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Authors: Marilyn Land

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BOOK: Clattering Sparrows
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Introductory Notes

Mahjong, the game of Chinese origin, can be translated as
clattering sparrow, flax sparrow,
or
hemp sparrow,
as early Mahjong players equated the sound of the tiles when shuffled to the melodious noise reminiscent of numerous sparrows squabbling over scattered food crumbs, and the sound of the flax/hemp blowing in the wind.

Theories abound regarding this ancient and sometimes rowdy Chinese game that possibly originated during the Tang Dynasty in China over 4000 years ago. Most of the game’s history belongs to the aristocracy who were the only ones who knew the rules of play, and therefore for centuries, the game remained exclusive of the royal class. Those who support this theory believe that it was against the law for commoners to play, and the penalty for those who dared was decapitation. The penalty was said to have been lifted around 500 AD, which enabled anyone who desired to play the game to do so.

Others believe the great Chinese philosopher Confucius developed the game about 500 BC. The appearance of the game in various provinces throughout China coincides with Confucius’ travels while teaching his new doctrines. The three dragon (Cardinal) tiles agree with the three Cardinal virtues bequeathed by Confucius:
Zhong
the Red Dragon symbolizing Man in the middle of Heaven and earth;
Fa
the Green Dragon symbolizing prosperity and good fortune and representing the Earth; and
Bai
the White Dragon symbolizing Heaven and the spiritual order.

Although there are various other stories that lend themselves to an in-depth background of the game, the most logical theory implies that Mahjong developed from Chinese card and domino games sometime in the mid-nineteenth century in the provinces of Kiangsu, Anhwei, and Chekiang near Shanghai. Tile games in many forms have been known to exist from as early as 1120 AD in China, and the game of Chinese dominoes has been played for centuries. Believers of this theory are supported by the fact that Mahjong tiles were made of bamboo and ivory and are believed to have originated in Ningpo in Chekiang which is famous for ivory carving.

Mahjong quickly spread to England, Australia, Japan, and France. The introduction to the western world is thought to have begun with two brothers named White, who in the early 1900s introduced Mahjong to the English clubs of Shanghai, where it quickly gained popularity among the foreign residents. In 1920, Joseph Park Babcock, an American resident of Shanghai, who at the time was the Soochow representative of the Standard Oil Company, introduced Mahjong to the United States. He simplified the game by eliminating most of the hand scoring, retaining only the essential basic scores. He coined and copyrighted the term “Mah-Jongg” and produced a simplified set of rules that became known as the
Red Book.
To further promote the game, he provided English translations of the tiles, and he was responsible for importing the first Mah Jongg sets into the United States.

Two years later, W.A. Hammond, a lumber merchant from San Francisco, formed the Mah Jongg Sales Company of San Francisco and also began importing large quantities of sets to meet the rising demand.

1923 marked the height of the game’s craze in America, and Mah Jongg sets ranked sixth that year in items exported from Shanghai totaling in excess of $1.5 million. During this period, cow bone was actually shipped from Kansas City and Chicago to Shanghai as a replacement for the shortage of ivory in order to maintain steady production of new sets. Companies sprang up across the United States to meet the demand of the growing craze, as well. A number of established American companies also began producing Mah Jongg sets: Parker Brothers, United States Playing Card Company, and Milton Bradley to name a few. It is said that production of Mah Jongg sets rescued the ailing Milton Bradley Company from bankruptcy requiring its factories to run 24 hours a day to help meet the demand at the height of the game’s popularity.

The traditional sets imported from Shanghai were bamboo and ivory boxed in ornate rosewood cases. New sets were manufactured in every imaginable style, and ivory tiles were soon replaced with bone. Sets came in leather carrying cases with handles or sometimes even in cardboard boxes. Junior sets were produced in wood or cardboard to encourage younger players, as well. Sets ranged in price from $18.00 to $35.00 which at the time were considered quite expensive compared to a deck of cards. Today tiles and racks are made mainly of plastic although bone is still used, and the sets come complete with extra tiles, dice, a betting wheel, and a booklet of instructions, all tucked neatly into a hard-molded plastic case retailing for $50.00 upwards into the hundreds.

During the height of the craze, supporters and retailers provided in-store demonstrations and lessons to help prospective players gain interest. Related companies such as banks and even funeral homes used Mah Jongg to advertise their services by providing complimentary scoring cards, tablets, and rulebooks.

