The “typewriter joke” was decidedly unfunny to many typists and stenographers who bristled every time some variation of the joke was made. That it was used in advertising was too much for one stenographer, who voiced her dissension in a letter to a trade publication. It was a fair complaint.
I could not locate the advertising card in question, but it is described below. Offensive, certainly, but worthy of imprisonment?
From The Typewriter and Phonographic World (New York), January 1903 —
© 2019, Mark Adams. All rights reserved.