Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1895 — A Unique Costume. [ARTICLE]

A Unique Costume.

According to the Pittsburg Journal, Peter Gruber, the Rattlesnake King of Venango County, has made the most unique costume any man ever wore. It consists of a coat, vest, trousers, hat, shoes and shirt, and is made entirely of the skins of rattlesnakes. Seven hundred snakes, all caught and skinned by Gruber during the past five years, provided the material for this novel costume. To preserve the brilliancy and* the flexibility of the skins In the greatest possible degree the snakes were skinned alive, first being made unconscious by chloroform. They were then tanned by a method peculiar to Gruber, and are as soft and elastic as woolen goods. The different articles for this outfit were made by Oil City tailors, shoemakers and hatters, and the costume is valued at SI,OOO.