Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1881-11-05

w. i. and MIS- mary N. ALEXANDER tne
25th day of October, being the 50th an
nivcrsary Of their marriage. The event
was announced by the previous issue of
Gle giant cards of invitation printed in
gold MS follows:
1881 1881.
GOLDEN WEDDING
Rev and Mrs. W. J.. Alexander
will receive their friends ut the
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
OF their marriage, ON Tuesday afternoon
Mt two o'clock,
October 25th, 1881,
At the residence OF their son,
Row James NJ Alexander, Haiku, Maui.
The day was perfect. The beautiful
grounds at Glcnside were i'll complete
order, and the house seemed empowered
in vines and flowers as you approached.
At the appointed hour the guests began
to arrive. Rev. and Mrs. Alexander wei
coined them at the door and they passed
in to halls and parlors that were like n
bower of green and gold. Wrcaths of
ferns and male, braided with golden col
ored flowers, adorned the walls and pass
ages. Over one entrance you were greeted
with "Aloha" and "Welcomo" in golden
letters. Between the parlors WAS an in
genious monogram in gold, of the initials
of the bride and groom and the dates
1S3l-1sSl, connected by fifty small gilt
stars. On the wall OF the back parlor was
the appropriate motto in green, Children
are the crown of old men, and the glory
of children are their fathers. " The house
was ablaze with golden colors, and every
table, corner, and bracket was brilliant
with flowers and foliage; beneath green
arch across one corner of the parlor were
suspended two rows of golden stars. The
upper row of sixteen stars represented the
children, both husbands and wives the
nine children having become sixteen by
marriage, and the under row of twenty
eight lesser stars, represented the grand
children living. Directly under these hung
the marriage bell, n beautiful structure
of ever green and roses. Beneath this
canopy of beauty, constructed by tho
loving hands of their children, sat the
handsome old couple, the observed and
loved of all observers, looking fresh and
hearty, and as if they were good for the
diamond wedding twenty five years hence
Promptly at two o'clock, the rooms and
verandas being filed with guests, the ex-
ercises commenced. They were simple,
appropriate and full of tender feeling, en-
livened now and then by flashes of wit
and touching references, drawing alter
nately smiles and tears. First came an
anthem, "Let every heart rejoice and
sing" Next an address to the parents in
behalf of the children by the eldest son,
Prof. w. d. Alexander, as follows:
Mg dear parents: 1t is no common occa-
sion that has called us together to-day to
rejoice in the wonderful goodness of our
Heavenly Father to us, and to present you
with these little tokens of the gratitude
and affection which to you is far more
precious than gold which perisheth."
Fifty years ago to-day, near the banks of
the blue Susquehannah you plightcd faith
in union "lopger than life and stronger
than death, " and at the same time con
secrated your joint lives to your Divine
Masters service
If ever matches are made in Heaven, "
this was one, over which angels might re-
joice; for Gods benediction rested upon
it and has followed it ever since. 1t was
His presence felt, though unseen, that has
sustained you through all the trials and
perils you have been called pass through
in all the first horrors of that first voyage
around Cape Horn, again when you took
your lives in your hands and went among
Marquesan cannibals, and through all
your lonely and self denying labors as
Missionaries on these Islands. And now,
} in your peaceful old age, rich as it is in
"honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I the same Divine presence seems to shed n
| D.,
glimpses OF tho Celestial city, such as
Bunyan's pilgrim enjoyed in the land OF
Beulah.
Like Jacob of old, who said "with my
) staff crossed over this Jordan, and now
, | am become two bands" so now you
can call the roll of nine children by mar
riuge and twenty-eight grand children liv-
: ing. And during these fifty years death
has entered our family circle but once
when it snatched away a grand-child in
infancy. The words of Tennyson may be
fifty applied to each of you:
81 sec thee sitting, crowned with good,
4 central warmth, dnusing bliss
In touch and clasp aud glance and kiss
Ger all the branches oi thy blood. "
: As you look back on the past half
century, what wonderful changes you mus
call to mind. You have Witnessed nearly
all the steps of the process by which this
luili HIS Deen tTHllSluIlncu from nettnCl
barbarism to Christian civilization, Of
which work you might truly say, pr,
magma .niiuus. The railroad, the telegraph
and hundred other inventions for con
s quering time and space, and saving hu
t man labor, have all originated during YOU
t life time; and now, instead of ono mail
: year reaching you six months after dats
i around Cape Horn, weeks voyag,
puts us in immediate connection with til,
!, whole civilized world. What would W,
! not give to have your photographs ms yo,
appcard at the wedding ceremony ift,
, years ago, to compare with the portraits
! painted for this anniversary!
But after all, these wonderful inventions
= of our days do not produce greater soul
nor nobler characters they do net max,
t us better or drawer or wiser than on
: fathers and mothers.
4 There are some thoughts and feeling
!. too sacred and tender to he fully espresso,
!. in words, Only God can know all tina
you have done for each Of us from infanc,
till now. Those who have known you hes
y have loved and revcred you the most.
Aboya all else TINT you hnye donna IA