with chances for large winnings and larger losses, but it is most like the American game of "rummy."
Since poker came to China and the Chinese became so interested in it, Mah-Jongg, in turn, has experienced a great revival among the foreign population of China. They are playing it everywhere and seem fascinated by the clever little blocks of ivory and bamboo with delicately painted characters and designs. Mah-Jongg sets may be found in many of the clubs of Shanghai and may be purchased locally together with little books of rules printed in English, or, if you read Chinese, you will find that the publication of books of rules and fine points of the game will rival the number of English books on bridge. The possibilities of scoring are very great. It is said that the highest possible score is 106,496. This works out by arithmetical progression, as certain conditions, like getting threes of "the dragon" or the "pink lady," double the score.
It will be seen that since foreigners took up the game, its phraseology has undergone a change. A one in bamboo is a "rubber duck," nine of bamboos is a "tin of asparagus." characters are called "crackers," the green dragon is "spinach," and the blanks are The origin of the game is said to have been in Canton or Ningpo but that was 20 centuries ago and is hard to ascertain. At any rate, now, it is played all over China and its fine points have been developed to such an extent that a house-boy could bankrupt—his master in an evening.
The playing of the game is typically Chinese. The little blocks or tiles are built up into an enclosed wall, dice are thrown to sce where the wall shall be attacked. each player collects his number of tiles and playing proceeds—counterclockwise, of course. When a player sees a tile discarded which he wants he either "pungs" it, if he has a pair, or "chows" it from his left-hand neighbour, if he needs it for a sequence. When one player gets his hand filled with four sets of three and a pair, he calls ""Mah-Jongg" and that ' round is over, with the exception of the counting, which is done by means of slender ivory counters with red and black dots which indicate the amounts. blessing of Nazareth, and men will find themselves through their labour brought nearer to the great Worker, God.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.