Before long the new leisure activity was being played across the country and games were demonstrated in retail shops, in clubs, and on street corners. Mah Jongg had become the new national pastime being played everywhere by everyone, and would ultimately serve as a great diversion during the hard times of the Great Depression. By the end of 1923, everyone playing the game had adopted their own unique set of rules. Country clubs, banks, hotels, steamship lines, and specialized Mah Jongg clubs all published their own book of rules.

Ongoing was the continuation of books being published attempting to regulate the game, and in 1924 the Standardization Committee of the American Official Laws of Mah-Jongg was formed to write a standardized set of rules. The committee consisted of M.C. Work, Robert Foster, Joseph Babcock, Lee Hartman, and J.H. Smith. All of these gentlemen had previously written their own book of rules. The American Official Laws of Mah-Jongg were published in 1924.

Throughout the next twenty years, Mah Jongg underwent various changes to the basic game as originally described in Mr. Babcock’s
Red Book of Rules
. Instructors sprang up as quickly as clubs during this period, each incorporating a slightly different strategy, mainly to coincide with their individual rules despite the existence of the standardized set of laws. Some groups added additional flowers, introduced joker tiles to the sets, and adopted standard hands for scoring and winning, while others just added colorful limit hands to the basic set of rules.

Although the popularity of the game slowly faded from the mainstream, it has maintained a steady and devout following that continues today. Even though 1923 marked the height of the game’s graze in this country, there are millions more players today evidencing that a new height has been reached almost a century later. Two organizations that incorporated adaptations of the traditional rules have also maintained a strong following—the National Mah Jongg League and the Wright-Patterson Mah Jongg Group.

Official rule books notwithstanding, groups continued to make up their own rules. In America, the name of the game evolved from the Chinese spelling of Mahjong to Mah-Jongg to Mah Jongg, once the National Mah Jongg League was formed in New York City in 1937, when a group of interested players met to standardize their rules and scoring. Despite the game’s Chinese origin, and its acceptance by both men and women of all racial and ethnic backgrounds when introduced by Joseph Babcock, American Mah Jongg is considered by many a Jewish game played predominantly by women. Many American players are of Jewish descent, and the National Mah Jongg League founded by Jewish players is to this day considered a Jewish organization. The league publishes instruction books, annual newsletters, and revises their standard hand cards annually. They organize annual tournaments, specialty cruises and trips, and they sell Mah Jongg sets along with a variety of game accessories and related items. They boast a membership of hundreds of thousands of avid and devoted players that continues to grow annually.

The Wright-Patterson Officers’ Wives Club began compiling their own rules and hands based on the Chinese game during the 1920s, when Wright-Patterson Air Force Base was still McCook Field. In 1963, their rules were copyrighted in order to standardize them, and unlike international rules, the use of jokers is not allowed. They do however incorporate a “Charleston” (a passing of unwanted tiles between players prior to the actual game play), and a set of standardized limit hands. This allows players that transfer from base to base or post to post to play using the same game rules. In 2003, the rules were revised and new hands were added so that even the most expert player is challenged.

The American Mah-Jongg Association was formed in 1999 to promote, foster, expand, and increase popularity of the game. Made up of a consortium of skilled players, developers, and enthusiasts, they are all dedicated to offering the best service, support, and news—exclusively for players of the game of Mah-Jongg.

In 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was founded, the new Communist government forbade any gambling activities, which were regarded as symbols of capitalist corruption, resulting in the banning of this traditional Chinese game. After the Cultural Revolution, the game was revived and once again Mahjong has become one of the most favorite pastimes of the Chinese people.

In many Chinese-American communities, Mahjong is considered a fundamental leisure activity and continues to offer its players a relief from the everyday pressures of life. Many Chinese players who work in family-owned businesses work ten hours a day, six days a week, and the only day they have to relax and spend time with their relatives is on one day of the weekend—Sunday. With such busy schedules, one might wonder why they spend their one free day playing Mahjong. The logic is that the game helps one to forget work, pressing bills, and other problems while allowing contact with family on a regular basis, even if it’s for a short period of time.

Almost every Sunday in many Chinese homes, relatives engage in a game of Mahjong. Games are arranged a few days ahead of time and the location of play varies at alternating relatives’ homes. Games usually begin around noon or one o’clock after lunch has been eaten. On special occasions such as birthdays, lunch is often served at the home of the host. Otherwise lunch is expected to be eaten before the start of the game. Once the game begins, its intensity lasts for the entire day until nine or ten o’clock at night. Naturally occasional breaks are taken and a variety of refreshments are served during the course of play.

