o drive the Austrians out of the whole of the
Bukowina. By the following February, however, the Austrians, with
German troops to help them, were again at its gates, and they forced
the Russians to retire beyond the Pruth. For a week the battle raged
about the small town of Sudagora, opposite Czernowitz, the seat of a
famous dynasty of miracle-working rabbis, but the forces of the
Central Powers were in overwhelming numbers, and with the loss of
Kolomea--the railway junction forty-five miles to the west, which the
Russians were again rapidly approaching--the whole region became
untenable and the Russians retired to the frontier.

Czernowitz is a clean and pleasant town of recent date. A century ago
it was an insignificant village of 5,000 people. To-day it has several
fine buildings, the most conspicuous of which is the Episcopal Palace,
with a magnificent reception hall. In one of the squares stands the
monument erected in 1875 to commemorate the Austrian occupation of
the Bukowina.

The population consists for the most part of Germans, Ruthenes,
Rumanians, and Poles. Among these are 21,000 Jews and there are also a
number of Armenians and gypsies. With all these diverse elements,
therefore, the town presents a very varied appearance, and on market
days the modern streets are crowded with peasants, attired in their
national dress, who mingle with people turned out in the latest
fashions of Paris and Vienna.

How violently the Russians assaulted Czernowitz is vividly described
in a letter from a correspondent of a German newspaper who was at
Czernowitz during this attack.

"The attack began on June 11, 1916. Shells fell incessantly, mostly in
the lower quarter of the town and the neighborhood of the station.
They caused a terrible panic. Incendiary shells started many fires.

"Austrian artillery replied vigorously. The Russians during the night
of June 12, 1916, attempted a surprise attack against the northeast
corner defenses, launching a tremendous artillery fire against them
and then sending storming columns forward. These were stopped,
however, by the defenders, who prevented a crossing of the Pruth,
inflicting severe losses upon the Russians.

"The Russian artillery attack on the morning of June 16, 1916, was
terrific. It resembled a thousand volcanoes belching fire. The whole
town shook. Austrian guns replied with equal intensity. The Russians
advanced in sixteen waves and were mown down and defeated. Hundre