A reputation earned by travel can command scarce resources others are denied.

Evidence

We drove through the narrow, piled-up, irregular street, crowded with miners standing in groups, or drinking and gaming under the verandas, to a good hotel declivitously situated, where I at once inquired if I could get to Green Lake. The landlord said he thought not; the snow was very deep, and no one had been up for five weeks, but for my satisfaction he would send to a stable and inquire. The amusing answer came back, “If it’s the English lady traveling in the mountains, she can have a horse, but not any one else.” — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 209

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: A stranger whose legend precedes her into a remote mountain town — the stable will part with its last horse only for her. A whole story could hinge on what that reputation costs her.
• CANDY: The one person in a snowbound mining town who can get a horse is ‘the English lady traveling in the mountains’ — nobody else.