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YATES 473 YEAH Vienna, St. Petersburg, etc., of the New York "Herald" in 1873-1875 ; and London correspondent of the New York "Trib- une" for a number of years. He wrote the following novels: "For Better, for Worse" (1863); "Broken to Harness" (1864) ; "Running the Gauntlet" (1865) ; "Kissing the Rod" (1886) ; "The Black Sheep" (1867); "Wrecked in Port" (1869); "Castaway" (1872); "A Wait- ing, etc., Race" (1872): and "Rec- ollections and Experiences" (1885). He was editor of "Temple Bar," "Tinsley's" and other periodicals, and in 1874 founded, with Grenville Murray, a very successful "society" weekly, "The World," which, for a libel on Lord Lons- dale, involved him in 1884 to two months' imprisonment. He died May 20, 1894. YATES, RICHARD, an American lawyer; born in Warsaw, Ky., Jan. 18, 1818; was graduated at Illinois College, Jacksonville, in 1838; practiced law a number of years; was elected to the legislature in 1842 ; and sent to Congress in 1850. In 1860 he was elected gover- nor of Illinois. He was strongly opposed to slavery, and an ardent supporter of the government during the Civil War, taking an active part in the organization of volunteer regiments. He was United States Senator in 1865-1871, and after- ward United States railroad commission- er. He died in St. Louis, Mo., Nov. 27, 1873. YAZOO CITY, a city and county-seat of Yazoo CO., Miss.; on the Yazoo river and on the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley railroad; 45 miles N. W. of Jackson. It is in an extensive com and cotton-grow- ing section. Here are waterworks, a sewer system, electric lights, National and other banks, and a number of weekly newspapers. It has large lumber in- terests, a large cotton seed oil plant, etc. Pop. (1910) 6,796; (1920) 5,244. YAZOO RIVER (from an Indian word meaning "river of death"), a trib- utary of the Mississippi. It lies through- out its whole extent in the State of Mis- sissippi. The Yazoo proper, formed by the confluence of the Tallahatchie and the Yalobusha, originates near Greenwood, and after a deep, slow, tortuous S. W. course of 290 miles enters the Missis- sippi 12 miles above Vicksburg. It tra- verses a fertile country, and is through- out navigable. The waters of the Talla- hatchie are partly received from the Mississippi itself, and, but for a slight obstruction, steamers from the Missis- sippi might thus enter the Yazoo at its extreme source, and after traversing its whole length re-enter the Mississippi at Vicksburg. YEAR, a unit of time, marked by the revolution of the earth in its orbit. The year is either astronomical or civil. The former is determined by astronomical observation, and is of different lengths, according to the point of the heavens to which the revolution is referred. When the earth's motion is refeiTed to a fixed point in the heavens, as a fixed star, the time of revolution is the time which elapses from the moment when the star, the sun, and the earth are in a straight line, till they again occupy the same position; this is called a sidereal year. If the revolution is referred to one of the equinoctial points, the year is somewhat shorter than the sidereal year, on ac- count of the precession of the equinoxes, that is, the retrogression of the equinoc- tial points along the ecliptic. This is called the equinoctial, tropical, or solar year. The length of the sidereal year is 365.2563612 mean solar days, or 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, 9.6 seconds. The length of the solar or equinoctial year is 365.2422414 mean solar days, or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 49.7 sec- onds. The difference between these two years is 19 minutes 19.2 seconds mean solar time, that being the time re- quired for the earth to advance in its orbit a distance of 50.1" of arc. The civil year is the year of the calendar. It con- tains a whole number of days, beginning always at midnight of some day. Ac- cording to the present system, or accord- ing to the Gregorian calendar, every year the number of which is not divisible by 4, also every year which is divisible by 100, and not by 400, is a common year, and contains 365 days. All other years are called leap years, and contain 366. The ecclesiastical year is from Advent to Advent. A lunar year is a period consisting of 12 lunar months. The as- tronomical lunar year consists of 12 lunar synodical months, or 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes, 36 seconds. The com- mon lunar year consists of 12 lunar months or 354 days. The Embolismic or Intercalary lunar year, consists of 13 lunar civil months, and ^ contains 384 days. Also the period in which any planet completes a revolution; as, the year of Jupiter or of Saturn. Year and a day, in law, the lapse of a year and one day added to it; a period which determines a right or works pre- scription in many cases. Year day and waste, in law, part of the sovereign's prerogative in England, whereby he was entitled to the profits for a year and a day of the tenements of persons at- tainted by petty treason or felony, to- gether with the right of wasting the said tenements; afterward restoring it to the