Today, the popularity and demographic of Mah Jongg players differ greatly from country to country. As an example, in America, most players are women while in Japan, most players are men. Japan has also introduced Mahjong arcade machines that can be connected to players over the internet. With the latest resurgence of interest in Mah Jongg in America, many young people are taking up the game, and tournaments abound, including each December’s Mah Jongg Cruise. Sponsored by the National Mah Jongg League, the cruise features an International Championship Tournament at Sea where games last late into the night and true mavens can earn thousands of dollars in prize money. The internet also offers servers that allow fans anywhere in the world to form a game and play online.

Over time, the weekly Mah Jongg game has become a custom significantly among women, although it has been said that it was played regularly by Dwight Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, Jackie Gleason, and Art Carney, to mention a few. A game is held each week, on a rotating basis, at the homes of each of the players in any particular group, and refreshments are usually served. Beyond the fascination of the game, lifelong Mah Jongg players benefit from the therapeutic effect as well. The players help one another through bad times, and celebrate with one another in good times. More often than not, for one night a week all worries and problems are set aside and players call upon their luck, skill, and concentration to earn them a winning hand. For many the weekly Mah Jongg game has grown to become a tradition that transcends time.

More than 85 years after the game’s introduction to the western world, and with the advent of the twenty-first century, a whole new generation is once again discovering Mah Jongg—
the game of a hundred intelligences!
Mah Jongg sets are being passed down from generation to generation even though new sophisticated sets are produced and readily available. Many search the internet, antique shops, and flea markets hoping to find a set with the beauty and detail of the handcrafted sets of the 1920s and 1930s.

Throughout the years since Joseph Babcock first thought of importing this intriguing and addictive game, Mah Jongg has been an ever growing obsession while becoming an intricate part of American history. The sound of the tiles “clattering” together stirs many memories of past weekly games, but more than just a game, it is a time that family and friends gather sharing their lives, hopes, and dreams all centered around Mah Jongg and the
Clattering Sparrows.

Traditionally there is a saying that when Mah Jongg players leave this world, the last to go brings the set!

 

Prologue
New York—1955

In the summer of 1955, in a quiet suburb just north of Rochester, New York, a sequence of commonplace events culminated at City General Hospital in the early morning hours of Wednesday, August 17. As two women went into labor—one with her long awaited first child, the other a young unwed mother from the nearby Florence Crittenden Home—a horrific head-on collision occurred on the nearby interstate. A northbound car carrying four young men, who had spent the evening celebrating at a local tavern, crossed the divide, hitting a south-bound car carrying a young married couple.

Dr. Natalie Parker was thirty-five years old and loved her job—delivering babies. She had built a rewarding practice that was conducive to providing her patients with optimal care in the small town. Engaged to her high school sweetheart and in her first year of medical school at the time the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, it was an event that would alter the course of her life forever. Her fiancé, a third-year law student at the time, enlisted in the Navy following the attack, but was killed in combat shortly before the war ended. Grief stricken by the loss, she finished her studies at Cornell University, and upon completing her residency at Memorial Hospital in Rochester, opted to remain in the less hectic environment of Upstate New York.

She purchased a home, opened an office in a newly constructed medical building nearby, and dedicated herself wholeheartedly to building a modest Obstetrics/Gynecology practice in a suburb of Rochester. Her energy and dedication earned her the respect and admiration of the Board of City General, who had unanimously appointed her to the position of Chief of Obstetrics at the hospital nearly two years before. Upon accepting the appointment, she moved her private practice to the hospital allowing her to be readily available when her patients went into labor.

Less than twenty-four hours before, Natalie’s Tuesday had begun as a normal routine day. She had office hours until noon, rounds after lunch, and a short meeting at 4:00 p.m. at the hospital, allowing her sufficient time to return home and change for her evening plans. She arrived promptly to meet her good friends Katherine and Jack Heller for dinner at the Inn on the Lake to celebrate Katherine’s birthday which was the following day. Katherine was pregnant with their first child and due at any time. However, her noticeable discomfort during dinner, and complaints of lower back pain, brought their meal to a premature end shortly after the main course. Natalie’s suspicions prompted her to suggest they stop by the hospital on the way home, where a quick check showed Katherine was indeed in the early stages of labor. She told them they would probably have somewhat of a wait, citing that first babies usually take longer, but she felt certain the baby was ready to come and preferred not to send them home.

By midnight, Katherine was no longer walking the halls with Jack, she was in delivery and fully dilated, but the baby wasn’t coming. When her blood pressure suddenly began dropping and the baby started showing signs of distress, Natalie immediately made the decision to perform a Caesarean section.

As Natalie approached the waiting room to tell Jack that he and Katherine had a son, the elevator doors opened, and she recognized a young girl from the nearby Florence Crittenden Home for Unwed Mothers. The girls, mostly underage teens, were under the hospital’s care. The girls were not assigned to a particular doctor, as their services were given pro bono, and Natalie had examined her from time to time during her stay. Working with the Home had been one of her pet projects to provide high-quality prenatal care to the young girls. Their babies were delivered by the doctor on call when they went into labor. Since Natalie was already at the hospital, and this baby was more than ready to come into the world, she delivered the baby boy whose robust cry brought smiles to the faces of everyone in the delivery room.

The next several hours would touch numerous lives with an outcome too unthinkable to imagine. The Emergency Room turned into complete chaos, as the ambulances transporting victims from the collision on the interstate began arriving. As sirens breached the stillness of the night, Emergency Room personnel rounded up all the medical help each floor could spare.

It had been quite a day, and Natalie was exhausted. She was more than ready to change into her street clothes and go home, but as she passed the front desk, the nurse informed her they were awaiting an accident victim, a pregnant woman in her sixth month. ER was requesting an evaluation of her condition.

She was young, in her twenties, and had suffered numerous internal injuries. Her husband had been killed instantly in the crash, as were the four young men in the second car. The woman’s prognosis was good, but the baby could not be saved. She was the accident’s sole survivor.

After what seemed like a day that would never end, Natalie left the hospital and walked towards the parking lot just as the sun was beginning to rise.

***

Wednesday was Natalie’s day to visit the girls at the nearby Florence Crittenden Home. She had only managed a brief three hours of sleep, but she felt refreshed after showering and grabbing a quick cup of coffee. She arrived around 11:00 a.m. and checked in with the Director, Lucy Adams, before beginning her examinations. Lucy greeted her warmly, and thanked her for delivering the baby the night before, but expressed sadness that the baby had died. Natalie was taken aback. The girl was eighteen, healthy, and had a perfect pregnancy with few if any problems. What could possibly have gone wrong? Having delivered the baby herself, she knew the delivery had been fast and easy particularly for a first time mother, and his robust cry had endeared him to everyone in the delivery room.

Leaving the Home, Natalie went to the hospital to check on her patients. When she entered Katherine’s room, she was feeding her son. She sat with her awhile and told her that Jack could take them home on Saturday. As Katherine lifted the baby from her breast, Natalie was once again taken aback. Newborns are not readily identifiable especially as they are pulled from the womb, but she was confident the baby her friend was holding was noticeably bigger. Glancing at the birth card on the baby’s bed confirmed her immediate suspicions that the boy she had delivered to Katherine did not weigh nine pounds. Her guess was six pounds or at most, a few ounces more.

Natalie left Katherine’s room and flew down the hall to the desk. She asked for the records of the young girl from the Home. It was noted that her son had died of respiratory failure. The baby weighed six pounds, four ounces.

Natalie felt sick. How could this have possibly happened? Was it because the accident had drained each floor of needed personnel? It must have occurred while she was attending to the accident victim. Why weren’t the ID tags placed on the babies immediately? Now the big question was what was she going to do? She had no proof, only that the baby she delivered to Katherine was smaller, and the one she had delivered to the young girl was noticeably bigger, and she was certain of it. Natalie’s mind was racing. The young girl’s baby was slated for adoption anyway. Would it be so terribly wrong to leave things as they were? Her friends, Katherine and Jack Heller, were certainly in a position to provide a wonderful home and future for any child.

For the remainder of the day, Natalie was distraught. Her personal relationship with Katherine and Jack undeniably prejudiced whatever thoughts she had of doing the right thing. All through the night, she tossed and turned, playing over and over in her mind what could have happened. In the end, Natalie decided to go to Confession. She had to tell someone, and she was confident the priest could guide her to make the morally correct decision. She arrived at Saint Andrew’s Catholic Parish early the next morning and entered the Confessional.

Twenty minutes later, Natalie walked down the steps of the church to her car, satisfied that Confession had provided the catharsis and absolution she had sought.

BOOK: Clattering Sparrows
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