Ludger Sylbaris

Ludger Sylbaris (born circa 1875 – died circa 1929), born either August Cyparis or Louis-Auguste Cyparis, was an man who travelled with the Barnum & Bailey circus. He had become something of an early 20th-century celebrity for being one of the only survivors in the town itself of the devastating volcanic eruption of Mt. Pelée on the French-Caribbean island of Martinique on 8 May 1902. This same eruption completely flattened an entire city, the "Paris of the West Indies", St. Pierre, and killed an estimated 30,000–40,000 people.

Ludger Sylbaris was actually the stage name he adopted in later life; Sylbaris was born either August Cyparis or Louis-Auguste Cyparis, according to varying reports, on the Caribbean island of Martinique. He was born around 1875, as he is said to have been around 27 years old at the time of the volcanic eruption in 1902. At this time, Sylbaris worked as a common labourer in the capital city, St. Pierre, in the shadow of the volcano Mount Pelée.

On the night of 7 May 1902, the day before the eruption, Sylbaris got involved in either a bar fight or street brawl, according to various sources, and was thrown into jail overnight for assault. Some accounts claim that Sylbaris actually killed a man and was thrown into jail for murder, although it is unknown if this is the correct version of events. Many sources indicate Sylbaris was frequently in trouble with the authorities. Some fictional accounts state that he had had a precognitive dream and was locked up as a drunk after causing a riot.

Whatever the cause of his arrest, Sylbaris was ordered to be put into solitary confinement and locked in a single-cell, partially underground, bomb-proof magazine with stone walls. His cell was without windows, ventilated only through a narrow grating in the door facing away from the volcano. His prison was the most sheltered building in the city, and it was this fact that saved his life. The cell in which he survived still stands today.

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