OKLAHOMA CITY, Jan. 9.-
With tens of thousands of persons watching him and with an electrical device carrying his word to the fringe of the army of supporters
who had gathered at the state fair grounds here Governor J. C. (Jack) Walton today for the second time took the
oath of office and welcomed the thousands to his inaugural celebration.
In a brief address frequently interrupted by cheering and volleys of pistol shots, the new governor told the multitude
that they were his guests and bade them one and all to feel at home and turn the occasion into one of merrymaking and feasting.
The inaugural ceremony today was a reproduction of that yesterday when the governor took the oath before the joint session of the
state legislature at the capitol. Both houses of the legislature were grouped about the new executive at the fair grounds when the oath was
administered by Vice-Chief Justice Johnson of the state supreme court.
Following the new governor's brief speech, the cry went up that the barbecue was ready and at one o'clock serving of the feast commenced.
It was a scene such as Oklahoma had never seen before. The multitude formed in rough lines before the serving stands
and barbecue assistants began handing out great hunks of beef, buffalo, bear and reindeer meat. Bread sliced and piled high
like cotton bales began to shrink under the onslaught. Giant coffee urns, each holding 10,000 gallons, and heated by a steam engine, likewise became the
mecca of thousands who as they received meat and bread went on to complete their menu with a cup of steaming coffee. It was estimated
that serving of the barbecue would continue most of the afternoon, so great was the crowd.
The celebration at the fair grounds followed a parade that moved entirely across the city to the blare of bands,
the shots of exploding pistols and the cheering of tens of thousands of spectators.
It was a parade that painted a picture of Oklahoma as it moved slowly between the dense wall of packed humanity.
Picturesque figures of the frontier days wearing fringed suits and wide white hats, Indians in war bonnets and riding in costly motor cars
that purred behind lagging yoke of oxen, floats of alert business firms and "jaz hounds" of the state university all slipped by like
a movie reel blending the new and the old, the frontier and the settled country into the long awe inspiring living picture of the youthful
state that today celebrated the inauguration of its fifth governor.
Headed by a floatilla of motorcycle police that widened a space between the pressing crowds on either side of
the street the mammoth parade pushed itself through the city to the fair grounds. Zack Mulhall, with a frontier suit of
fringed and beaded leather and astride a prancing horse, lead the actual line of march. At either side of
him trudged stolid Indians, decorated in war bonnets and paint. Then came a national guard band playing hard to
drown out the cheering that rolled from the army of march for just behind in a gally decoratored motor car rode Governor Walton
and former Governor Robertson.