With a native mistrust of _la belle phrase_; of _"temps doré,"
"ferveur," "belle confiance"_, etc., and with an equally native
superiority to any publication not printed LARGE, I opened _La
Wallonie_. The gropings, "tâtonnements," to which M. Mockel so modestly
refers, appear to have included some of the best work of Mallarmé, of
Stuart Merrill, of Max Elskamp and Emile Verhaeren. Verlaine contributed
to _La Wallonie_, De Régnier was one of its editors.... Men of since
popular fame--Bourget, Pierre Louys, Maeterlinck--appeared with the
rarer spirits.
If ever the "amateur magazine" in the sense of magazine by lovers of art
and letters, for lovers of art and letters, in contempt of the commerce
of letters, has vindicated itself, that vindication was _La Wallonie_.
Verhaeren's "Les Pauvres" first appeared there as the second part of
the series: "Chansons des Carrefours" (Jan., '92).... The Elskamp I have
just quoted appeared there with other poems of Max Elskamp. Mallarmé is
represented by the exquisite: