I've seen commercial letterpresses at my great-grand father's printing business. He bought the business in the 1870's from his employer who was retiring.
It is what it is. You put in the typeset with the inked typeface, a sheet of paper, and press out a page of whatever. Newsprint, handbills, ads, whatever. It gave an "even" appearance to the lettering, rather than light in one corner and dark in the opposite corner.
Obviously the commercial versions were of a different (faster) design than the one the Stooges used in "Disorder in the Court". But the same principle applies. Think of it as printing a newsletter vs. printing a newspaper.
Current day "letter presses" and printing is quite an amazing process. What has Gutenberg wrought?
James