Ludger Sylbaris, The Man Who Survived the Apocalypse by Drunk
LUDGER Sylbaris, an African-Caribbean man employed and traveling with the Barnum & Bailey circus became famous worldwide after surviving the explosion of the Pelee volcano in France. The great disaster that occurred in 1902 killed approximately 40 thousand residents of the City of Saint-Pierre. Sylbaris was born August Cyparis or Louis-Auguste Cyparis in 1875 on the French island of Martinique. Later, August used the name Ludger Sylbaris as his stage name. Throughout his life, Ludger was known as a troublemaker and a criminal for which he was arrested and detained on May 7, 1902 for molesting a man. Some stories say he got drunk and killed a man so he was sent to prison on murder charges. Ironically, that's what made Ludger's life safe from the Mount Pelee rampage. Ludger was placed in solitary confinement and locked in an underground cell protected by stone walls. This cell is far from the volcano and has no windows, making it the safest building in the whole city. When