Soap Suds Row: The Bold Lives of Army Laundresses, 1802–1876 by Jennifer J. Lawrence

Fort Bascom ruins circa 1907 (Florence Surguy)

(Historynet.com) ... In 1866 one luckless soldier made a disparaging remark to the wrong laundress at Fort Bascom, New Mexico Territory. The woman warned the soldier she’d cut out his tongue if he mouthed off again. He did—and she did, slicing off the tip of his tongue as he slept off a drunken binge—one way to curb his language. Continued