The town marshal of Beaumont was in the habit of advising its citizens: After dark, walk in the middle of the street and tote guns. And tote ‘em in your hands, not on your hips, so everybody can see you’re loaded. It was advice worth heeding, for Beaumont was a wild and woolly town. Spindletop was in; and roughs, toughs, petty thieves, gamblers, soldiers of fortune and professional gunslingers rubbed elbows and took advantage of the oil strike.